Evoc Bike Travel Bag review

The Evoc bike bag is the best known on the market, and rightly so as Evoc has this bag nailed.

• How to pack your mountain bike up for travel
• How to pack your road bike for a trip abroad

The rigid base, with its relatively wide-set wheels and sturdy plastic runners offers pull-along stability and slide-over slickness for easy portage, while removable poles and struts in the upper give decent structure and make storage easy, when removed.

Zipped wheel bags on the side are a cinch to use with 650b wheels, but plus and 29er riders may need to stuff uninflated tyres in there at times.

Inside there are a few useful pockets on the side and back to stop pedals and tools flying about.

Internal bike holding is good, with a number of frame and handlebar straps that attach to loops within the bag, easily adjustable to fit your needs.

There’s a Velcro-secured box in the bottom, shaped to allow your chainstays to sit on top to protect the bike further and offer stability inside.

On top of that there’s a piece to go around the head of your front triangle with additional handlebar loops to keep them safe. The fork slots into a protected sheath too.

At a shade under 9kg it’s a decent weight for a pretty solid bike bag, and one which with smart packing shouldn’t trouble baggage weight restrictions.

With pull handles located high and low there are plenty of pull-along options, and only the longest tows will leave you wishing for four wheels, rather than two.

If I was being pernickety, I do find the corduroy-like material used in the handles a little rough on those longer car park to check-in desk pulls. I also find that the lack of supports along the top of the bag can leave it sagging a little, although this doesn’t matter hugely in my eyes.

While it’s not got hard case security, I’ve used a number of these bags to fly all over the world and have never had any issues with bike damage, and that has to be a killer recommendation.

Yes, a simple box from a bike shop is cheaper and lighter, but if you fly regularly, then the security and portability of a bag like this is worth the expense.