220Triathlon Edição 334

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TEST
CENTRE
80 I I FEBRUARY 2017
MINI GROUPTEST
BIKE BOXES
If you’re taking your pride and joy abroad, it’s essential to make sure it arrives
safe and sound. Jack Sexty h of these cases tick all the boxes…. finds out whic
BEST
ONTEST
THULE ROUNDTRIP
499.99 £
n first impressions we weren’t sure about this beast from storage specialists O
k and easy it is to use. Thule hule, but we were pleasantly surprised at how quic T
ferred their roof rack expertise into this design, with an internal rack that ave trans h
ots into the box and which handily doubles as a workstand. There are also sl
wheelbags to prevent themmaking contact with your frame. During some quite
ough testing the rack held our bike in place superbly, and it fits anything froma TT r
o amountain bike. (If you’re looking to pack anMTB and accessories, be careful on t
ome budget airlines where there’s a 32kg weight limit for sports luggage as the s
oundtrip weighs 17.6kg on its own.) A R
mall gripe is that one of the handles s
aught our hand and was uncomfortable, c
omake sure to cart it using the large s
andle underneath the locks. h
89%
Doddle to use and a genius design for
your £500, just a little large and heavy
››VERDICT
ELITE VAISON
£374.99
The Elite Vaison is the least expensive box on test but still not cheap by anymeans,
which is why we were a bit disappointed with the lack of innovative features for the
£375 price tag. At 17kg it’s not light, and has five locking catches to secure it plus a
supplied padlock for security. To hold your bike in place there are a number of straps
that can get confusinglymangled, and although it looks themost simple this actually
took us longer to secure the bike than Thule’s internal holder system. After removing
our headset we didn’t quite knowwhere to place the handlebars to stop them
making contact with the frame, and you’d need to wrap them really well to ensure
this didn’t happen. There’s a useful roof
rack fitting kit supplied, but as for the
protection the box gives the bike itself
we’d want to go heavy on the bubble
wrap before putting it on a plane.
68%
Quite basic, and not enough protection
to fully secure your steed
››VERDICT
BIKEBOXALAN GPRS RACE
0 £549.
xAlan is the bike travel companion of choice for the Brownlee Brothers and BikeBo
roome, and the GPRS is their hard case Premiumbox with the addition of a Chris F
g system. It’s easily the lightest on test here at 11.2kg and an absolute breeze trackin
around, with strong Velcro straps inside to secure the bike in various places. to cart
es to secure your wheel spindles are a genius touch, and foam is provided to The hol
te them from the bike frame. While the box itself is fantastic, we weren’t so separa
the tracker. It’s time consuming to set up and accuracy was a little off, telling sure on
box was half amile away from its actual location. While it’ll give you peace of us our
hat your bike has arrived at the mind t
rport, similar trackers are right ai
le for around £50 – the GPRS box availab
t more han the Premiumversion, is £120
e not convinced of its value. so we’r
85%
Tracker doesn’t merit the extra spend,
but the box is as good as ever
››VERDICT