Buxumbox Ventoux Road Bike Box

The Buxumbox Ventoux Road Bike Box is a strong aluminium option for protecting your bike when you fly – or travel by other means – and it’s very quick and easy to pack, allowing you to leave your handlebar in place, although it’s more expensive than most other options out there, and a little larger and heavier too.

> Buy now: Buxumbox Ventoux Road Bike Box for £1,224 from Buxumbox

Whereas most bike boxes (or ‘travel cases’) are made from plastic, Buxumbox makes its range in the UK from 0.5mm thick aluminium (mainly 6061) sheets. Although that’s thin enough to flex a little when you press it and to sustain the odd ding in use, it protects your bike extremely well. The other really noticeable feature of the Ventoux Road Bike Box is just how simple it is to use. In terms of bike preparation, you take the seatpost out of the frame, drop the wheels out, and that’s it.

You don’t need to remove the handlebar/stem – and that can be a big plus if your bike has integrated (internal) cables/hoses. Plus, the pedals can stay on, and you can safely leave the rear derailleur in place without fear of damage. If you’re a smaller rider you might even get away with leaving the seatpost in.

The Ventoux Road Bike Box comprises upper and lower sections that are separable. Your seatpost/saddle is held down at the bottom of the lower section by a bungee cord, the bike itself – minus its wheels – mounts securely inside the box via its thru-axles or quick-release skewers and both the front and rear dropouts. It doesn’t sit on the floor of the box, so there’s no danger of damage to your rear derailleur or chainset.

How does the bike fix in place?

I used a box set up for a bike with thru-axles. Once you’ve taken the wheels off your bike, you put a couple of dummy hubs – aluminium tubes, essentially – between the dropouts and secure them with your usual thru axles (the rear dummy hub is shaped to keep the chain from fouling the driveside chainstay).

These then sit in cradles built into the interior of the bike box, held in place by retaining pins. These won’t come out again unless you press a button on the end of each pin, and that’s not going to happen by accident, so your bike is perfectly secure.

Once in, the wheels go into their own bags and fit either side of the frame, you slot an anti-crush bar across the centre, put the top on, and you’re done. It might take you 10 minutes the first time, following Buxumbox’s online instructional video (which could hardly be clearer, incidentally).

The next time, you’ll do it in five minutes. Plus, of course, putting your bike together again when you reach your destination is similarly fast and stress-free, and there’s no chance that you’ll have forgotten your pedals because they remain attached to the cranks throughout.

The flipside of having a box that allows you to leave most components attached to your bike is that the Ventoux Road Bike Box is larger than most other options out there. It comes in two different sizes – 1336 x 869 x 361mm (W1) and 1336 x 869 x 411mm (W2), if you’re taking notes. You have a handlebar that’s wider than that? It doesn’t matter because you turn the bar when you mount your bike in the box. Just make sure it’ll fit into the boot opening of your car before you spend your money.

Buxumbox says that if the measurement from the middle of the stem cap to the edge of the shifter hood on your bike is over 270mm, you’ll need the W2 version.

The Ventoux Road Bike Box also weighs more than most rivals. Buxumbox says it’s 15.5kg for the W2 (wider and heavier) version that we’ve been using, while we weighed it at 15.7kg. You also need to factor in two wheelbags, ours weighing 433g apiece – so you’re looking at about 16.6kg all in.

For comparison, the BikeBox Alan Premium Bike Box (now £440) that we reviewed a few years ago was 11.6kg and the BikeBox Alan Triathlon Aero Easyfit Bikebox (now £710) was 13.0kg. 

A few extra kilograms probably won’t make much difference in terms of portability. You might need to lift the Ventoux from time to time – in and out of a car, train, or whatever – but you’ll mostly be pushing it around on its wheels (two fixed, two caster) so you won’t notice it. Two recessed handles on the top and another one at either end of the lower section of the Ventoux make manoeuvrability pretty easy.

What about in terms of flight baggage allowance?

Easyjet has a maximum allowance of 32kg for boxed bicycles. Even with a complete weight of 16.6kg for the bike box and wheel bags, that leaves you 15.4kg for your bike.

