Photos by Kevin Mackinnon

Last week we posted the first of our “travel to Western Australia” pieces, focussing on things to do around Perth, the state capital. Today we’ll focus on the Busselton/ Margaret River Region of the province. The IRONMAN event has been held in Busselton since 2004, but a bit further south of “Busso” is Margaret River, which is renowned for its wineries and is a “must-visit” area for anyone who has made the trip to the race.

After spending a couple of days checking out Perth and Rottnest Island, I drove down to an AirBnB I had booked in Prevelly, which is about 10 km from the town of Margaret River. I managed to find a great spot about 400 m from the beach and the Cape to Cape Track, which runs between Cape Naturaliste and Cape Leeuwin. On my first morning there I walked along the track up to Surfers Point, which is considered the best surfing spot in the area and is only one of two sites in Australia for a World Surf League World Championship Tour event. With the early sunrise the surfers were already out when I cruised by at 5 am to try and capture some sunrise shots.

As you walk past Surfers Point towards the mouth of the Margaret River, you’ll get more spectacular views …

… And you’ll also come across this unique sculpture by Russell Sheridan of “Layla, the great granddaughter of surf God Huey, who cares for all sea creatures and watches over all those who enter the water,” according to the Margaret River Art Trails website.

One of the beaches you’ll find close to Surfer’s Point is called Swimmer’s Beach, and every morning at about 6 am you’ll find lots of members of the Prevelly Penguins swim club out in the water. While a bit cool in early December, it was quite swimmable without a wetsuit. (None of the Penguins were using one, so I wasn’t going to let them make fun of a wimpy Canadian who couldn’t handle the 17-degree Celsius (62.6 Fahrenheit) water.

While I was in Prevelly the winds were fierce and the water was pretty choppy, so I didn’t end up getting down to Hamelin Bay to experience the stingrays, which reportedly will come right up over your feet as you stand in the water. Since I couldn’t hit the beach, I ended up at Lake Cave in Boranup.

About another 20 mins drive south from the cave gets you to the Boranup forest, where you can check out the karri trees that get to over 60 m in height. (Stop at one of the parking lots on the side of the road and take a hike into the forest to get up close to the magnificent trees.)

Heading north from Prevelley up towards Busselton, it’s well worth stopping at Canal Rocks, If you’re looking for a great walk, you can follow the trail from the rocks to Smith Beach.

There’s another cave close to Canal Rocks that’s worth checking out, too – Ngigli. If you can time things right, there’s the opportunity to pair a trip to the spectacular cave with an indigenous experience, but that didn’t quite pan out for my trip. There’s no lake in the Ngigli cave, but it’s considerably larger and is very easy to explore through a self-guided tour.

One more really cool spot to check out for a hike is the lighthouse at Naturaliste. You can follow the Cape to Cape Trail, or head towards the whale lookout spot (there’s not much whale activity in December, unfortunately) and work your way down to the water – there’s a small beach down there and some spectacular rock formations. The afternoon I did that hike down I saw a grand total of three other people.

What About the Wine?

I know, you’re all saying that Margaret River is famous for wine, and even though I am not a wine drinker, I did get to experience a couple of impressive wineries during the trip. The Tourism Australia folks took the visiting journalists out for a spectacular lunch at the Amelia Parks restaurant. It’s renowned for the lamb (and the wine, of course), but the steak was possibly even better, in my opinion.

Our afternoon tour also included one more stop at the Wills Domain winery, which, in addition to the excellent wine, offers a spectacular view of the rolling hills in the north part of the Margaret River region.

There are literally dozens of wineries in the area, and you can’t go wrong driving up or down Caves Road and stopping at one that catches your fancy for a spectacular lunch and wine-tasting experience.

Busselton

Busselton offers lots to do outside the competition, so you can rest assured that your non-racing family and friends can keep themselves busy while you’re training, and then you can join in for the Margaret River fun. (Ideally after the race.) Busselton is famous for the wooden jetty – all 1,841 m of it. (That’s 1.14 miles for those who think that way.) It is the “longest wood-piled jetty in the southern hemisphere,” and also “home of one of six underwater observatories in the world,” according to the official website.

