If you’re travelling with your bike, one of your biggest concerns will likely be making sure it arrives safely. The road.cc team has travelled hundreds of thousands of miles over the years with our bikes, using a variety of bike boxes, bike bags and flight cases, and below you'll find our selection of the best plus some handy bonus advice too.
Best bike box overall: Bike Box Alan Triathlon Aero Easyfit Bikebox
Best money-no-object bike case: Buxumbox Tourmalet bike box
A high-tech, premium bike box: Scicon Aerotech Evolution bike hard case
Best bike case overall: Thule RoundTrip Road Bike Travel Case
Best bike bag overall : Evoc Bike Travel Bag Pro
Best bike bag on a very limited budget: B’Twin Bike Transport Cover
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.
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 plan to travel with your bike even once or twice a year then a bike box or bag is a very worthwhile investment. Nothing ruins a cycling trip more than your bike lying crushed on the Tarmac before you've even cleared customs!
> How to fly with your bike
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.
How we review bike bags and boxes
road.cc reviewers keep hold of a product for at least a month before submitting their verdicts, and when it comes to bike bags and boxes, that means travelling and experiencing what it's like to live with the product in a real-world scenario. 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 score bike bags and boxes on build quality, durability, performance and value, and when sizing up against other similar products on the market we'll try to compare apples to apples; for example, we won't expect a cheap bike bag to provide the same level of protection as a super premium hard case.
Why you can trust us
Only bike bags and boxes that have received good, very good or excellent scores will make it into this buyer's guide, so you can be sure we haven't just included a bunch of stuff we can make a commission from. Our reviewers also work completely independently when testing products and writing up their reviews, and are only put in touch with brands/distributors if they have a burning question or the product is faulty. We like to think all these steps reduce the chance of bias or ear-bending as much as is possible.
As we've mentioned already, we road 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!
Without further ado, here are our top picks with everything from cheaper padded options costing as little as £60, right up to indestructible hard cases costing over £900. You'll find our top six 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...
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12 comments
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.
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. 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 their review up to date with regards to new bikes
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 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.
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 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
).
very happy with my Velovault 2. Easy to pack, with plenty of space for a larger frame. The customer service was excellent too
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
The Scicon aerocomfort is terrific. My brother and I share one which has now been humped and bumped all over the place without incident.