****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Bought the road bike version of this, so far have used it once.Bought this because shipping the bike leaves me without the bike for too long, and other cases I looked at are impossible to put into a rental car.Before I used this the first time I practiced taking the bike apart, packing it, and putting it back together. I have only done minor work on my bike myself in the past, so removing the bars and fork and getting them back in the right position made me a little nervous. While it took me longer than the advertised 15 minutes (more like an hour the first time), it wasn't bad at all and I was able to get everything apart and back together just fine. I took a lot of pictures while disassembling to help make sure I got things back together correctly. I didn't have a bike stand at the destination but was still able to get it together and at the end apart in a reasonable time. There are a few videos of how to do it, and they were very helpful.Getting it onto the plane was pretty easy. I flew JetBlue, whose policy is that a bike is $100 each way in addition to the normal baggage fee. However, they didn't charge me that either direction (Boston and Milwaukee) even though they knew it was a bike. I made sure to keep it under 50 lbs, I think it was 45 or 46 lbs total. I put in tools for reassembly, helmet, and shoes in addition to the bike. I can't promise you won't get charged, but I was happy to have it cost $200 less than I expected.The one pain was that in Boston JetBlue made me get in a separate line to check it in, on a super crowded day. The line took over an hour to get through. In Milwaukee it was the same line as the other baggage and very fast, and I even had the option of watching TSA inspect it if I wanted to. The bag was opened by TSA in both airports, there was an inspection slip in the bag when I got it back. When I landed, the bag came out on the carousel in both places, not with oversized baggage.The bag went into the rental car just fine. A hatchback with three people and luggage for a week (only 1 bike). Was able to put the bike on top of the other luggage. To & from the airport was a smaller car, I was able to put the bike in the back seat with a person back there no issues.The only issue I had was the stress it put on the cables when I secured the handlebars. My bike is older (almost 20 years), no idea when the derailleur cables were last replaced. A ferrule on the front cable snapped when I packed it and I had to replace. A thing I had never done before but saved by YouTube and Park Tool. At the other side, my rear derailleur cable broke during a ride. That was after about 150 miles of riding post-landing, so not sure if it was related, but the cables do bend more than normal when packing. I think next time I use the case I'll probably change how I do that, maybe loosen cables / detach housing to remove the stress points.I also used the frame protection kit. There are probably other ways to accomplish that for cheaper, but it worked well for me and I'd buy it again. I also got some velcro straps for securing other things I put in the case (eg, the pedals), and used hand towels to wrap them.Overall the case did exactly what I expected / hoped, and the bike made it through unscathed. I wouldn't recommend doing it if you aren't comfortable with the disassembly / reassembly, followed by some basic adjustments when you reassemble. In my case, I hadn't done a lot of that before but had wanted to learn, so it worked out very well.
