These Are The Things You Need For Travelling With Your Bike

by | Nov 1, 2023 | Buyer's Guide, Bike, Featured, Gear Check, Gear, Reviews & First Looks, Sports, Where To Ride

This is the gear and packing advice that you need to make travelling with your bicycle a pleasure and not a pain.

Seeing the world, or even just your province or country, by bike is one of the best ways to travel! Our bikes often take us into lesser-known places, allow us to cover ground fast, and lead us to meet new friends! Unfortunately, they are not the simplest apparatus to travel with so I’m going to share some advice on travelling with your bike from my personal experience and some great products that will make it a pain-free experience for you!

Cover image credit: Tranquilitas Adventure Farm

Note: This is not a bikepacking guide. For this article I’ll assume that you’ll be riding your bike for entertainment at your destination, not lugging all of your gear and supplies with you on the bike (although some do find that entertaining!).

Transporting your bicycle when travelling

Air travel and road trips are the main ways we tend to go far with our bikes and that either means breaking down your bike and popping it in a box/bag to fly or attaching it to the outside of your car for the road. Let’s begin with the former.

Bags and boxes for air travel

A good bag makes travel a pleasure but the real differentiator is in your packing process. The more high-quality and expensive bike bags and boxes will offer better protection from the outside and likely a smart system inside for keeping everything secure and damage-free but you still need to make sure you follow the process and secure all your bits inside properly. You can find some of our top bag/box recommendations below.

Scicon Aerocomfort Travel Bags and Boxes

Price: R15 00 – R20 000 approx

Scicon is one of the industry leaders when it comes to bike bags and boxes. Their bags have a great packing system to help you keep everything well secured inside and their box (road bike specific) is as impressive if not more so. They are pricey but worth every penny if you can afford them.

Their MTB-specific bag is said to accommodate up to a 1280 mm wheelbase and weighs a bit over 16kg. You can also find great options from Thule, Evoc and others. 

Bag Box Foldable Bike Box

Price: Approx R3 500

The locally manufactured foldable bike box from Bag Box is what I choose to use for air travel, mostly because of the convenience in being able to fold the box up into the square wheel bag when not in use! It weighs around 8.5 kg and is much more affordable than the premium options out there.

You don’t get a ton of packing support inside the box so securing things yourself is important. The zips that seal the box are lockable.

Best Tools And Gear For Travelling With Your Bike
Suited to the budget traveller and very convenient is Bag Box’s Foldable Bike Box

Be sure to check the baggage policy with your airline of choice first to find out the cost of flying with a bike, what the dimensions of your box/bag need to be, and how heavy it is allowed to be. Arriving an extra 30 mins before you normally would for the flight is also recommended to reduce the stress flying with a bike can bring. Trust me!

If you’re flying locally, or even internationally, another option is to contact a bike shop at your destination to ask if you could courier the bike to the shop (and even have them build it for you if you would prefer that). This will typically be more expensive than flying with the bike but can save you a lot of admin. Either way, knowing where the local bike shops are at your destination could be useful information should you need any assistance once you’ve arrived.

Here are a few of our top packing tips:

  • Keep some extra stem spacers so that you can remove your stem from the steerer (instead of the bars from the stem) and then fill the space left with spacers and replace the top cap to keep your headset clamped together in the box.
  • Be generous with protective materials such as bubble wrap, cardboard, and foam padding to stop things from moving around in the box and damaging each other.
  • Check the airline’s allowance for CO2 canisters and stick to it.
  • Keep an adapter handy that will allow you to inflate your tires with a petrol station compressor

What else goes in the box?

Depending on the weight limit and the box that you have, you may have room for some other essentials to fly with your bike. Here are some things I like to pack with my bike, just make sure they are secure and wrapped to avoid damaging the bike.

  • Knee/elbow pads
  • Shoes
  • Helmet
  • Some smaller tools
  • Hand pump or floor pump
  • Small cleaning kit

Bike racks for road trips

If you’re going by car and don’t have room to easily take bikes inside the car (something I prefer to do when I can) then a decent bike rack will ensure your bike is safe, secure, and easy to load and reduce the need to swear unnecessarily at an inanimate object.

