The Evoc bike travel bag is a very popular biking accessory and surely looks great, but it does not come cheap. Is it worth it to break the bank when there are cheaper alternatives such as the good old sturdy cardboard box? In this article we are going to find out by testing the two options in the field. Take your time to read it, otherwise skip to the conclusions if you are impatient.
I have always wanted to get my hands on an Evoc bike travel bag. Its look is rad, Evoc is a trustworthy brand and the idea of showing it off like a pro in an airport have always been good reasons for me to get one. Unfortunately, its price tag always brought me back to reality wondering “is it really worth it all that money?” or “with that investment I could get myself a new set of brakes, or a dropper post or even a full set of bikepacking gears”.
These thoughts always kept me from making the purchase…but only until a few days ago. In preparation for our biking trip to Sardinia, Italy, my fiancée Maria decided to go for it and now we have brand new, red Bike Travel Bag (the basic model, not the Pro version nor the XL).
Having two bikes to carry, we travelled with one travel bag and one cardboard box, which gave us the opportunity to benchmark the two methods during the different phases of the journey:
In the following you will find a side-by-side rating of the two alternatives against the same set of parameters, ranked from 1 (horrible) to 5 (excellent).
1. Setup
1.1 Tools needed
Travel Bag: 5/5. Multitool, pedal spanner or 8 mm hex key, tyre and shock pump.
Cardboard: 3/5. Multitool, pedal spanner or 8 mm hex key, some Velcro straps, some spare cardboard, lots of zipties, some bubblewrap (optional), a few meters of ducktape, scissors, tyre and shock pump.
1.2 Bike setup
Travel Bag: 5/5. Remove both wheels, remove handlebar, remove pedals and deflate suspensions and tyres (be careful if you use tubeless). The handlebar is strapped to the handy frame pad included in the bag, which keeps it tidy and sturdy. I decided to keep my front maxle and rear axle in the frame, just to mitigate the effect of unwanted side pressure.
Cardboard: 2.5/5. Remove only the front wheel, remove handlebar, remove the saddle, remove pedals and deflate suspension and tyres. I used Velcro straps to keep the handlebar to the frame and keep it in place (inspired from the Evoc travel bag system). Then I ziptied the bubblewrap onto the frame: fork legs, top tube, down tube…everything. I also used some spare cardboard on the trickiest areas.
1.3 Bag setup
Travel Bag: 5/5. in order to give rigidity to the bag and increase its protective power, there are 6 light but sturdy PVC tubes that fit into the bag. It is very intuitive to fit them and it takes a few seconds. In case you need to add or remove items, you can easily do so using the zipper.
Cardboard: 2.5/5. The cardboard had to be heavily duck-taped to keep it in a nice rectangular shape. This requires a fair amount of time and duck tape. Think twice before closing it, because every time you need to add or remove any item you will have to cut the tape and reapply it.
1.4 Bike fitting
Travel Bag: 5/5. Super easy, just lay the bottom bracket over the adjustable stand, fit the fork in the protective folds, strap the frame to the inside of the bag. It is dead simple. There are some handy pockets to store the pedals, the handlebar screws and pipe, and the tools.
Cardboard: 3.5/5. the size of my cardboard box allowed me to fit my 29er bike with only its front wheel removed. However, it was not so easy to fit the front wheel after the bike was in the box. It took some time to figure out the best position (non drive-side, tucked between the fork and the cranks. The more deflated the wheel, the better).
1.5 Time required
Travel Bag: 5/5. to preprare the bike, the bag, and pack it ready for travel it took me 19 minutes on my first go. I improved it to approx 12 minutes when packing it before our return flight. I reckon that 15 minutes is a good, although improvable, average time for prepraration.
Cardboard: 1/5. My first try was a disaster – a whopping total of 54 minutes (box preparation excluded)! Protecting the bike as described above was not a quick job, as it took time to cut straps of bubblewrap of proper size and then actually wrapping the bike with zipties to hold everything in place. Furthermore, it took me a considerable amount of time to figure out how to best fit the bike (i.e. where to fit the front wheel, which side to strap the handlebar, etc). Finally, I had to spend a few minutes to attach some items to the bike frame (e.g. trail pump and pedals) to prevent them from moving around and potentially damaging the frame when transported – the Evoc bag soleves this issue brilliantly with neat and secure pockets designed precisely for this purpose.
