How to pack your bike in the Thule RoundTrip MTB bike bag

Having the right bike bag can make travelling with your bike a breeze. While the humble cardboard box serves a purpose, it's not too great in the wet, and often they're a bit long for a lot of vehicles for getting to an airport.

Looking for our review of the Thule RoundTrip MTB? 

I have used a lot of different bike bags, and two of my all-time favourites are the Thule RoundTrip Traveler, and the Thule RoundTrip Pro. The former is a typical soft bike bag with wheels, while the latter added a hard base, compact size and a bike stand that acted to support the bike in the case – and aid packing and building at each end.

Alas, the RoundTrip Pro wasn't the most roomy bag for trail and enduro bikes. Which is to say – they didn't really fit. Even an XL modern XC bike really pushed the limits. 

Old in front, new behind.

And so, Thule have released the RoundTrip MTB bag, with more room, more features and more protection. It costs $1499 and hit my scales at 13.8kg.

You can see the steps to pack the bike in the gallery above. It is a really secure fit with this large Trek Fuel EX. The only downside is weight. Put a 14.5kg bike in a 13.8kg bag and you push beyond a 23kg single item limit. If you have Silver frequent flyer status on Qantas, you can have a 32kg single item, and can pay for an additional 32kg item. So that's all good. And with Jetstar you pay by weight and for sporting goods. But it will make some carrier decisions for you.

The included bike stand is not just integral to the bike bag and how it keeps your bike steady, but it makes packing the bike, and building it, much easier. It's a very neat system.

Catch my full review in a coming issue.