Originally Posted by
gauvins
...
I am not even sure that padding is useful for a touring bike. If a bike is bomb proof, it should be air-travel proof... .
In a former life I traveled a lot, had to haul along a lot of electronic and other equipment in my luggage for work.
A friend of mine had a roommate that loaded food onto airliners (back in the days when they gave you food) and occasionally filled in for baggage handler. One time I saw him and said I had just bought a new suitcase, named the brand and model, asked him is thoughts.
He replied - that is a hard case, never get a hard case. I asked why - he said just yesterday he had driven the food truck over a piece of soft case luggage and other than a bit of scuff marks, no damage to the bag. But when they drive a truck over a hard case suit case, it is destroyed.
Yes, that is what he said. That was back in the days of free checked luggage. From the way he said it and from his experience handling luggage, I suspect that he only checked baggage that would withstand being driven over by the food truck.
I made a wooden center support to use in my S&S Backpack case. Had to replace some of the wood after it was broken on one of my trips.