On my second go, it took me 20 minutes to pack the bike – with the aid of my fiancée though. I would consider 30 minutes as an indicative average once you are on the move, but on your first set up do take one full hour into account because you will have to find the best fit for your cardboard size and specific bike.
2. Transport
2.1 Walking
Travel Bag: 4.5/5. The Evoc Travel bag comes with many straps placed in strategic places to make transport and handling as easy as possible, such as the reinforced strap at the front bottom of the bag, designed for walking the bag around. The wheels are sturdy and the bag is very, very stable. The weight distribution is also optimal as the center of mass is towards the rear and is supported by the wheels, so that lifting the front when carrying it results as easy as possible.
This being said, it is not a piece of cake to walk around dragging a 9 kilo bag stuffed with a ~13kg bike plus some other accessory. I am sure the Evoc bag is as good as it can possibly be, but I still have a sore arm after walking it for a couple of blocks so I am going to give it a 4.5.
Cardboard: 1/5. If you have a cardboard box as big as mine, you will likely not be able to grab it and move it using your stretched arms. In order to move it or lift it, you will need some help, which can be a hassle if you are a solo traveller.
If you just need to walk for a few tens of meters you can drag it around, provided that you are on smooth surfaces. However, it will get very tiring soon and you will be damaging the underside of the box. The reality is that the cardboard box cannot be carried when walking alone.
2.2 In the car
Travel Bag: 5/5. The travel bag is compact enough that it can fit in the trunk of almost any car. In my VW Golf Plus, it entered both laying on the wheels and on the side (of course after lowering the rear seats). One handy way to transport it is to lower only one seat in the back and stuff the bag on its wheels, parallel to the side of the car.
In minivans you can also place it on the wheels and orient it parallel to the trunk door, which can be handy.
Cardboard: 1/5. The box is huge, at least in my case. There was no way I could fit it in the car without lowering the entire row of rear seats, and also this way I was barely able to close the trunk of my VW Golf Plus which is a medium sized car. If you have a small city car, forget about being able to load the cardboard box.
2.3 Public ground transport
Travel Bag: 4.5/5. Despite being easy to carry it on its wheels, it does require some effort to load the bag onto buses and trains. Once inside, there is usually enough space to store it neatly without being too much in the way for other passengers.
Cardboard: 2/5. Once inside the vehicle, not much different from the travel bag. What makes the cardboard box a worse option is transporting the bag to and from bus stations and train platforms, which implies the same hassles described above (which also apply if you need to move around e.g. moving across coaches in the train).
In Switzerland and Italy, at the time of writing this article, bikes can be carried on high speed trains only if packed in bags. Both the Evoc travel bag and the cardboard box are equally fine for this.
2.4 Air transport
Travel Bag: 4/5. This bag is designed for air travel so of course it does the job nicely. The reason it does not achieve a full 5/5, is its weight. The Evoc travel bag weights 9 kilos, which for sure are fully justified by its protection features. However, if you fly with an airline that considers packed bikes just as normal luggage such as Alitalia, it is easy to reach the weight limit of 23 kg above which heavy extra charges are applied.
Other airlines like Ryanair and Easyjet, on the other hand, charge separately for sport equipment. In this case the weight is usually not a problem as typically the allowance reaches 32kg.
Cardboard box: 5/5. Airlines accept cardboard boxes just as good as a fancy travel bag. In this case, the cardboard has the plus of weighing less than a travel bag. As you can imagine, this comes with other drawbacks, but at least it gives some more peace of mind if you have a strict weight allowance to respect.
3. At the Airport
3.1 Reaching the airport
Reaching the airport with your bikes is not the simplest of tasks independently on your method for packing the bike. The easiest way would be loading the packed bikes in the trunk and park the car in the parking area closest to the terminal, and then collect it on the way back. In this case, having the travel bag or the cardboard box does not make too much difference, provided you have easy access to airport trolleys in the car park.
However, this is not always possible, for instance if you use a different airport for outbound and inbound flights as we have done in our most recent holiday. Also, you can imagine that parking the car in the closest parking area to the terminal also implies the highest costs. In this case, you could opt for cheaper parking options, normally further away from the terminal and very often requiring transfer by shuttle vans. In this case, as described in the Transport section, the Evoc Bag performs much better than the cardboard box. Also, if you have to walk before reaching the trolleys, with the cardboard box you will have a problem.