There are, of course, lots of beaches nearby, too. It’s worth exploring a few different options – take a bit of a drive north of Busso and you can find some deserted stretches where you can go for miles without seeing anyone. (Although you might see some tracks from someone who beat you to the spot!)

Wildlife

Unfortunately, as mentioned earlier, the early December race date doesn’t work well for whale viewing as it’s past the migration season, but if you’re there from mid-August to November it would certainly be worth checking out the many tour options.

I am not an avid birder, but my mother is, so whenever I travel I try to find a spot to get some photos to send back to her. I did an early morning trip to the Malbup Bird Hide and got some great shots. The very pleasant surprise on the way into the hide, though, was seeing a couple of kangaroo families, including the pair of youngsters who were wrestling, and the very attentive adult that kept an eye on me.

The scary part of the trip was that even though I was in Australia for nine days and covered a lot of ground, there certainly was lots more that I wanted to check out. Suffice it to say, if Ironman Western Australia (or the 70.3) isn’t on your bucket list as a great race-cation, it should be.

The post Destination IRONMAN (and IRONMAN 70.3) Western Australia: Part 2 – Play Time Down Under first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

I’d been covering races for IRONMAN for about a decade when my family finally sat me down for “the intervention.” The gist of their message was simple: you travel to some of the world’s most amazing spots, and all you do is work.

“From now on, every place you go, you have to take in at least one sight,” my wife and three children dictated one night. (The ironic part of all this was I routinely rushed back after an event in order to spend less time away from them.) Since then I have done my best to appreciate some of the incredible destinations triathlon can lead us to.

Which is why, when IRONMAN and the folks from Tourism Western Australia invited me down under to cover this weekend’s IRONMAN Pro Series race in Busselton – IRONMAN 70.3 Busselton – I jumped at the chance to arrive a few days early and take in some of the sights from this side of Australia. This will be the first of three photo galleries from my adventures, covering my first few days after arriving in Perth.

Fremantle and Perth

There’s no quick way to fly to Western Australia from North America, and while there are flights into Busselton airport, your best bet is get yourself to Perth, the capital, and then drive down to the race site, which is about a two and a half hour drive. My flight from Toronto took me through Vancouver, then Sydney. I have known people to make the trip through Singapore, as well, but it seems like mine is the most common route. I won’t try to sugarcoat it – it’s a long flight. (Once you get here, though, it’s completely worth it.)

My main goal for the first few days was to get to Rottnest Island, so I purposely organized an AirBnB in Fremantle, which is Perth’s port city. I spent a morning cruising around Fremantle, riding past South Beach, which was hopping with families enjoying the last of the school holiday. The west end of Fremantle is worth checking out, too, with a number of bustling markets set in the historic buildings. Most of the buildings you’ll see in that end of Fremantle date back to the 1890s – according to the tourism folks, “it has the State’s highest density of heritage-listed buildings.’

While I was in Perth, Australia was playing India in a cricket test match, so I avoided heading downtown, and didn’t take in any of the suggested sights like Elizabeth Quay or the Perth Cultural Centre. There are lots of other beaches close by, too, but if you’re heading down to Busselton for the race (or to Rottnest Island – see below), you’ll have lots of spectacular beach opportunities, so taking in some of the other Perth activities might be in order.

As a photographer, sunrise and sunset shots are always a goal, so I did make a trip up to King’s Park where I was able to take in the city skyline. The park has lots of cultural heritage on display and is also the home of the Western Australian Botanic Garden.

Time your trip so you can take in the sunset.

Rottnest Island

Rottnest Island is famous for quokkas. The island got its name from Dutch explorers, who mistook the small marsupials for rats. (“Rottnest” means “rat’s nest” in Dutch.) There are a reported 10,000 quokka’s on the island. It’ll be pretty much impossible for you to make the trip to Rottnest without actually seeing a bunch of them.

There are a few different ferry options out to Rottnest Island. I ended up booking on the Rottnest Express and included a rental bike in the package. There are two other ferry services and, if they don’t offer a bike rental, once you get off the boat in Thomson Bay, you can head to Pedal & Flipper and organize one. There’s also bus service throughout the island, but riding a bike would definitely be my suggestion.

