Are you covered? Bike covers, bags, and boxes.

Twice last week, I got the same question independently from two different prospective customers: “Do your bikes have a hard case?” It’s a natural question. After all, if your bike gets small for convenience, suddenly you want to take it everywhere.

I would say we’re halfway between the typical bike experience and shipping with wild abandon.

With typical bikes, if you don’t have space in a garage, your investment goes out in the elements. If it’s a big investment, you’ll cover it with some kind of a cover like this:

A standard bike cover, from Rust-Oleum, to keep your bike from rusting. You know what else keeps your bike from rusting? Keeping it inside!

This keeps the direct rain and snow off your bike, protecting it from everything except wind-whipped rain, sidewalk spatter, condensation, and anything at lower-wheel level. That’s a lot of exceptions.

It’s tempting to go the next level, fully enclosing the bike…

For bikes that really enjoy that outdoor camping experience?

…but even this leaves your bike open to condensation. Notice how even the best-covered outdoor grills eventually rust?

CHANGE Bikes come standard with a bike cover that fits the folded bike in a format good for convenient carrying or rolling. Interestingly, the mountain and hybrid bags are used in different ways.

Using the CHANGE mountain bike cover (carrying bag)

Using the CHANGE hybrid bike cover (carrying bag)

Personally, I use a different method entirely, it’s consistent across both types of bikes, and has little to do with rolling or carrying. I lift the bike up, slip the case over the wheels and derailleurs, and put the bike on the car back seat for taking places, without worrying that the light tan seat will get marked up. Two bikes fit inside a Nissan Leaf with room to spare.

But traveling by car isn’t the same as traveling by plane. What hard cases are available? For now, none. But custom cases for air travel are definitely a possibility, if the interest is there.

What’s your need?

Bob Forgrave is president of Flatbike, an
ecommerce company offering full-size folding bikes
and kits to make any bike take up half the space.

425-985-6219