The other option is to reach the airport by public transport. The Evoc Travel Bag is slightly handier than the cardboard box on trains and buses, but the real difference is how to reach your closest train or bus station. With the travel bag, you can just walk it. With the cardboard box you will need someone to help you at the very least, or a sufficiently large taxi if you are on your own.
In our case, we opted for another option, which however requires a lot of help: we shuttled ourselves with one car to the airport and were followed by both my parents with another car. After dropping us down, they drove back both cars. In this scenario, travel bag or cardboard box makes little difference, but you have to mobilise two cars and two persons for every journey at the airport!
All in all, the score on this parameter depends on how you reach the airport. At best, there could be no difference between the two options, but the Travel Bag surpasses by far the cardboard option every time you are on your own, or need to walk some distance, or require some shuttling.
Evoc Travel Bag: 5/5. Cardboard box: 3/5.
3.2 Checking in – Alitalia (bike free of charge)
Evoc Travel Bag: 4/5. With Alitalia the bike is a free luggage, provided that it is properly packed and that it weighs less than 23 kg. When we placed it on the scale, it read 27 kg as we had stuffed our sleeping bag and backpack in the bag, which provides a lot of empty space. By removing these items we quickly reached an acceptable 24 kg, but at this point the bag included only the bike, the pedals, and some tools. On the plus side, opening the bag to reorganise its content takes seconds.
Cardboard box: 2/5. The scale read 28 kg. The box was stuffed not only with our sleeping bag and rucksack, but also with a 4 kg bike rack needed to carry the bikes around. Also in this case we had to open the box and reorganise its content, but opening and closing requires scissors, loads of duck tape and much patience.
Besides, Alitalia requires cardboard boxes to be wrapped in protective plastic, which implied 20 eur expense for the job.
3.3 Checking in – Easyjet (extra charge for bikes)
Travel Bag: 5/5. As smooth as it can be. We exploited the several spaces in the bag to include other items and make our journey as comfortable as possible.
Cardboard box: 5/5. Also, as easy as it can be.
3.4 Moving around the airport
Travel Bag: 5/5. Practically you will just need to move it from the check in desk to the oversized luggage drop, and it is an easy job especially if you use a trolley.
Cardboard box: 4/5. Again, not hard to take the box from the check in desk to the oversized luggage drop, but you will definitely require a trolley (that in some airports are not free) and in some cases there was not enough clearance when passing sliding doors or narrow passages.
4.Protection
Travel Bag: 5/5. It is hard to see how the bag is actually handled by ground staff, but the two elements that I can consider are the following: in the first place, the bag has a lot of handles which make the job of the ground workers easier than having to lift an oversized cardboard box with no handles. Secondly, the bag is water resistant which means that it doesn’t matter if it’s raining when the plane is being loaded. In our two flights, the bag came out a little dirty but not damaged nor scratched, the bike being fully protected. Smooth as silk.
Cardboard box 2/5: again, it is likely that a cardboard box is treated the same way of any other bag, but one aspect we tested in person is its resiliency when it rains. On our second flight, it was raining when loading the plane and the cardboard understandably lost some of its shape and hence protecting power, and the duct tape keeping it in place came loose. The result is shown in the picture: we were horrified to see on the carousel that the box had actually opened during handling! You can imagine our faces when we saw our bike halfway out of the box, lying on its side on the luggage carousel. Thankfully the Swiss ground personnel was kind enough to collect and return all the material that was spread around when the duct tape let go and the box opened, such as the saddle, the pedals, my five-ten shoes and my helmet. Nothing was lost, but this could have gone wrong horribly. The lesson learned for me is that you need to factor in 20 euro per way per bike if you use cardboard, so that you wrap the box in plastic which provides the required extra protection and water resistance.
Apart from this major breakdown, the cardboard also showed many signs of impact and was damaged in many points, showing a couple of worrying holes and several scratches.
Again – wrap the cardboard box in plastic, it is well spent money!