I only had about five hours (I would suggest booking the ferry and getting on the earliest option and heading back as late in the day as you can – I didn’t have that luxury), so I jumped on the bike and headed towards the most western point of the island. Along the way I checked out the Wadjemup Lighthouse (which is where I got the shot of the Quokka checking out my camera) and found myself stopping more than often to get shots of the incredible scenery along the south shore.

I took a few detours along the way, so I had clocked about 16 km (10 miles) by the time I got to the end of the island. It was certainly worth the ride – while I didn’t have a long enough lens to do them justice, it was fun to get some shots of a pair of Ospreys in their nest. The winds can gust up to 118 km/h (almost 70 mph) at that spot, and it sure felt like it was blowing that hard when I was there, but it didn’t seem to phase the pair at all. At that end of the island you can also do a bit of a walk to a lookout where you can see a colony of long-nosed fur seals. Unfortunately, I really needed that longer lens to get any shots of the seals – they had just finished feeding and were floating on their backs in the water, so I mostly saw their fins flapping in the distance as they lay on their backs.

The ride back to Thomson Bay along the north shore ended up being a bit quicker (about 14 km or 8.7 miles), even though I found myself stopping again and again to take in the many secluded white-sand beaches along the way. You’ll want to give yourself time on the island to enjoy some of those beaches.

I made it back to Thomson Bay with lots of time to grab some lunch and check out a few more Quokkas as they roamed around, then got the ferry back to Fremantle. From there I drove straight down to my next AirBnB spot near Margaret River. My two days there will make up the next part of this series. Stay tuned for lots more coverage from Western Australia.

The post Destination IRONMAN (and IRONMAN 70.3) Western Australia: Part 1 first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

It’s tough out there for race directors these days. Expenses are up; competition is fierce; finding volunteers can be a full-time job (as evidenced by the still massive need for volunteers at even long-standing IM branded events).

And then there’s people like Jim Rainey and Robbie Morgan. They’re in process of building out a unique triathlon in the middle of Kentucky, which they’re calling the Wildman Triathlon Experience. The first-year race, to be held this coming September, will feature an Olympic and Half distance race, with a course taking you past bourbon distilleries and more in the rolling bluegrass hills of central Kentucky.

We chatted with the duo over email to talk through the process of creating a new race in 2024, and why you might consider taking a walk on the wild side this fall.

ST:Can you introduce yourselves? And what’s your experience in race production?

Jim: Jim Rainey with more than 25 years of triathlon participation, triathlon race directing and staging. Georgia Multisports Productions is an event management company specializing in triathlons. Founded this company in 2003 to produce top quality multisport events in the southeast. Georgia Multisports has produced and more than 200 triathlons in the past 20 years. Events include: Iron Girl Triathlon, USAT’s Collegiate National Championship for 2022 and 2023, West Point Lake Triathlon, Rock n’ Roll Man Half Ironman, Georgia Peach Women’s Only Triathlon, Lake Lanier Island Triathlon and Iron Kids Tris.

Robbie: I’m Robbie Morgan, the Director for Lawrenceburg, KY and a former duathlete and now sideline cheerleader for multisport racing. I also was responsible for bringing in the grant money to bring a new, high-level triathlon to Kentucky through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), hence the Wildman Triathlon.

ST: Alright, so Wildman — let’s tackle the name. Why Wildman?

Jim: That’s a great Robbie question.

Robbie: Lawrenceburg/Anderson County has the bragging rights of having the most Bigfoot sightings in the Commonwealth of Kentucky! Some of the sightings have been in the area of the race route, so it’s very possible our racers will spot the Wildman itself!

ST:Talk to us a little bit about the process of putting together a course. We see it on social, on forums — “why are courses XXX way?”:

Jim: A race like this has a number of challenges. The number one challenge is to get both bike and run course to mesh together for the half Iron and Olympic and finish at the same location.

Robbie: The unique features of the Bluegrass are world-renowned from the rolling hills, to the horses and the waterways–which of course, have the limestone that makes both our strong-boned thoroughbreds to our bourbon, and now, top triathletes.

ST: So what did it take to get this course pulled together?

Jim: A lot of time studying maps and just plain old road work. And as always working with the local permitting agency to make sure the course complies with their local requirements.

Robbie: To a similar point, it’s getting out and making sure the roads are safe, clean, secure but also we have the opportunity to make the course stunningly beautiful, challenging and fun!