British Airways says: ‘Your bike can be transported in a hard-shell box or padded bike bag up to 190 x 95 x 65cm’. The Ventoux Road Bike Box is easily within those dimensions.

With BA, the boxed bike counts as one item of your checked baggage allowance, and that depends on your ticket. You might have a 23kg baggage allowance, in which case a 16.6kg case will almost certainly be too heavy once it’s loaded up with your bike, meaning you’ll need to pay extra. If you have a 32kg weight allowance, you’ll be fine (of course, airline rules are subject to change, so always check with your carrier before you fly).

If you’re concerned by the weight, one of the other options Buxumbox offers is the smaller Tourmalet (£1,104) that we reviewed a few years ago. You’ll need to take your handlebar off to pack your bike inside this one, but weights are between 12.5kg and 12.9kg, depending on the width you choose.

As mentioned earlier, the Ventoux Road Bike Box comes in a two-part shell and the different sections detach completely from one another. The upper section sits on the lower in a tongue-and-groove-type arrangement that’s then clamped together with four butterfly twist latches.

The lower parts of the latches – the bits you turn – are recessed into the wall of the bike box so it would be difficult for them to get caught or knocked during transportation. The hinged section that reaches up to the slot in the upper does protrude slightly, but we’re talking about millimetres here.

Two of the latches are lockable – one on each side. They’re TSA (Transport Security Administration) approved, which means that you can leave them locked when you fly and airport security authorities can open them to inspect inside the box without causing damage.

Speaking of damage, one other thing to take into account is that Buxumbox does offer repairs. I said earlier that the aluminium walls will get scuffed and dented with use – if not by you, then by baggage handlers who, let’s face it, aren’t known for their finesse. Scrapes, scratches, dimples… They’re inevitable. Think of it as character.

If a panel ever got completely knackered, though, Buxumbox could replace it. That would cost around £60 and be turned around in a week. Buxumbox says it has never needed to replace any latches or handles because these are among the toughest elements of the box, but if you did ever need a new one fitting, that would have a similar turnaround time and cost £20.

Is there anything else you need to know? I’ve said that Buxumbox offers the Ventoux Road Bike Box for bikes that use either thru-axles or quick-release skewers. There are also different colours/finish options and wheelbag sizes, and you get to choose the text on the nameplate – name, address, phone, email address and the like. Oh, and there’s an AirTag holder on the underside of the box, just in case you’d like to add a tracking device for extra peace of mind.

One more thing: Buxumbox offers a workstand set (£132) with each of its boxes, which is a clever design comprising two fold-out supports that sit across the lower half of the shell, lifting your bike so that it’s easier to work on.

The workstand set supports your bike via the fork (using the same mounting system as the interior of the box) and the bottom bracket shell.

Is it essential? No, and it doesn’t allow you to tinker with your bike while the wheels are on, so it’s not useful for fine-tuning the indexing of your rear derailleur, for example, but it’s an interesting add-on if you’re interested.

Value

There’s no getting around the fact that the Buxumbox Ventoux Road Bike Box is more expensive than most rivals. If you want something to protect your bike and you’re cool with plastic, you could get something far cheaper.

In addition to the Alan boxes mentioned above, we liked the £699 Thule RoundTrip Road Bike Travel Case, which manages to combine near-hard case protection in a collapsible design weighing 12.5kg.

And if you’re happy with a bag rather than a hard case, you could consider the Evoc Bike Travel Bag Pro that weighs just 8kg and costs £600.

For other options, check out our best bike boxes and bike bags buyer’s guide.

Conclusion

I’d say that the main things the Buxumbox Ventoux Road Bike Box has going for it are that it’s aluminium – made in the UK and repairable here too – so it’s different from virtually everything else out there, and you might like that, and that the only bike prep you need to do is take the wheels off and probably remove the seatpost/saddle. That makes life a little easier than if you need to start messing around with other components at either end of your flight. If you can afford it, the Buxumbox Ventoux Road Bike Box does a great job.

> Buy now: Buxumbox Ventoux Road Bike Box for £1,224 from Buxumbox

Verdict

Premium, durable and easy-to-pack bike box, but heavier and pricier than most

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