5. On the go
If you plan your trip so that you arrive and leave from the same airport/station, then this is a no brainer: you need to find a way to store your travel bag or cardboard box in the airport or at a nearby hotel so that it’s ready to be collected and used for transportation. In this case, it probably makes no difference to leave a big cardboard box or a more compact bag in a luggage room in some airport. Actually, it may give more peace of mind to leave a valueless cardboard box rather than a super expensive Evoc travel bag.
On the other side, if your departure point is different from your arrival location, you will have to find other solutions. A first approach is taking the bags or cardboard box with you. This approach will require you to rent a car, and in this scenario the Evoc travel bag beats the cardboard box 10 – 0, thanks to its capability of folding into a manageable object (38cm x 135cm x 30cm). In our latest trip, having had a bike box with us, we had to rent a bigger (and more expensive) car.
Another option is to ship the bags at your destination. We have never tried this one, I guess it would work provided that you make the proper arrangements with e.g. the hotel of your last day stay, but of course it wouldn’t be free. In this scenario, probably the folded travel bag can be a cheaper option than the cardboard box due to its form factor, but I am not convinced about the convenience of this approach over the rental of a car, especially if you’re not staying out long and if you are not travelling alone.
The last option I can think about is only applicable to the cardboard box, which is ditching it as soon as you arrive at the start of your biking holiday, and then getting a new one from any bike store in your departure location. I guess this could be sorted out, but it would leave a degree of uncertainty that would not give me peace of mind during my trip: what if the shop I had in mind is closed in my only useful day to collect it? Or what if their boxes are no good for my bike? I would resort to this approach only having a very long buffer time to get the right box, or having pre-arranged everything. Furthermore, keep in mind that you will anyways need your tools (duct tape, scissors, bubblewrap, zipties) to complete your packing, so either you carry these with you or you find a way to supply them on departure site.
If I can choose, I would arrive and departure from the same site and avoid carrying any bag or box with me. In this scenario, there is no difference between the two approaches.
However, if I have to carry the bags with me like in our latest trip, the Evoc Travel bag is simply a better, handier and cheaper option than the cardboard box.
Evoc Travel Bag: 5/5; Cardboard box: 3/5.
6. Price
Before experimenting both methods side by side in our latest biking trip, I was sure I would have scored 1 the travel bag and 5 the cardboard box. Features aside, it is unmistakable that the Evoc bag costs a fortune while the cardboard box is completely free, right? Wrong.
As we have seen above, the reduced protection offered by the cardboard box could alone justify investing in a proper travel bag, since we all know that bikes and components are expensive stuff. But let us leave aside also this aspect.
If you invest in a travel bag, you will have to make that big effort upfront, but then you’re good to go. If you opt for the cardboard box, keep in mind that you will incur into unplanned expenses. In my cases, for instance, I paid 20 eur to get my box wrapped in plastic foil and I should have done it twice. So consider 40 eur per trip to protect your cardboard. Then, I had to rent a bigger car to make room for it. I cannot quantify that precisely, but say that I paid ~15% more than a normal compact car. This would translate into additional 10 eur/day which on my 5 days trip results into a total of 50 eur. So the cardboard cost me ~90 eur on this latest trip.
Considering that the entry price for the Evoc Travel Bag is around 400 euro, but if you are lucky you can find it on sale at around 300 euro, you would reach a break-even point after ~5 trips.
Evoc Travel Bag: 2.5/5 – Cardboard box: 4.0/5.
7. The final verdict
Here is what the numbers say: the Evoc Bike Travel Bag beats Cardboard box 4.5 to 2.8. The first scores top marks on all criteria, with the obvious exception of pricing. On the contrary, the latter essentially proves insufficient on all aspects apart from its pricing and its “static” behavior, i.e. once handed over to the ground staff at the airport.
Of course this is a subjective evaluation and prone to many approximations, but in the end I feel that it paints a representative scoring of the two options. The Evoc Bike Travel Bag is just an excellent tool for any mountain bike enthusiast and I am sure that nobody ever regrets making the purchase: it provides excellent protection for your bike, it simplifies everything in the trip, and makes you look like a pro.
The cardboard box is a viable option and frankly it is totally understandable that one would opt for it on his first biking trip (as I have done), but it cannot compare with the travel bag for all the reasons above.
Of course the decision revolves around the price and can be affected by many aspects. Having elaborated all the angles above, my rule of thumb is the following: if you plan on making more than 2 biking trips in your life, then go for the Evoc Travel Bag.