ST: Launching a new race in 2024 is a sizable undertaking. What’s been your biggest challenge so far?

Jim: Launching a race is always a challenge, but in the long course arena, it’s overcoming the idea that only IM is the only group that can produce a quality long course race. Second is pulling all the elements together: volunteers, courses, permitting, and working out logistics set-up for race week. But I have a great crew that has been with me for years and know how to hit the ground running.

Robbie: One of our goals in hosting this kind of event is also educating locals about creating safer roadways for cyclists and runners overall (dogs, cars, etc.). One of our core mission points is to also expose young people and community members to the possibility that multisport offers as far as health, community and well-being. We want to start to build a culture of more cyclists and runners and be a welcoming place for cyclists, swimmers and runners even if they never race in the Wildman. So it is part of our challenge, and presents great opportunity.

ST: What makes this race something Slowtwitchers should consider adding to their race calendar this year?

Jim: Slowtwitch readers are dedicated triathletes, not your bucket list athlete or one and done triathletes and the Wildman Tri wants to be known as a first-class quality event that will be around for years.

Robbie: In addition, the area offers families and friends SO much to do. There are so few races that focus on the support teams of the athletes and make sure they enjoy the race as much as the racer does. Lawrenceburg and central Kentucky have activities and attractions, folk lore and cultural amenities of all kinds. Bourbon, horses, dirt track racing, mountain biking, the largest cave system in the world, Red River Gorge, the list goes on and on for what’s to do in the region.

ST: For those who are interested, how do you get to Lawrenceburg?

Robbie: There are three airports located right nearby. We are centrally located between Louisville (45 minute from airport), Lexington (20 min from the airport) and Cincinnati (1 hour). Plus we are right on the I-64, I-75, or Bluegrass Parkway. You can drive here in 6 hours from Chicago, 3 from Nashville, 6 from Atlanta).

ST: Anything else Slowtwitchers should know?

Jim: Wildman is a race by triathletes, for triathletes. And the courses are some of the most scenic I have been involved with in the years I have been in this business.

Robbie: A race by triathletes for triathletes and for people who want great travel experiences racing or not.

The Wildman Triathlon Experience takes place on September 21st, 2024 in Lawrenceburg, KY. Find out more information or register for the race here.

The post Indie Race Spotlight: Take a Walk on the Wild Side first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Editor's Note: Inspired by our annual Kona Guide forum thread, we've decided to give key race destinations a deeper dive. We kick off with Lake Placid, NY. Have a suggestion for us to cover? Comment below.

IRONMAN Lake Placid is one of the remaining classic courses on the IRONMAN circuit, and for good reason — the Adirondack Mountains provide an outstanding backdrop for the event, and the finish line located on the oval off of Main Street is arguably IRONMAN’s best atmosphere not named Kona. No wonder, then, that this race has once again sold out.

With it being sold out, though, that means that there will be nearly 3,000 of your closest friends also vying for accommodations, restaurants, and things to do with the family while in town. We’re here to help make things a little bit simpler for you (especially if you haven’t booked your travel yet) and help you navigate your way around.

Getting to Lake Placid

Lake Placid is a village nestled in the town of North Elba, New York. There are not many ways into Lake Placid, and traffic can be a difficult experience regardless of whether the circus known as IRONMAN is in town.

If you’re flying, and you have status with United, rejoice — there’s direct service into Plattsburgh International, which cuts your drive time down to an hour from the airport. The three closest large commercial airports are going to be Albany International Airport (ALB), Burlington International Airport (BVT), and Montreal-Trudeau International (YUL). With all three you’re still going to have anywhere from a 90 minute to three hour drive. If you are lucky enough to have a private jet or subscription service, they can fly directly into Lake Placid’s airport, which is located just off the bike and run courses before the ski jumps in town.

Once you’re driving (and yes, you will be driving), the main routes into town from the south and east are NY-73 through Keene Valley or NY-86 from Wilmington. If you’re arriving from the west, that’s NY-86 which brings you to the town of Saranac Lake.

Where to Stay

The great debate rages every year: should you stay in town, or should you stay outside of it in Keene, Wilmington, or Saranac Lake? There’s naturally trade-offs with each approach. Rooms in downtown LP tend to sell out the fastest and at greater prices and with longer minimum stays, but offer the flexibility of being able to walk to Main Street, transition, and the swim venue. Rooms outside of town are easier to come by and less expensive, but require you to drive and a particularly early morning on race day in order to procure parking.

