I seriously cannot afford a case, as I already spent most of my money on the bike itself, so I need to stick with cardboard boxes. $45 might not seem a lot per pop, but it adds up when I split my time between three cities; not to mention precious time wasted while it's traveling without me. Wish I had the money...but I'm trying to save up what little I have, I'm sure you guys can all identify with that feeling.

Botto, do you pay the oversized luggage fee to do that? Trying to avoid this fee is my dilemma, as I heard it's pretty steep. I know that they'll take bikes if you'll shell out more money, and I know that folding bikes and bikes with s&s couplers will fit w/in limit, but I'm really talking about the average road bike (in almost all cases, larger than mine is). There have to be about as many bikers traveling as skiers - maybe this sounds naive, but we should start a petition to airlines or something...