I had a Rivendell Bleriot 61cm frame converted to S&S by Bilenky for a light tour in France in August after reading a blog about someone using that frame and later the previous poster's experience for packing and other tips. (It has PJW built wheels, White Industries rear hub and a SON 20R front on Velocity Synergy rims and Grand Bois Hetre tires.) I went with some lighter than necessary components to save packing weight since the hard case alone weighs 17 pounds not including the compression spacers and I did not want the soft case or give up the Brooks saddle.
It took me about an hour to disassemble the bike and about two hours to pack everything in the case including lights, fenders and racks. On the return it took less than an hour to dissasemble and clean and an hour to pack. I splurged a few ounces for better tools to make assembly easier. I also wrote down seat post , stem and any other adjustments. Right up until the first kilometer, I was not sure it was worth the hassle of bringing a bicycle on the airplane and train instead of renting. The two of us who had their own bicycles were much more comfortable and less tired at the end of the day than the person that rented. Now that luggage is a revenue source for some airlines I think they will looking for any excuse to pile on the charges and they won't be as likely to overlook an oversize case as before. The S&S hard case did not get a second look at check-in, either direction. I made sure my checked bags were cleanly under the weight limits. I would have considered a Travel Check first had I known I would end up with an S&S coupled frame but retrofitting was a good experience and not too much more expensive. Allan On Oct 13, 2:00 pm, "Doug Peterson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Just returned from a European tour where we had one S&S coupled bike; a > couple of Bike Fridays & one Dahon, plus the usual collection of touring, > MTB, etc. Good cross section of the cycle touring world. > > It took everyone at least 1-2 hours to put their bikes together & get > everything functioning properly. There are no "quickies". The Bike Friday > people were probably pedaling the soonest but seemed to have lots of little > tweeks to do to brakes & gearing. The Dahon was the most problematic but > the guy had only had it a month & bought it used. > > The guy with the S&S bike spent little time adjusting once he was assembled. > He had to leave the tour abruptly & I wound up breaking his bike down & > packing it, using only some photos he kept in the case. Since I had lots of > time & had never done this, I took much longer than it should have, probably > on the order of 3 hours. The only real glitch was getting the front wheel > to cooperate with the case spacers, & I solved that by removing the tire so > give the wheel some wriggle room. > > Other than the frame couplers, the S&S system does not require much more > dis-assembly than my Atlantis does for air travel. No crank removal on > either. I believe the S&S was around a 56, with 700 wheels. My Atlantis is > a 58 with 700s. The trick to the coupler bike is packing it into the case - > it only goes in one way, hence the photos my companion kept in the case. > > I managed to dodge any over-size charges on this trip with my Atlantis but > in the future that will probably not be possible. For travel, the value of > getting your bike inside the 62" and 50 lb limits is substantial, like $300 > per flight with United. The coupled bike was a titanium racing bike & with > the case was in the mid 40 lb range. The case was pretty HD though. > > The Travel Check sounds interesting, gotta look that up. I'm also thinking > of converting my Atlantis to S&S, especially based on this experience. > > doug > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of ItsFred > Sent: Monday, September 22, 2008 3:18 PM > To: Bicycle Lifestyle > Subject: {BL} Re: Surly Travel Check Frame > > Please do not confuse an S&S coupled bike with a "folding bike" like a > Brompton - Bromptons, Birdies, and their ilk are highly compromised > commuter bikes that can be folded and unfolded in less than a minute. > That's the sort of bike where the wheels stay on. It takes me nearly > an hour to assemble my S&S coupled bikes! Packing it up is not so > quick either - I always clean the bike pretty thoroughly (why pack a > dirty bike), and wrap all the tubes and exposed bits in protective > covers. I remove the pedals AND cranks, chain, and lots of other bits > like bottle cages, etc. It's a job, but you wind up with a great bike > that fits in a suitcase. And by the way, cable couplers are easy to > install, easy to use, and make the job much less cumbersome - I can't > imagine speccing a packable bike without them. > > Fred Roses > (S&S-coupled Roark titanium road-sport, S&S-coupled Landshark stage- > racer, & S&S-coupled Bilenky tourer) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Bicycle Lifestyle" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/bicyclelifestyle?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
