A Frame of Two Halves

Practicing packing the bike, prior to a trip in a couple of weeks.

This is not going to be a 5 minute job.

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It’s so disconcerting seeing the bike in two halves like that

So far, it's going quite well.

Will pack it, put it together, ride it, then pack it again, see what happens.

I had a Dahon Tournado which I sold on here any moons ago. It has the Ritchey breakaway dodads. You get adept very quickly pulling the bike apart and putting it back together. I could do it in 5 minutes in the end.

I am in Italy, with this fame and the beautiful Mrs Jangle.

Going through both Gatwick and Pisa airports with the frame in a soft case was a revelation compared to travelling with a normal bike box.

However, when I unpacked the case today, there is a dent in the top tube, and a large scratch on the downtube.

I had packed the frame as securely as possible, and put foam tubes on all the main frame members. The soft case, being a soft case, can't really offer much protection if a baggage handler decides to hurl it, which must have happened.

The frame was perfect when I packed it, it's now far from that, and I have learnt and expensive lesson.

On the bright side, should be able to post some nice pics of the bike in Italy tomorrow. Just off for Pizza!

Eep!

Are you able to pack the bike in between the two wheels? My bike bag is arranged like this and I think it goes a long way towards protecting most of the frame.

Yep. It was a text book pack. It really must have been twatted very hard to cause the damage, but there you go. It's only a bike after all. BUT, back to hard-cases for me from now.

Blimey

At least you only have to replace half of the frame...
sorry

Good point.

Anyway, better day today.

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:(
at least it's not written off and is still getting ridden

With my breakaway bike soft cases, I was thinking of lining the soft walls with an extra layer of something semi rigid and protective to insert against the soft walls, like a polycarb sheet with a foam backing cut to size.

Yep. No-one died. Rode it 'round Lake Garda today - that's a bloody long way.

Would however caution against anyone ever putting an S&S equipped frame in a soft case and letting a baggage handler anywhere near it.

Horrible luck. Ironically the extra risk of having something more portable :(

Bulletproof insurance is the key. Can you claim on something?

I always have good insurance, but this is a tough one.

a) Because it was checked in as normal baggage; not oversize or 'sporting goods'
b) How do you value a frame you built yourself?

I'm not too stressed about it to be honest.

B) Replacement hand built Roberts?

Can it get rolled out?

To be honest, I'm just going to live with it.

Whilst it is very disappointing to see what is effectively a brand new bike scratched and dented - it's not the end of the world.

The frame is now packed away in the soft case, ready for the return journey this afternoon.

The long and the short of it is frames equipped with S&S couplers make travelling with a bike WAY easier. However, I just don't think the soft case is fit for purpose, so I'll probably get a hard case at some point.

In the meantime, here's a pic of it up in the mountains yesterday:

So, now back in the UK, and I took the frame out of the bag and re-assembled it at the weekend.

Unfortunately, on the return trip it sustained more damage:

For me, the soft case isn't a practical solution to travelling with a bicycle, which is a great shame because the compactness of a bicycle built with couplers makes it a lot easier to handle through airports. When I landed at Gatwick, there were about 4 riders returning from L'eroica, and they were obviously struggling (as I usually do) to manouvre their luggage as well as a traditional bike box.

I've just been looking at the hard case at SJS Cycles. It's £420.00, which is a big investment given that I would be likely to use it less than once per year.

Overall then, looking at the cost / benefit / aggro involved with building your own frame with S&S Couplers, I'd say it's probably not worth it. Having said that, I did enjoy the process, and I had a lovely time riding my frame around lake Garda.

On the subject of building a frame with couplers, I did make a small error with the build. The front cable guide for the rear brake needs to be slotted, so that the cable can be removed from the frame with the handle bars. I failed to do this which means every time I remove the cable I effectively have to fit a new one. Not a great expense, but a pain in the arse. In the unlikely event that I ever get this frame re-sprayed, I'll take the opportunity to cut the slot:

Anyway, that's the 2019 frame built, painted, built up, ridden and reported on. Time to start looking forward to project 2020.

https://us.ritcheylogic.com/us_en/catalog/product/view/_ignore_category/1/id/6275/s/break-away-brake-cable-disconnector/category/96/

I have those fitted. However, you end up with part of the splitter attached to the cable, which won't fit through the cable guide. The splitter grips the cable with a grub screw which crushes the cable, so if you remove the splitter to slide the cable through the guide, the cable tends to fray, and can't be re-threaded. Slotting the guide allows the cable to be removed whist half the splitter is still installed. It's what the proper frame builders do. we live, we learn.

Rather than spend £420 on a box could you buy/repurpose a old Samsonite hard case? Or still too big?

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Unfortunate scratch, what did it scrape against?

Go overkill in pipe insulation and padded bags? Even bags for the wheels, so that the spokes don’t contact the frame?

Colleague at work has a frame with s&s couplers, he has a hard case for it which he bought with the frame so no idea what he paid but it definitely doesn’t look like £400+ worth of a case. I’ll ask him if it was a separate cost or what.

A dremel would make short work of slitting that guide with little paintwork damage. I’ve done it on a few bikes.