Originally Posted by
3speed
I'm pretty much in your same boat. I don't struggle to keep my bike box under 50lbs, and ride a smaller frame. With the great news that the US airline companies are Finally getting on board with bike travel, there's just no reason to get a coupled bike anymore. I'd even go as far as to say that with the work of assembly, difficulty I've heard of packing, bags arriving having been abused by the TSA goons, etc, I don't even long for a coupled bike anymore.
I tend to agree, couplers are fairly expensive to start with & perhaps sometimes the coupled bike might not be the best for the trip. Box makes it easier to tote accessories like fenders & aero bar. OTOH with box it's likely one would need at least 2 taxi rides on a tour which lessens the savings of no airline fee for boxed bike. I would be more of a box fan if boxes were more commonly available at airports. Would be fun & cheap to just ride to the airport. Heh, in Frankfurt IIRC I saw personnel (pilots?) actually riding staff bikes or trikes inside the airport.