First Look | EVOC BIKE TRAVEL BAG PRO Softcase

How long should it take to unpack your bike when you arrive after a flight? 15 minutes? 30 minutes? When you finally get to your destination and all you want to do is get out and ride, it sucks to have to rebuild your entire bike. I don’t trust the airlines with my luggage, so I get really nervous when it comes to letting those gorillas toss my baby into the cargo hold of a 777.

Usually I go with “better safe than sorry” and I break everything down and put the bike into a hard case with loads of extra bubble wrap on the expensive bits. So you can imagine my anxiety when I picked up my new test bike at Enduro Mag’s main office and it was still in an EVOC Travel Bag Pro soft case.

At first sight, it’s clear there has been a fair amount of attention to detail put into the bags design. The zippers are high quality and there are several different handles to drag or carry it around. Since the bike that would now be in my care had actually been shipped on an airplane in this bag, I was keen to make sure that everything was still in the right place. I needed to know that all the straight pieces were still straight and the round pieces were still round.

Getting the bike out of the bag was an eight-step process and it was quite easy.

• Rear wheel – The rear wheel is kept in a dedicated pocket which is accessed from the exterior of the bag. When I opened it, I was shocked to see that the disc brake rotor was still in place. I was more shocked to see that it wasn’t bent. They have a clever design built into the pocket to ensure that the rotor stays safe during normal shipping bumps and bruises.
• Front wheel – The front wheel is also kept in its own dedicated pocket, but accessed from the other side of the bag. It too seemed no worse for the travel.
• Open the main compartment – maybe I’m a chicken, but I ended up putting the bag on its side to actually remove the bike. I had a fear that as I unstrapped the pieces that it would fall out and I’d have to explain all of the scratches and dents.
• The fork – This was straight forward. The fork is held in place with a padded sleeve and secured with a clip. Open the clip and the sleeve comes off.
• Downtube – There is a pad dedicated for wrapping the top tube and down tube and holding it in place. Unclip and pull the pad off.
• Seattube – There is a long strap that goes from the bottom of the bag to the point where the seat tube meets the top tube. Unstrap that and it is free.
• Chainstay – The chainstay sits atop a plastic molded piece which can be moved forward or back depending on the bike. There is a strap that holds the chainstay in place and it is removed by simply unclipping it.
• Handlebar – The handlebar is held against the back of the bag with two velcro straps. Unstrap it and it comes free.

After all the parts were free I pulled the bike out of the bag and popped it in a stand. I secured the handlebars, installed the wheels, and filled the tires with air. Everything was exactly as it should be. Nothing was bent and nothing was scratched.

As I was putting the bag away, I noticed that there is a book included with detailed instructions for how to put your bike in inside the bag. While it might not be necessary, it’s a nice touch. I have not yet had the opportunity to put a bike IN the bag, but I can tell you that taking it out after it has been shipped is quite easy. I think that the eight easy steps to remove it and get out on the trail quickly is a worth paying a bit more for a high quality bag.

The bike inside the bag was a Liteville 601 with 27.5 inch wheels and the documentation says that the wheel pockets will fit up to a 29 inch wheel. The Dropper post was in the lowest position and it fit snug – no reason to take the seat post out.

While dragging the bike around the streets, in and out of the car, and up stairs it felt very stable. The aluminum front handle was very comfortable and is a big improvement on the old system I use which is just a nylon strap. There were no accidental tip-overs and I think that the bag is quite attractive.

The guys who traveled with the bike got a lot of attention from the other passengers at the airport, but to be fair, the crew at Enduro Mountainbike Mag are a funny looking bunch. An added bonus is that the bag is collapsable so that is wont take up quite so much space in storage when you are finished with it. Overall, this is a really nice bag and as always, the proof of quality comes from putting it to an actual test. In this case is passed with flying colours.

Words: Evan Phillips Pictures: Sebastian Hermann

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