Hi all, I am looking for a good, durable bike case but what should I get? Hard or soft case?

Scicon is very expensive but is it worth it? Or will Trico and Serfas do just fine?

Thanks you for any replies.

tom

If you're in the U.S., performance and supergo make a good cheap hard case that got good reviews in velonews. Around $200 bucks .. I've seen them on sale as low as $140 bucks.

You can also always just put some S&S couplers on the bike and it will fit into a regular suitcase. I'd only do that on a steel frame myself though! I'm actually planning on eventually doing that but for now will spend my money on WW stuff.

http://www.sandsmachine.com/

I've used the Trico and I own a serfas. I like the serfas much better. They have a better locking mechanism than the trico. The serfas is also a bit bigger and deeper.

I would never consider shipping my bike or taking it on a plane with a soft side case. I've never had a problem with my hardshell and I've shipped it 5 or six times now (both by plane and by UPS).

I'm leaving for france on saturday and i'll be bringing both a serfas hard case for the plane ride and a soft case for the trains i'll be taking across europe. not sure if they would let me on the express trains with a hard case, and the soft case folds up nicely to fit in with my bike in the hard case.

To anyone thinking of using a soft case on a plane, you're better off with a cardboard box....seriously.

Soft Case is the best for travelling nationally - It is light, and easily compacted.

Hard Case is the "real deal" for when going overseas - They can be on the heavy side, and also space is needed.

Generally, hard case can be used everywhere if you have something worth protecting! Which we all do...

Go out and buy a good quality hard case - I 've been travelling to mainland Europe with bikes both MTB and road for 6 years and have seen first hand the value of a good hard shell case. Basically luggage handlers (particuluarily at Stansted) have managed to mangle wheels and handle bars of very well soft packed bikes.
You can hire hard cases from good bike shops or if you plan to do more than 2 air trips then you should go and buy a case; I'd reccommend the viking case (procycling.com website at £189.00 +p&p, or the more expensive Elite travel case at £300.00) . I'm upgrading to the Elite from the Viking today actually as it has better inbuilt padding and strapping.
Tip of the day: go out and buy a bike size very very very thick piece of foam and with a black marker draw the outline of your bike (chainset side down) then "gouge out" the bike shape an d presto you have a custom built travel glove for your beloved bike

Also, go to the hardware store and buy 20 feet of foam tubing used for insulating hot water lines. Then cut pieces to match the length of your main tubes, stays, fork blades and crank arms. Slip them over these pieces and no scratching damage will occur. Don't forget to remove your quick releases and insert hub protectors on each side of the hubs and fork blocks both in the fork and at the rear dropout- then you can relax knowing that your baby is safe.

I have a hard shelll Trico. great simple box. Once packed it's solid as.

Only problem is going overseas now. You have to open the box (sometimes) and if you have put a lot of stuff around your bike and "sat" on it to close it, it's a pain to close again in the airport.

As such I have taken to putting less in the case on international flights and taking a larger suitcase with all my crap in it

thank you for the inputs guys, i guess i will go for a hard case, just need to figure out which one fits my bike best.