Bikend Helium 4 Travel Case

[Calnago]

Love the case, but for those of you who have travelled by air with it, especially internationally, what’s your experience with the TSA agents deflating the airbags? Always, never, sometimes? The air bags could really use a redesign at minimum, like placing the valve hole in a vertical position to the bag instead of perpendicular. Not sure that some shaped dense foam pads might not be a better option than the air bags. I may try and make some myself.
Anyway, comments from actual users would be great. Thanks.

[dgasmd]

Love the case, but for those of you who have travelled by air with it, especially internationally, what’s your experience with the TSA agents deflating the airbags? Always, never, sometimes? The air bags could really use a redesign at minimum, like placing the valve hole in a vertical position to the bag instead of perpendicular. Not sure that some shaped dense foam pads might not be a better option than the air bags. I may try and make some myself.
Anyway, comments from actual users would be great. Thanks.

Seriously looked at getting this case to replace my old
One. Have the very same question about the air bladders, but haven’t found a souls to provide their experience with and the case altogether. Following!

[Calnago]

Yeah, overall it’s a great bag, and I’ve contacted Bikend about the air bladders. I believe they are going to at least change the valves on the airbags to sit vertically (for accessible inflation when packed) versus the current perpendicular arrangement (for next to impossible inflation).
I also said that making the airbags a clear see through material might lessen the chance of TSA agents deflating (then not reinflating) the air bags. Their response was that they couldn’t do it in a clear material (the reason escapes me now but think it had something to do with the airbags being made out of nylon that they couldn’t make clear??). Anyway, like you, I was hoping to hear more from actual users and their experience with the airbags being deflated and reinflated by airport baggage handlers (ha, good luck).
In the past I’ve used Crateworks Bike Boxes and they’ve been simple and easily inspected but they are bulky and awkward to carry around. I’ve also used just plain cardboard bike boxes if I was touring and landing in one airport but leaving from a completely different airport/city. Would just toss the box when I arrived and get another one from a bike shop at the departing city.

[Bigger Gear]

A good friend of mine has been using the BikeND Helium since its release. His experience would be that most of the time security deflates the bladders, and they certainly never inflate them. And on a trip we did together to the Big Island of Hawaii the top tube on his Firefly Ti Road actually sustained a very very small dent during transit. So small it can't really be seen unless the light hits it right, but for sure the dent wasn't there before the trip.

Personally, I have a BikeBoxAlan hard shell case and I've been pretty pleased with it. My complaints would be the hinges and the wheels could both be a bit better engineered. But it's over 5 years old and has done at least a dozen trips with no bike damage at all on any of them. I can stay under 50 lbs no problem, and the only other drawback is that it's bulky to store when traveling. For sure the BikeND is better in that regard.

[Calnago]

That’s good info @BiggerGear. Think I will try to replace the airbags with dense foam. Airbags are pointless if they’re deflated before they even get “thrown on” the plane.

[dgasmd]

A good friend of mine has been using the BikeND Helium since its release. His experience would be that most of the time security deflates the bladders, and they certainly never inflate them. And on a trip we did together to the Big Island of Hawaii the top tube on his Firefly Ti Road actually sustained a very very small dent during transit.

Well, that in itself kills the single reason to get this bag/case over many others as I planned! Back to the drawing board!!