gugie 

Bike Friday has been making folding bikes made for travel in a standard Samsonite suitcase for a few decades. I've used this a few times:

15-20 minutes to unpack and ride if you're experienced.

I took this bike to Canada for a 4 day trip, France for a business trip where I had a free weekend to get in a long ride, and a week long trip to Hawaii where I got a couple of good rides in.

gugie 

S&S couplings and the Ritchey Breakaway system are two other options to consider if you plan on doing a lot of airline travel with a bike.


Wheel go on top

gugie 

Travelling with a metal fendered bike can be a challenge. With a couple of minor modifications it can be done relatively easily. The rear fender needs to be split, and it's highly recommended to use a sealed bearing headset as the fork needs to come off.


First layer


2nd and 3rd layer


hatches battened

nlerner

Hmm, @gugie, seems like a lot of work. I think we need zero bikes stashed in multiple locations: Kalispell, MT, with @mountaindave; Tucson, AZ, with @Soup_Please; SF Bay Area with @BoltBreaker; NJ/PA with @rhm. What could go wrong?

gugie 

What, no room in the Brookline Bike Cave?

nlerner

Oh, there's room. But I don't need a zero bike there! Just being selfish.

VRJAKE 

Got this S&S Coupled Bilenky custom off eBay precisely because of the desire to travel with a "normal" bike using airline standard sized luggage. As has been said, oversize fees have been nil since the pandemic, but not when I got it (images from the auction and how it shipped to me in the S&S case). My travel companions have ridiculed me on the amount of disassembly and time it takes to put the bike together (about 1 beer's worth of time). Yet the bike is great, kind of an all rounder for road and gravel terrain. It's currently getting some Gugie love to add a fork, improve the front geometry and fabricate a front rack so there's some carrying capacity on this cross-style bike.

Soup_Please

I'm completeFor riders between 6'1" and 6'3", I have plenty of bikes already stashed here in the secure dry desert storage facility. I might consider stashing others, but given my propensity to switch parts around, they may not have the same components they arrived with when their owners come to ride them.

But as Gugie and others have suggested, Ritchey Breakaway and S&S are the way to go for frequent air travel. I've traveled with both a Ritchey Road Breakaway and a Ritchey Ascent and Outback Breakaways. I will say that rim brakes are your friends on a travel bike. The Ascent and Outback are disc and really need to have the discs removed to pack if you want to arrive with straight rotors.

I've just recently picked up a Brompton, and on account of its quick, small, secure fold, I think it is the best choice for city travel, public transport and throwing in compact cars. I did climb a 9,400' mountain on it last week, which wasn't bad either, although the 16" wheels don't roll over really bad frost heaves with the same ease as a 700c wheel.

iab

Yes, top looks like bottom. That way you get double-wall thickness on the sides. I add a loose heet to the top and bottom to get double-wall thickness there. Probably don't need the strength, but the 3-ounce weight penalty is insignificant.

mountaindave 

I have the ability to store as many bikes as needed using the infinite improbability shed. Once one calculates exactly how improbable it is to store an infinite number of bikes in my shed and feeds it into the finite probability generator (along with a pint of beer), the space is created out of thin air. However, side effects are known: one may find that their bike has been transmogrified into a bowl of petunias or a sperm whale.

You have been invited and warned.

jiangshi

iab Do you glue the box flaps? With what adhesive?

iab

Hot glue. I don't know the particular brand. We have several types at work. I tried them all and used the one that worked best with polypropylene. It has held up to 2 shipments well. Once IL to CA and back, the other was IL to NC and back.

Mr. Spadoni 

Polypro is slippery by nature, a PP specific glue is very important. 3M makes hot melt part 3731 specifically for PP. sure others make it but I’m a 3M fan

davester

I've heard that very time you open the shed there are exactly 42 bikes in there.