Originally Posted by
GeorgeBaby
With the demise of the 62" luggage limit, the cost equation has changed -- you can ship pretty much any bike as regular luggage without an upcharge. Maneuvering a large case around is a complete PITA, especially if you need to transport it in a smaller vehicle, so there's still a use case for a bike that packs easily.
The majority of my tours I like to ride right out of the airport. In that case a full sized bike in a cardboard box is pretty hassle free. The quick unpack and assembly is pretty nice. In some other cases I have used a soft case. It is a bit more hassle in that you have to do something with it when you get there. Mailing it home or to the city you will be flying home from (in my case that is pretty much never the one I start out from) is an extra step, but the soft case rolls up small and ships cheaply. If you aren't a weight weenie like me you could even carry it along on your ride. Carrying it until you get to a post office is a reasonable middie ground.
For an ultralight packer it is possible to get eveything, bike, clothing, camping gear, and all into the soft case and remain under the 50# limit. I have done that with a few items in a personal item sized backpack (18L REI Flash 18) that I carried with me on the plane. The backpack was used because I like having some stuff with me and I was real close on the weight limit and didn't trust the scale. I figured it was better to be under a few pounds on the soft case. Anyway it was pretty easy to carry it with the shoulder strap. I wouldn't want to walk for miles with it, but to catch shutles, buses, or other transport or to walk a few blocks it was fine.
I always figured a full size hard case would be a bigger hassle, but doable for folks who catch a shuttle to a hotel, unpack, and leave the case there until they are ready to fly home. That is supposition since I have never owned one.
BTW, my preference is usually to pay a bike shop to pack and ship my bike home rather than deal with all that in a strange city. At the end of a long tour I find I am ready to be shed of the bike and the details of shipping it home at that point paying a shop $40-60 to pack it up and another $40-60 for the actual shipping seems like a bargain at the time.