Some people prefer roof-mounted carriers (in which case you can find a few of our favourites here) but I like to use a tow ball-mounted platform rack. Thule and Holdfast are the main players here. Hanging racks can also work but I haven’t had much luck with these and highway winds. They can work better for road bikes but as soon as wheelbases get long and frames more complex, they drive me up the wall.

Thule’s products are usually a little more convenient and polished (though expensive) while Holdfast’s racks are a little more rudimentary but much more affordable and certainly as robust and secure. Both of these brands offer tilting options that can move out of the way of your boot without the rack needing to be removed (even with bikes loaded). You can see Thule’s range here and Holdfast’s here, and our best buy from each below.

Holdfast Platform Tilting Rack

Price: R8 000 – R9 500

This is Holdfast’s flagship rack but it still comes in well under R10k. You’ve got adjustable wheel channels to suit a variety of wheelbases and soft clamps to hold the frame steady. The clamps are lockable onto the bike and the rack can be padlocked onto your tow hitch. The tilt function sets it apart from the brand’s other racks which come in at a lower price point but offer pretty much all the other features. And they’re manufactured right here in Cape Town!

Thule EasyFold XT 2

Price: R20 000 approx

This is Thule’s mid-range offering and covers all of the bases well. Its big selling point is the ease of storage due to its ability to fold up when not in use. This rack also tilts out of the way of your boot and has lockable clamps. It is a little easier to attach to the tow ball than the Holdfast models but doesn’t have the same range of adjustability on the wheel channels.

Another hack for air travel is to take a small folding bike rack as extra luggage that you can use to transport your bike around on a car with a tow ball if need be. These hanging-style racks aren’t the best for modern mountain bikes but they can get the job done.

Best Tools, Bike Racks, And Gear For Travelling With Your Bike
A compact and foldable bike rack can help get your bicycle around at your destination.

Tools for the road (or sky) 

A small toolbox from a hardware store or a Pelicase-style box for travelling is a good recommendation. If you want to go light, for flying perhaps, then a few smaller tool pouches (such as these) might be the way to go. Below is my list of tools that I take with me when travelling “light”, haha.

Essential tools:

  • Set of Allen keys
  • Tire levers
  • Spare tube
  • Puncture repair kit
  • Chain breaker + spare links
  • Cable ties and some tape
  • Tire pressure gauge
  • Shock pump
  • Hand pump / Floor pump
  • Chain Lube
  • Tube of grease
  • Spare derailleur hanger 
  • Spare gear cable
  • Bike cleaner
  • Rag for greasy/dirty components
  • Washing cloth/sponge
Best Tools And Gear For Travelling With Your Bike
A small toolbox or case such as this Pelicase is great for keeping your essentials organised and in one place.

Transporting your kit and other gear

For the most part, you can just pack your normal holiday travel bag as you would and be on your merry way but it is worth noting that some fantastic cycling-specific luggage products can make dealing with all the riding paraphernalia and dirty kit much easier!

Thule RoundTrip Bike Duffel

Price: R3 000 Approx

This 55l cycling-specific duffle bag is as well thought out as you’d expect from the Swedes. If not a little small for longer trips, it is super well compartmentalised inside and includes a side pouch for shoes, a tool zone, and a large helmet block (that could be room for more clothes etc if your helmet is in your bike bag.

If a new duffle bag isn’t on the cards, my top packing advice is to bring with you a bunch of ziplock bags that you can use to segment your kit (either per riding day or into things such as socks/bibs/shorts/gloves etc) and also plastic packets for stashing dirt riding gear and shoes.

Best Tools And Gear For Travelling With Your Bike
Now you’re ready for adventure, go and explore! (c) Lukas Pilz / Red Bull Content Pool

Whether you’re off to the Italian Dolomites for a couple of weeks of lift-accessed trail riding or taking a road trip to George to explore the Outeniqua mountains, plan your packing and take extra care with your bike to ensure minimal pain and stress on your holiday!
If you’re looking for some inspiration on destinations within RSA’s borders, explore our top recommendations here. Bon Voyage!

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