We got a new, much lighter tent which he carries on his handlebars, bikepacking style, instead of on the rear rack. That and smaller panniers to force him to take less stuff solved the problem.

I have also suffered with a bike prone to shimmy. I was very stubborn about selling that bike because I loved it when it behaved. Finally I had an incident on a local, well known hill that shook me enough to sell the bike. I lost my love of downhills, but hope to get that back. My sympathies to Al.

My experience (which might not apply to him at all), is that changing how I packed the bike did no good at all . . .

I just had a good look around the Naked Bike website - it's certainly a catchy name and sharp looking bikes!

I'm off now to continue reading your journal.

I hadn't heard of an Air Caddy when I was researching, but I would have ruled it out because I'd never be able to manoeuvre it or lift it myself and it doesn't have the advantage of a regular bike box of being cheap enough to just discard at the destination.

On my Pyrenees trip, I managed to take my bike in its case and my big duffel through the Barcelona airport, onto a local train, and then several cobbled blocks to my B&B. I'm too "economical" to pay for a taxi, especially travelling solo. On our 2019 trip, Al took his bike in its new Thule case and my bike case (containing his panniers and my duffel) on the train from Bordeaux to Paris and onward to the airport hotel where he left my case in storage for me. No way to do either of those things without a wheeled case.

Jacquie,
Thx for the reply.
You’ve answered many questions that I have regarding packing a bicycle with couplers.
After several trips to Europe to ride, sometimes renting and other times carrying one of my bikes using AirCaddy, Next trip I’m considering taking my favorite bike which just happens to be my “next” bike. So I was considering whether to leave the S&S coupler box unchecked.
Regarding the AirCaddy, I have found it very easy to ship mudguards and racks while leaving bike mostly assembled. The only downsize to the AirCaddy in fact is it’s size and shape. I once told an airline gate agent at Schiphol when asked what I had in the pie shaped box that it was a piece of Gouda Cheese. Humor was lost right then!
Thx again and appreciate your reply.

Hi Rob
A bunch of reasons:
- I wanted it to be as light as possible. Al got himself a titanium bike and it just doesn't work well when the bigger, stronger partner has the better (lighter) equipment.
- Packing a very small S&S bike is not easy. With my Co-Motion Pangea, I have to remove the fork because, with it attached, you can't fit the front part of the frame into the case without either the top tube or the down tube crossing through the middle, right where the rear hub needs to go. (I took it back to the shop the first time when I couldn't fit it in; he said it was the hardest one he'd done.). It's also a challenge to fit in the fenders and racks. In fact, about half the time I don't succeed and the rear rack has to go with the panniers. Even with Co-Motion's neoprene padding, my bike gets quite dinged up.
- It hasn't been a cost savings. The couplers plus suitcase added up to over $1000 US and, on my four return trips to Europe with it, I've saved far less. I've been travelling on Aeroplan points, so I'm limited to Air Canada or Lufthansa if I want to go from Vancouver to Europe without passing through the USA. Lufthansa charges about $300 for a bike while AC charges $50. Clearly, shopping around works. I use http://www.airline-baggage-fees.com/sports/bikes/ for research.
- For our first 3 trips, Al borrowed a Thule hard case and paid the bicycle fee. I could have borrowed one from another friend when we took our mountain bikes to the Yukon, but those cases are huge. We had to put it on top of our SUV and I wasn't certain if we could stack two up there, so I splurged on a Thule RoundTrip Pro case. Al was so impressed with it that he bought his own for our 2019 trip. I now own a case that doesn't require couplers, is easy to pack and manoeuvre, and collapses for storage. Plus it includes a bike stand to save my back!
- And last but not least, I opted for Di2 shifting and internal wiring. I don't think that would be compatible with couplers.
So, a longwinded reply to a simple question!

Jacquie,
Nicely dressed naked bicycle!
Can I ask you why you didn’t add S&S couplers to this bicycle as it is going to be used for travel(Yes,we will travel again)?

A long time ago I shared a taxi into Rangoon with these two German fellows who were travelling for 6 weeks and had only one tiny duffle bag (maybe 20 cm diameter and 40 long) between them. They had cut off the handles of their toothbrushes and were sharing a razor.

We could have lightened our load by leaving our chairs behind but the best part about Ruckle Park is sitting and looking out across the water. And I got tree sap on my shorts when I sat at the picnic table.

Re lecky toothbrush - a long time ago I read in a bushwalking/hiking article that one could save a few grammes by shortening the handle of your (non electric )toothbrush!

Mike

Hike-a-bike time for me, though I might have ridden this section.

Finally! Hopefully some new ground to cover in September...

Looks delicious!

Great photo!

It looks tough!

Great to see you getting a chance to get away!