That made packing a bit easier and I convinced myself that it was quiet as big of a fabrication to say "no that's not a bike in the case.". I would throw the handlebars in the duffle along with ally clothes etc and just check both bags. In the end I started traveling with the case and a big Patagonia duffle bag. Your almost doing a complete bike teardown and rebuild on each trip. It worked well, took about 45 mins to pack but since it was a large frame I had to pull the crank (in addition to fork, handlebars, seatpost). I had an S&S Kirk and often think I should have kept it. Both have really short headtubes in the largest size I think I would have required at least a +10 degree stem. I looked long and hard at the Ritcheys, which are only offered in steel and carbon now. That's all I can think of, good luck with your travels.Ĭouple thoughts. My ritchey bike is steel while my S&S is Ti, both material is fine but I do prefer Ti simply for less worrying about scratches and corrosion. I recommend using pipe foams (Lowes, Home Depot) to cover up all the tubes, and then tying everything together using zip ties so they stay together in one piece, and if the TSA inspector wants to lift it up to check, they can land it back down safely without moving any stuff out of place. Be ready for the bike to get scratched up during trips, and TSA to open the case for inspection, sometimes things move when they do and they have an issue closing it back properly and may use brute force which may cause damage. The nice thing about the ritchey case is that you can carry it on your back like a backpack, which makes walking around with it easier but that's still 30-40 pounds worth of weight on your back. Technically speaking, it exceeds the airline restriction by a few centimeters but unless they take out a tape to measure or play hardball, they usually let it pass if you smile and be polite. The S&S case is a hard case but I also have a ritchey breakaway softcase which is a lot lighter. It's a bear to carry it around but the S&S case comes with wheels to roil around which makes it a lot easier. With the bike and the case and I like to throw in extra stuff like tools, bike bag, etc, it gets to the airline weight limit of 50 Ibs easily. I try to give myself ample time to pack, don't rush, usually takes me about 45 mins. Everyone says it gets easier with practice but that's assuming you travel often enough like once every month, but most don't so for me, every time I pack, it takes a bit of recalling what I did and also doing it a bit differently. You can check with kirk007, he rides similar size bike. Also, I have heard from folks who ride a larger size bike that it's harder to fit into the suitcase, I mean it will fit but takes some finesse. That has made the packing a lot easier and free up some space. I have made 3-4 trips so far, and in all of them, I have chosen to leave my wheels at home and just borrow a set from someone on the other side. I got both S&S and ritchey breakaway bikes, don't want to make it sound like a walk in the park, still takes some work to assemble and dissemble and with wheels it's a tight squeeze. glad to hear you are finally taking it easy. (And if you have a 60 or XL Break-Away that's looking for a home, let's talk.)įor price and convenience, pretty hard to beat a Ritchey Break-away.I borrowed one when wife had a conference in SF.rode around Mill Valley, Sausalito for 3 felt just like a.great steel framed bike. I'd appreciate any advice or suggestions you may have. I would hesitate to travel with a CF frame, although I know lots of people do it all the time, and if it's in a hard case I suppose not too much harm can come to it.Īn alternative might be to have some S and S couplers retrofitted on one of the Ti frames I already have, but given the cost and the fact that there's no way to undo the job, I hesitate to go that route. So now I'm thinking that a Ti Break-Away (I don't even know if they still make the Ti) could be a good alternative. I have a Trico Iron Case, but it's pretty huge and not the easiest thing to travel with (or ship). At some point in the medium-term future I'm likely going to have the opportunity to travel around a bit more than I have recently.
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