Can anyone offer advice on the use & cutting to length of foam padding for travel bikes?
I purchased Velcro padding for our co-motion copilot tandem and I am trying to decide the best strategy. Since most of our bike vacations are via car we did not purchase the suitcases. We typically disassemble the tandem and pack carefully in our hatchback. The foam will give us an added measure of protection. Our vacations tend to be multi-activity/multi-sport so the car is packed quite full.

I have considered cutting the foam to fit around the bottle cages, tire pump, brake attachments etc, but this would not be ideal if and when we invest in travel cases for airline travel. I haven’t decided whether its best anyway to remove them for car travel.

I have looked at co-motion’s video on packing as well as the pictures on TG’s site, but its not real clear to me the best way to protect some of the more awkward areas with foam, like where the top and lateral tubes meet the seat tubes and the head tube. Also what to do around the eccentric and bottom bracket and cranks, etc. It appears for the tubes with S&S connectors the foam should be cut to extend slightly beyond the S&S connections to protect them. The foam is pretty expensive, so I was hoping to avoid my usual ‘measure once, cut twice’ approach.'
Thanks!
CG