Dakine Bike Box

Time and time again I have spent the last day or two scrambling around, calling bike shop after bike shop in search of a DH sized cardboard bike box. Once one has been located it becomes an even bigger hassle getting your bike and all your gear in the box, never mind the stress that goes along with having your little baby in nothing more then some corrugated boards glued together. So then you get to where you are going, and you see your jury-rigged bike box with tape missing, holes right through, and parts of your bike sticking out! Not a pretty site.

Putting my ease to rest I was introduced to the Dakine Bike Bag. This made traveling with my bike around the world a much hassle and stress free experience. I got this bike box about a week before beading to the world cup in Mt. St. Anne and got familiar with all its cool features right away. Going to a World Cup merits the athletes to be as prepared as possible, which means, having a variety of tires(6), a fully built set of wheels, spare drive train, and some flat shoes, all which fit inside the bike bag. The one thing (one of the many) that really pleased me was the retractable handle at the top, and the heavy duty off road wheelies at the bottom, which made transporting the bike around much easier. The good folks at Dakine really had their thinking caps on when they designed this one of a kind bike bag. It has huge zipper teeth so you can really pack the thing with lots of junk and not worry about the zipper blowing out on you. The handles on this bag are simply the best, with reinforced stitching and rivets on all handles and grippy rubber on all the handles, your sure you never loose grip or a handle in your travels. Along with the great material they used for the grips, they used another amazing material for the hard hit areas, which is a synthetic rubber made from chlorinated and sulfonated polyethylene called Hypalon.

On the inside the Dakine people didn’t miss a beat. It comes equipped with EPE foam polyethelene padding, accessory pockets to fit misc. things, and a foam divider to set wheels apart from the frame and reduce the chances of getting scratches. All these features come standard on the Dakine Bike Bag which measures in at 117x26x76cm (46x10x30”) and weighs 8 kg(16 lbs) with nothing in it. I was able to fit two wheel sets, 6 tires, and a full dh bike in the bag with relative ease, and the great thing is depending on who you fly with they don’t charge oversize and it is now becoming recognized as a bike specific box among airport officials.

The price for the bike box $400 retail and for the stress free experience of traveling with a high performance downhill bike I would say it’s worth it. As well this bike bag is designed to with stand the abuse luggage sees on airplanes, so your sure to have it last for many years.

Fits: Most 26" bikes, single or double crown forks.

Colours: Black with black.

Plus: Lighter than stock, lower than stock, trick looking, integrated stem.

Minus: Side panel got nicked and has a small (1") cut in it. Perhaps a higher thread count fabric would help.

MSRP: $400 cdn

Website: http://www.dakine.com

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