Originally Posted by
seedsbelize
I have traveled a fair amoumt, internationally, with full size bikes, and with the S&S. Surprisingly(to me), not once was size an issue. Weight yes, always.
Agree.
A couple years ago i was on a van supported ACA trip for a week. I brought my folding bike and two others brought Ritchey Break Away bikes. My case was the S&S Backpack, it met airline size criteria but the two Ritchey owners told me that the Ritchey case actually exceeded airline size criteria by several inches. One of the Ritchey owners said that only once had he been charged the oversize fee, the other had never been charged. I have never even seen a tape measure or any other measuring device where you check the luggage.
But when you put your luggage on the scale, I suspect that the scale automatically tells the ticketing agent if you need to pay for over-weight, weight is a lot easier to quantify automatically than odd shaped luggage.
You often see a little size thingy where they ask you to check the size of your carry on, but only once in all the flights I have taken did the airline actually make people test their luggage for size before boarding in that size tester. My 31 liter Ortieb Rack Pack (duffle) was overflowing and I was sure it would exceed, but it passed quite easily.