I’ve never used a torque wrench for my CL lockrings…and never had an issue, despite numerous trips, both domestically and international. I snug it up as tight as possible and call it good.
Which reminds me, I need to order two of the lockrings above so I can swap out the lockrings on my spare wheels .
Hard shell vs soft luggage is an eternal debate for frequent travelers. I’ve yet to see anything beyond anecdotal evidence presented for which protects contents better. Seems the airlines or insurance industry might have data to answer it. I imagine the same debate for bike cases will continue unresolved for years.
My anecdote is that I’ve travelled with an orucase more recently, and an s&s couplings hard shell case before that for a decade plus. No damages with either, yet. The S&S hard sure seems it would protect better, especially with the internal braces in place. But so far, so good with Orucase. But sometimes what you think would be better doesn’t turn out to be at scale.
If you read for long enough you will find stories of X person having their bike destroyed even in a hard case, etc, etc. Any level of travel taking your own bike has that risk vs reward element.
That having been got out the way, I (and a number of my riding group) have used the Evoc bags (both original and Pro ones) for a large number of flights over several years, in Europe and transatlantic (multiple airlines), and not had issues. Includes carrying MTB hardtails, road bikes, gravel bikes and MTB FS bikes. Depending on your bike size, the bags can be a tight fit (for example, my XL Trek FS is super tight in the Pro bag, esp with the dropper post still in place - but it fits).
The carbon protection posts in the latest models including the wheel protectors make the bags pretty bash proof unless the baggage handlers really try to go to town. In combination with some appropriate fork and rear dropout spacers and generally padding, your bike is about as safe as it’s going to be sending it on a plane.
I’ve not checked the bike is straight but another Evoc Pro benefit, when you book a random ‘minivan’ in a far away country and it’s not as big as expected… a little flex helps, not a chance 2x hard cases were getting in here.
Excellent point. I’ve travelled with both Bike Box Alan hard case and Scicon soft case, the Scicon is much easier to get in a car. I did manage to get the Bike Box Alan in the back of an Uber Prius in San Francisco once, but it took me, the driver, and the doorman at the hotel nearly an hour to get it out again