I’m planning a trip for early next year that will involve me flying with my fatbike and I’ve hit a snag - finding something that’s big enough to pack the bike in.
A normal bike box won’t work, and I’m struggling to find an actual fatbike box that I can soup up with duct tape. At the other end of the price scale is the Evoc XL Flight bag that claims to fit a fattie but that’s a minimum of £300-£400, which is excessive.
I appreciate that I’ll likely be a little over the allowed bike weight for the airlines I can book with, and that’ll cost me a few quid. I’m just stuck on *what* to transport the bike in - and I’d like have a bit of a plan before I book the travel.
Anyone got any other suggestions?
Flew to Rovaneimi with a fat bike in a bike box.
🤷🏻♂️
Ha, yeah. That’s where I’m heading. :o)
You don’t happen to have a spare box kicking around, do you?
An adventure on the ferry to mainland Europe and a fatbike ride to destination calls.
Or hire one from destination. 😉
Fat bikes get shipped to shops in cardboard boxes. Find the nearest shop that does a decent trade in them and ask them for a spare one.
Keep in mind that if the box is more than 32kg, no airline will take it as the baggage handlers won’t lift it even if it’s only slightly over, so you’d have to ship it anyway...
An adventure on the ferry to mainland Europe and a fatbike ride to destination calls.
Believe me, if I could get clearance from the Mrs, this would be the plan!
Ha, yeah. That’s where I’m heading. :o)
You don’t happen to have a spare box kicking around, do you?
I don’t think it was anything special though I do think I dropped the forks out to get it all in better.
@tomhoward - yeah, I’m kicking myself that I got rid of the box my fatbike came in. It was by far the sturdiest bike box I’ve ever seen. I’ve not had much luck finding another so far.
I’m expecting the total weight of bike and box to be max 24-25kg. The airline allows 23kg for a boxed bike at a fixed price - anything over that is charged per excess kg.
I've used my old mahoosive Planet x bag for my fatbike several times. Proper 4.8" fat tyres. No problem.
@brant - was it originally a box for a fatbike?
I packed a 26” 150mm travel full suss in a standard sized box today and that just barely fit. There’s no way my fattie including 2x 100mm rims and tyres is going in one of those - dropped forks or not! :oD
@bedmaker - right, that sounds promising. I’ve got 4.8” tyres on 100mm rims so I guess similar to your setup?
Can you share a link to that bag at all?
Why not put standard tyres on to protect the rims in transit and pack the fat tyres in your luggage?
@davewalsh - might be tricky putting anything other than fat tyres on those rims. They’re 100mm!
Other problem is the rear hub spacing is 197mm - that’s the width of most bags and boxes alone.
Ha, yeah. That’s where I’m heading. :o)
You don’t happen to have a spare box kicking around, do you?
I don’t think it was anything special though I do think I dropped the forks out to get it all in better.
I did that dropped the forks and put it in a normal MTB box. Make sure you attach all your headset bearing parts very well(I had a pain finding a fitting spare in slightly rural Africa)
Done it several times like that Don't understand why you should be overweight. My Rohloff adventure machine is 17 kg but still get some spare bits in and stay under the 23 normal luggage weight.
Oh yeah to more space saving tips, deflate or take these massive tires of makes the fitting a lot easier.
For the hub get some protection caps so that they don't pierce through the box(bike shops have plenty to trow away).
Did once get it in with the rear wheel (deflated) still in the frame (did drop the forks as said higher) easiest packing.
Other tip might be to get a box from an enduro bike or 27.5 3+ as then tend to be a bit larger in width.
Evoc XL bag is for fat bikes but I reckon you'd struggle to get the wheels in.
My 29er wheels with 2.5 tyres are a tight fit in my Evoc XL
I've flown to Rovaniemi a number of times with my fat bike with 5" tyres - I went through this 4 years ago - most bike bikes aren't wide enough as you need something about 350mm wide. I used the Merida 29er bag which I just managed to squeeze my bike in. If you're looking for a cardboard box, go to a Specialized dealer and ask for a Levo box - it's plenty wide enough - it's substantially stronger than a regular box too.
I had 4in tyres on 80mm rims and had a really shit time tbf
I got my bag years ago, but the one Brant has just linked to looks like it's still eggzakly the same. Bargainacious indeed.
I also drop the forks and flattened the tyres a bit without removing them.
We use the CRC bike bags. Fit 4.3" tyres on 80mm rims, 170mm rear hub width, no problem. With some light extra padding the bags and bike come to 25kg but not had any problems or had to pay excess baggage charges but our other bags have been substantially below the 20kg allowance. This was with Finnair flying to Rovaniemi.
I'm really, really not convinced I'm going to get this bike into that Planet X bag.
Also @brant - I'm curious... did you have a shit time riding on those tyres/rims, or trying to get those tyres/rims into the bike box?
@ambientcoast - are you doing the Rovaniemi race? I've done the 150km race twice and had completely different conditions - two years ago it was 100% rideable (apart from the deliberate hike-a-bike pain in the ass sections) and almost fully groomed, I finished in 13hrs. This year was soft wet snow and I finished in 20hrs. Same bike, same rims, same tyres.
Also @brant – I’m curious… did you have a shit time riding on those tyres/rims, or trying to get those tyres/rims into the bike box?
Shit time riding.
Mostly due to doing lots of miles on a very light carbon road bike rather than dragging a big heavy bike around the moors.
And my layering system meant I got a very sweaty, then very sore arse.
@whitestone - yeah, but I've only signed up for the 66km race, mainly as an intro to this kind of stuff with a view to doing more of it in future. I've got plenty of non-racing beach and mud experience with the fatbike but little in the way of snow, so I didn't want to jump in too deep (pardon the pun).
Here's a thread on Bearbones about this year's 150 - https://bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=13022
Just to show how different conditions can affect speed. In 2017 I took 1hr40 between cp2 & cp3, this year I took 3hrs12. Most of that distance was on a lake!
2017 temps were -6c to -16C, this year was +6C to maybe -6C but more likely -3C. Oddly the morning of the race brief (Friday) was -25C, the temps rose over about 6hrs to -5C!
@whitestone - ah, cheers... I'll check that out in detail tonight.
