Packing a bike for airline travel is normally a cumbersome task and reassembling the bike right before a big race is daunting even for those familiar with a wrench.  When my friend Jason asked about travel cases last year for his frequent jaunts, Tri All 3 Sports’ Velo Safe was my first recommendation.  The Compact Velo Safe, with the small amount of disassembly it requires, makes traveling with your bike a pleasure and was perfect for Jason's needs.  See my review of the Compact Velo Safe here. 

Not a company to stand still, Tri All 3 Sports has continued to improve on its product line.  The Velo Safe Pro-Series Road makes the process of packing and unpacking almost as easy as putting your bike on a roof rack.  They’ve also continued to push the envelope on the materials used to build the cases.  As usual, I’ll refer you to the company web site for the details that they have already done a great job explaining.

So here’s the overview.  Top-notch materials and construction from the casters to the latches.  Every piece is lined up just right, fit and finish is excellent.  The interior offers plenty of room for a wetsuit and other transition area necessities.  Frankly, it seems like you could fling this thing out of a moving vehicle at 80 miles per hour, pop the latch and be riding your undamaged bike five minutes later.  Finally, it is surprisingly light and easy to move around on its casters.

As you can see in the series of images on the right, I packed the bike from start to finish in six steps (one of which was not really necessary).  Those photos were taken just after I first opened the case and the entire process took less than 15 minutes and was extremely intuitive.  I packed a second bike this afternoon in about 10 minutes.  In other words, it is very easy to pack your bike in this case.  While I may spend a few extra minutes putting some packing foam or pipe insulation around the tubing, it hardly seems necessary.

This case is intended for road bikes, but today I packed a tri bike and the only extra step needed was to loosen one bolt on each aero extension to slide them back a few centimeters and the top dropped in place.  The tri bike in the pictures is headed to Hawaii and the athlete riding it, while ridiculously fast, isn’t much of bike mechanic and the thought of having to put his bike back together before the big race is not a pleasant one.  The look of relief on his face was dramatic when he saw the results of using the Velo Safe.  He’ll have his bike ready to race by mounting the wheels, adjusting his saddle height and tightening two bolts on the aero extensions – 15 minutes tops, without touching a pedal wrench, adjusting a headset or much more effort than swapping wheels.

Tri All 3 Sports Velo Safe cases are not inexpensive but I consider them to be an excellent value.   Think about the cost of the bike and gear that goes in them and the piece of mind you'll get with the vault-like security of the Velo Safe.  Factor in the ease of using and transporting the Velo Safe and I think you'll agree it is money well spent and a value at twice the price.

I do have a couple of suggestions, though, to improve this already fantastic case: (1) a handle or strap of some sort on the top to facilitate placing the top on the case; and (2) a chain keeper to keep the chain taught and lined up. 

I think the pictures tell the story but just in case they don’t – this is “the way” to travel with your bike. 

Mark

P.S. Look for the post Hawaii Ironman update on this particular Velo Safe's travels!