I expect it will be a good deal more straightforward on the train.
The mock-box winds up being 75cm x 75cm by 35cm; probably not any harder to buy than the 71x71x28-ish I was hoping for, but rather bigger. Getting both racks—the rear rack, really, the front rack is pretty easy—and the fenders in there complicates the problem quite a bit. So do, apparently, do disk brakes and dynamo hubs.
S&S Machine "Bicycle Torque Coupler" open; not a view one usually gets.
Context, please?
ReplyDeleteNot that everyone doesn't respond to increasingly spring-ish weather by trying to crate up their bicycles but...
Ah, sorry -- context.
ReplyDeleteThe bike has couplers (the shiny silver things on top and down tubes) so I can take the frame apart to pack it.
The usual use case for this is to get your bike into a 26x26x10" outside dimension case, which is the current maximum permissible luggage size on a bunch of US airlines, so it's straightforward(ish) to fly with; an enablement of bicycle tourism.
I'd have had to accept worse fit as a bike to get something that might, with much effort and swearing, almost be caused to fit in a standard case; I didn't want to accept worse fit as a bike. So my bike fits me, not the standard case. (fork + steerer is about 75 cm long, for example.)
Even without planning to fly with it, having a case makes it easier to get the bike into a train or a car, and is thus deemed useful, so I want to order a case. (There are a number of custom case makers out there, the sort of people you call if you need to ship your prototype to Taiwan, and so forth. So that's actually pretty easy.)
The question was then "just how big a case do I need?" which meant packing the thing in the mock-box and getting actual numbers, since ordering a case in the wrong size would be an expensive mistake. My first guess was that 70x70cm -- big enough to take the wheels without taking the tyres off -- would be enough, and I'm glad I checked, because it turned out to be 75x75. (See above re fork+steerer, and my reluctance to pull same from the headset for packing purposes, lest I find myself needing to repack the headset bearings on arrival.)
So now I know that I need a case with inside dimensions of 75x75x35cm, and I'm talking to some nice folks in Saskatoon about obtaining same.
I even have the bike out of the box, back together, and looking quite functional. Got to use torque wrenches and everything. Now all I need is some better weather and for the sprained right ankle/torn right calf muscle to be complaining less and I can actually ride the thing.