When travelling with your bike, making sure it arrives in one piece is usually the top priority. The road.cc team has travelled hundreds of thousands of miles over the years with bikes in tow, using all kinds of bike boxes, bags, and flight cases. Below, we’ve rounded up our top picks, along with some helpful advice too.
The best bike bag, bike box or flight case will protect your bike from anything short of a direct artillery strike. It should require minimal faff to get your bike into it, can carry various bike genres and wheel sizes, and shouldn’t make too big a dent in your luggage weight allowance. It should also cost a sensible amount of money, or if it’s expensive, last you for many years.
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There’s some tension between all those requirements. Extremely protective cases tend to be heavy and expensive, while cheaper bike bags don’t protect your bike as well. Nevertheless, if you’re planning to travel with your bike even just once or twice a year, a bike box or bag may be a worthwhile investment, though hiring one is also a popular choice. Nothing ruins a cycling trip more than your bike lying crushed on the Tarmac before you’ve even cleared customs!
Even if you’re not flying, a bike box, bike bag or flight case can be useful. Sure, you can just put your bike in your car, but if you want to get lots of other luggage in too, a bike bag will protect your bike from bumps and scratches.
All of the bike boxes we’ve reviewed have been taken on flights, stuck in cars and/or public transport and moved around on foot, and we’ll spend plenty of time consulting the instructions to learn how to pack and unpack bikes from them to assess the ease of use.
We test bike boxes and bags properly, so only send them out to reviewers who are due a trip abroad and will be in a situation to assess all the features. It sometimes means we can’t review them as quick as we’d like sometimes, but we don’t do half jobs! For more information on how road.cc does product reviews and how we compile our buyer’s guides, head over to this article.
Without further ado, here are our top picks with everything from padded options, up to indestructible hard cases costing over £900. You’ll find our top four in the quick links right below this paragraph followed by more detailed summaries and links to reviews, plus some extra honourable mentions, and finally a q+a section with stuff you’ll want to know about bike bags and boxes…
16 thoughts on “Best bike boxes and bike bags 2026 — bike-specific travel cases to protect your bike in transit”
The Scicon aerocomfort is
The Scicon aerocomfort is terrific. My brother and I share one which has now been humped and bumped all over the place without incident.
The other thing you need to
The other thing you need to know about is inflatable roof racks. They fit on most cars, excluding softtops and those with roof rails without a gap underneath them.
It takes about 20 minutes to fit a rack and a bike box to a small hired hatchback at an airport.
HandiRack | Inflatable Roof Rack | Universal Roof Bars (handiworld.com)
Ooh, that is a _great_ idea
Ooh, that is a _great_ idea 🙂
very happy with my Velovault
very happy with my Velovault 2. Easy to pack, with plenty of space for a larger frame. The customer service was excellent too
Another happy Velovault 2
Another happy Velovault 2 user here. It’s very much an updated (thru’ axle / disc brake friendly) version of the original BBA.
Buxumbox owner here. It is
Buxumbox owner here. It is great.
I had previously rented a B&W Bike Box II, very similar to the B&W curve above. It was good, but…. 1. There was enough flex to leave me just a little anxious about the bike getting through the journey unscathed. 2. The interlocking clamshell design can be fiddly sometimes. I got it together just fine on the way out, but on the way home, under time pressure to get out of the door and to the airport I struggled. I would get the interlock on one side to work, for it to pop out on the other, and so on.
The buxumbox is very sturdy. I’ve flown a few times with it, and I just have 0 worries about risk of damage to the bike. The downside is that it is heavy – 13+ kg odd. It is also large. You may need a larger rental car, or you may need to get a larger taxi. Other cases will have this problem too, but the Buxumbox is definitely just a little larger. On the plus side, there is 0 problem storing a track pump and other stuff in the bottom of the buxumbox – there are bungee cords there precisely for this.
I would just go buxumbox for piece of mind, every day.
I’ve since learned that
I’ve since learned that universal, inflatable roof racks are a thing and apparently work well. Going to try that next time, just getting a standard rental car. 😉
(Ah, from another comment here below 😉 ).
The original bikebox alan is
The original bikebox alan is still the best imo: had mine since 2015 and used it on six foreign trips to likes of channel Islands and USA without incident.
agreed – it’s been faultless.
agreed – it’s been faultless. Only concern i have is that I’m not sure how it will work with my new thru-axle bike?
I wish road.cc would bring
I wish road.cc would bring their review up to date with regards to new bikes :-/
It’s increasingly difficult
It’s increasingly difficult to continue using the original BBA with modern bikes. They just don’t like the high degree of stem/bar disassembly now required.
I also found that 30mm tyres didn’t fit, and the 26mm were a pain. I run tubeless so drop the psi down to about 30 for flying.
On the other hand, their Aero EasyFit box at the top of the article is fabulous for modern bikes! A dream to drop an integrated cable, aero-ish modern bike into. Thruaxles etc well catered for, loads of tyre clearance.
You’ll still be jealous of the Thule guys integrated bike stand though when you’re unpacking balancing in the corner of a hotel reception;)
Took my thru axle bike abroad
Took my thru axle bike abroad in one. It was a couple of years ago and I can’t remember how I did it but you can attach the wheels with skewers still. A bigger problem is removing then bars / stem with integrated cables.
Yes, good point. My vision
Yes, good point. My vision metron 55sl wheels are rim brake so that isn’t a consideration for me. However, i now use 28cc tyres and on my recent trip to chicago last month, these didn’t sit as neatly in the recess – obviously down to the additional rubber.
For those who only bike-fly
For those who only bike-fly once or twice a year, rental is a great option. There’s a guy in Marlow on Thames (for example) that I’ve used. He’s got a garage full of boxes in good nick, and was very customer-friendly.
Saves you having to store one of these beasts, and all your club mates borrowing it foc.
You may have written the
You may have written the article two years ago, but the update needs to discuss fitting boost-spacing frames.
I will never fly with a bike
I will never fly with a bike but removing the rear derailleur is a good tip, as is using old QRs. When I pop a wheel off I use card rail tickets to keep my disc calipers spaced, fold one, push it between pads, fold second and squeeze it into the fold of the first. It feels that it should be enough thoughI haven’t been foolish enough to fully test it, but it’s worked in an inadvertent squeeze. And they are relatively contaminant free.