New bike case

Amber and I rode the Anaheim - Oceanside 125k permanent on Sunday. Lovely weather. I rode my Trek 520 touring bike with rack, panniers, mudguards, etc. It weighs a lot more than the Serotta and it was really hard work getting it over Santiago Canyon.

Cook's Corner was extra busy when we got there because of the holiday weekend. We decided to skip the 30 minute wait for food and just grabbed some sodas so we could get the receipts. Because we are experienced randonneurs we both had food reserves with us. We split a gas-station danish, a Kind bar, and a large fig newton bar which was plenty to get us to the next control which is 30, mostly downhill, miles later.

Great ride as usual.

I ordered a Trico hard shell case from Amazon for my Crackerswamp randonnee in October and decided I should practice getting my bike in and out. It's quite a bit more involved that I expected.

I took the pedals off and also the wheels. I took the skewers out of the wheels and put them with the pedals in a large ziploc bag. The box comes with dropout protectors which are basically long threaded rods with butterfly nuts on them.

The next problem was the handlebars. I have a fairly large frame so I couldn't just drop the handlebars. They have to come off but they don't go very far because of the brake cables. The aerobars have to come off the handlebars and they can't go very far either because of the computer and light cables. I also have to remove the seat post and saddle after marking it with electrical tape. I can now just about get this all in the case without taking the rear derailleur off.

Now I can lay the middle foam pad on the frame, lay the wheels on that, and put the final foam pad and the top of the case over everything. Now I realize I have the case upside down. Eventually I manage to get the buckles snapped shut without having to turn the case over.

Great - now I have to re-assemble the bicycle. That takes almost as long. I can't imagine what will happen if TSA tries to inspect the case and then put it back together.