Travel Bike Wishlist
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@mstone 149762 wrote:
FWIW, I’ve heard from a few people that the S&S couplers are a PITA, and not worth doing unless you fly a lot and also can’t live without a perfectly fitted full size bike.
I would disagree. The couplers themselves are a marvel of engineering, solid and easy to use. Travel bikes can also be taken on trains as carry-on luggage (Amtrak roll-on service is still quite fickle), which opens up a lot of territory. Flying adds a certain PITA factor, but may be worth it in some scenarios.
Perhaps the best info on travel bikes is from S&S themselves. They list a bunch of manufacturers who make travel bikes, and offer lots of info on packing and maintenance.
As you’ve discovered, Bilenky is the only framebuilder who will retrofit a steel or titanium frame with S&S couplers, and they’re somewhat local (PA). They claim to have done tens of thousands; I’ve talked to other builders who were afraid to try it, so their vast experience is a good thing. Bilenky’s basic package price for a retrofit includes a coupler wrench (also called spanner wrench), and you can add a paint job for additional cost and/or a 26x26x10 case. Only caution is to have patience, they’re often backed up and rumor is Stephen Bilenky would sometimes rather go ride his bike than be at work (wouldn’t we all!).
Co-Motion (in Oregon) is the other company I’m familiar with that makes both stock and custom travel bikes. They are high quality and not cheap. My friend Peter now has two of them, a single and tandem, both acquired used on eBay. We refer to Co-Motion’s videos on how to pack when we need a reminder.
My bike is an out-of-the-box Salsa Vaya Travel. The frame is bare stainless steel, so I don’t have to worry about rust or paint scratches. I find it easy to break down, the process takes about an hour. As dkel pointed out, Salsa discontinued making the Travel version of this bike, but they may be a few floating around in the marketplace. It’s essentially a gravel bike with all the attachment points for touring, capacity for fat tires, and mechanical (Avid BB7) disk brakes. I bought it because it’s exactly the bike I wanted, and it happened to have couplers; the geometry works out perfectly for me (YMMV).
Cable couplers aren’t going to be compatible with hydraulic lines, but mechanical disk brakes are totally manageable. Peter’s bikes both have caliper brakes. Simple, field-repairable systems work best for obvious reasons.
@mstone 149776 wrote:
You’ll be putting a bike together in the hotel room, it’s gonna be a focus.
Yes, indeed. I’d be happy to host a show-n-tell of my Vaya, even (depending on how much time you want to spend) demonstrate the packing process and tricks I’ve learned to hozn or anyone else who’s interested.
If solving the equation proved that a travel bike wasn’t worth the effort, I’d probably consider a folding bike of some flavor.
@hozn 149795 wrote:
It Is titanium, but unfortunately my commuter has an ovalized top tube, so I suspect it wouldn’t work. Also, I have drilled-out cable stops which would need to be changed to zip-tie stops.
It still might be an option. “We can install couplers in almost any bike, even if the tubes are non-round or tapered. However, there is an upcharge for oversized as well as irregular tubes.” Brazing on a few cable guides shouldn’t be a big deal, and if it doesn’t need a paint job you’d save that cost.
Working up the nerve to have someone chop your bike in half is another matter entirely
Beyond that, keeping a close eye on eBay and bike forums for a travel frame is probably the best bet.@ginacico 149870 wrote:
It still might be an option. “We can install couplers in almost any bike, even if the tubes are non-round or tapered. However, there is an upcharge for oversized as well as irregular tubes.” Brazing on a few cable guides shouldn’t be a big deal, and if it doesn’t need a paint job you’d save that cost.
Working up the nerve to have someone chop your bike in half is another matter entirely
Beyond that, keeping a close eye on eBay and bike forums for a travel frame is probably the best bet.Ha, I guess I should have investigated before just assuming it wouldn’t work
— But really, I think the cheaper option would still be getting a second ti frame. And I would pay some number of hundreds of dollars not to be without my bike for the time it would take to get that turned around. (For commuting I don’t have a good backup, since the trailer hitch doesn’t work on my road bike’s breezer-style dropouts).I’ve setup some ebay watches, so we’ll see what turns up.
I think I have resolved, though, that the right solution here is to replace my commuter frame rather than try to N+1. I have no room for an assembled N+1, which means it’d stay in the case until I needed it, which sounds like a waste. My commuter is versatile enough for road or gravel or singletrack, so that seems like the perfect choice to be also collapsible. If the net cost of upgrading to collapsible is somewhere south of $800, it sounds like it’s worth considering. I’ve been delaying rebuilding my rear wheels for 11sp, but I will choose centerlock hubs when I do; my front hubs are already centerlock on that bike.
Thanks again to everyone for the input. I’ll update with what I end up doing. Probably nothing until next year unless a too-good deal comes up on ebay.
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