Shokbox Pro bike travel case

Travelling with a modern road bike has become a bit of a headache lately. With integrated cockpits and internal hydraulic hoses, the old days of simply ‘popping the bars off’ are long gone. This is exactly where the Shokbox Pro comes into its own. It is designed so that you can get from home to holiday, event or race with as little faff as possible.

Packing and fit

The main selling point here is the ease of packing. Because the box is designed to accommodate modern bikes as easily as possible, the amount of disassembly required is refreshingly minimal.

If you are a shorter rider like me (174cm), you really only have to take off the wheels and the pedals. If you are taller than about 178cm, you might find you need to drop or remove your seatpost to get the lid closed, but that is still a far cry from the boxes of yesteryear, where the bars, derailleurs, cranks, and sometimes even forks all had to come off.

The bike sits upside down in the box with a wheel tucked into a padded bag on either side. Shokbox provides a really decent instructional video to guide you through your first attempt, and includes plenty of protection, including those padded wheel bags and a wrap, to keep your frame from getting scuffed.

The box can fit road, gravel and TT bikes, and I see no reason it couldn’t accommodate a mountain bike – although that would definitely require some form of disassembly. But it should be the only box you need.

You can also leave your tyres inflated, which is a great thing for tubeless tyres, meaning you shouldn’t have the nightmare of trying to reseat them again.

Size and weight

There is no getting around it: this box is a beast. At 15.5kg, it is significantly heavier than many soft bags or even some thinner hard cases, although it’s not a million miles frin the similar offering from Bike Box Alan.

On a standard 32kg EasyJet allowance, that leaves you with just under 17kg for your bike and kit. While that is enough for a carbon road bike and some tools and whatnot, you do have to be mindful of your packing.

The physical footprint is also massive. I used it for a trip to Mallorca recently, and it felt like the designers had found the absolute limit of what an airport will accept. At the oversized luggage belt, the staff had to make two attempts to get it through the X-ray machine. It did eventually fit, but it was a tight squeeze.

This large size also means it takes up a huge amount of room in the house when it’s not in use. It fit comfortably in our VW Passat estate with the rear seats down, but I wouldn’t dream of trying to wedge this into a Fiat 500 or VW Up!

Performance and ergonomics

My friends on the same trip were using the BikeBox Alan Triathlon Aero EasyFit, which is probably the Shokbox Pro’s closest rival. In almost every way, the Shokbox felt like the more premium bit of kit.

The castors are incredibly quiet and roll so smoothly compared to the BikeBox Alan’s. The ergonomics are also well-thought-out, with a comfortable handle and a clever little area around which to wrap your baggage label so you don’t have to stick it to the handle, or the side of the box, like with a lot of other boxes.

The four rotating wheels make it effortless to manoeuvre in a crowded terminal, though they can make it a bit random on cambered pavements, where the box has a tendency to spin away from you.

The security is also top-notch. The clasps are really nice and have a solid feeling, and come with built-in TSA-compliant code locks. This gives you peace of mind that if security decides to have a look inside, they won’t have to break the latches to do it. It also means it’s easy for you to set your own codes on each lock, providing a lot of security against would-be thieves.

Protection on the road

At the end of the day, a bike box has one central job: to protect your bike. I watched the baggage handlers throwing boxes around when we landed in Mallorca, and it was a bit heart-in-mouth. However, thanks to the internal anti-crush standoffs and the generous padding, my bike came out the other side completely unharmed.

Being able to keep the handlebars on also meant that once we landed, I had the bike built up and ready to ride in a matter of minutes while my mates were still wrestling with their stems and torque wrenches.

The benefits of a hard case are large, with a lot of airlines not covering you against damage to your bike unless you are using one. Should the worst happen, you’d obviously like to be able to claim against them, rather than being told there’s nothing they can do.

For maximum peace of mind, this box comes with a lifetime warranty – and from a UK based company too, which should hopefully make life easier should you need to make use of it.

Value

At £899, this box is a really expensive option – there’s no denying that – but is it worth it? That’s a question only you can answer, but there are some very compelling reasons to go with it.

The aforementioned BikeBox Alan Triathlon Aero Easyfit box is a fan favourite. It aims to cover all of the bases for modern bikes, allowing the easiest possible transportation without any unnecessary part removal, and it achieves this quite well. At £755, it’s also a very expensive option, but £150 cheaper than the Shokbox. Comparing the two side by side, I would say that the Shokbox is a little more premium all around, but Liam really rated the BikeBox Alan in his review.

The Topeak Pakgo X is another hard case option with an RRP of £899.99. It’s a less well known option, and requires the removal of a lot more parts than the Shokbox, but it offers a decent amount of protection, including a mounting system that means your frame can’t float around inside.

The Evoc Bike Travel Bag Pro is an option if you’d rather a bag than a box. We gave it a good review back in 2015. While the RRP is up to £700 these days, you’ll be able to find it cheaper. It will offer less protection than a hard case, but comes in at 8kg – just over half the weight of the Shokbox – giving you more of your weight allowance for the contents.

Overall

The Shokbox Pro is certainly one of the more expensive options on the market, but you really do get what you pay for. It offers superb protection, effortless airport transit, and a level of convenience that makes the stress of traveling with a bike much more manageable. If you fly regularly and want a premium, ‘human-friendly’ way to transport your bike without a mechanical degree, this is an excellent investment.

> Keep your bike protected on the move with one of the best bike boxes and bike bags