I need a travel bag!

Since I´m planning to go to the Canaries next month I needed to buy a bike travel bag of my own. It is possible to rent one for 50€ per week from Helsinki. The one I rented in 2011 was a big hard case I was not comfortable with.

I started to look for a soft case with good enough protection for airtraveling. I read a lot of articles and blogs on the Internet. I checked ads from magazines and I talked with my friends. Funny thing is that there are two categories of cyclists: soft case and hard case people 🙂

I have my reasons why I chose to go with a soft case: Ease of handling and lack of storage space.

From what I´ve read and talked with my friends it was quite clear that what I wanted was an EVOC Bike Travel Bag. It´s a soft case, has strong enough protection for air travel, fits to a small space when empty and looks nice.

Back to the world of online shopping!

I know that a good travel bag doesn´t come cheap. The price for a new EVOC was from 340 € to 400 €. The cheapest price was not in an online shop. It was at a local dealer in Espoo (Sellon Pyörä), but they didn´t have any in stock at the moment.

Some serious googling and I ran into an ad in an online marketplace. Somebody was selling the 2011 model of an Evoc only for 100€. It had been in use only twice. It was a bargain – or so I thought.

I have to admit that I was a little suspicious about this second hand case I was about to buy. The seller convinced me that everything was OK, and that I could return the bag if I was not pleased with its condition. When I received my bag via parcel service I was a happy man. There were only a few marks on it that showed it had been in use. For a second hand EVOC it´s mint! Thank you Esa!

I also ordered a road bike adapter from CRC.

I haven´t tried to pack my Rose into the bag yet, but I think I´m going to do it next week.

What I just realized is that I have to unscrew the Di2 battery case from my bike to fit it in the bag.