If you decide to stay in Lake Placid proper, the closest hotels to the race are the Hampton Inn & Suites Lake Placid, Best Western Adirondack Inn, Art Devlin’s Olympic Inn, or the Golden Arrow. These hotels frequently sell out quickly, and with four or five night minimum stays during race weekend. The other thing to keep in mind is that, due to their proximity to the race venue, you’ll also be able to hear everything on race day. (This is also true if you manage to snag one of the AirBnB / VRBO’s at the Lake Placid Club Lodges.)

Some other hotels you might consider if you’re going to stay in Lake Placid are the new Grand Adirondack Hotel (formerly the Northwoods Hotel), the Crowne Plaza, or the Mirror Lake Inn. Note that if you choose to stay at the Crowne Plaza, it is one brutal walk back uphill to get back to your room post race.

I, personally, prefer to stay outside of town. I like to get away from the nervous energy of everybody in town and have more space and more quiet. It also tends to save a fair bit of money over staying in town — almost $1,000 less expensive the last time I booked a hotel. I also find it easier to get into town on 86 from the east — meaning I stay in Wilmington when I choose an option out of town. My pick of choice down there is the Mountain Brook Lodge, but there’s also a range of options including the Adirondack Spruce Lodge, the Hungry Trout Resort, and Rudy’s Chalet Whiteface.

There are a fair number of private rental options as well, offered through a mix of online resources as well as local renting agencies. One thing to keep in mind is that the town of North Elba does have a limitation on the number of vehicles / people that can stay in a single unit, so if you’re splitting with someone, make sure you don’t exceed the vehicle limit.

Where to Eat

Let’s start with the grocery stores. Between house rentals and everyone’s need to ensure that they have their proper pre-race breakfast, the grocery stores can get quite popular. Both major grocery stores are located on the stretch of 86 heading towards Saranac Lake — first a Hannaford, and then a Price Chopper. If it’s a determining factor of your shopping experience, the Hannaford is also located near a wine and liquor outlet, whereas the Price Chopper is more limited in its alcohol selection. (Note that in New York, beer and wine are both available at gas stations, specialty stores, and more). Both offer delivery via Instacart, if that’s your thing.

Being honest, though, many people are going to eat out during the week in town. There is a Starbucks in town if you require corporate, consistent coffee, although waits can stretch upwards of 30 minutes for your morning cup of caffeine. Other good hot spots for coffee or a quick breakfast on the go include The Coffee Bar and Soulshine Bagel. If you’re more inclined to take a leisurely breakfast, though — it is well worth drive down to Jay to visit Adirondack Mountain Coffee Cafe. It’s located along the bike course (if you’re the kind of person who wants to do a full preview of the bike ride), and the Fisherman’s Platter is tremendously good. Full trout, eggs, home fries and toast. They also have a variety of pancake options, pastries, and more. It can get busy as the morning winds on but, for early risers or for those looking for a break from the bustle of downtown LP, it’s a fantastic option.

Lunch and dinner give you a huge number of options. Lisa G’s is a staple for many in Lake Placid as a landmark along the run course. However, they are still undergoing repairs from a burst pipe during an arctic blast in February. Assuming they re-open in time for the race this year, though, it’s a near guaranteed hot spot. Jimmy’s 21 is your best bet for Italian – and will be guaranteed busy on Saturday before the race. Lake Placid Pub is another along-the-course landmark, as is its little sister location down at Big Slide Public House. Pro tip on race day: walk down the bike/run course to Big Slide. Great outdoor patio with shaded tables, a place for kids to hang out, and good beer. Yes, it’s a little bit of a hike from downtown, but you are well rewarded for the experience.

If you’re looking to get outside of downtown — heading towards Saranac Lake sits Tail o’ the Pup — offering both barbecue and seafood. Both are quite good. Out the other way, there’sForty Six in Keene Valley, which is almost never as busy as it should be given the quality of the food there. In Wilmington, there’s Rudy’s Chalet Whiteface (yes, they have a restaurant there, and it’s pretty darn good), as well as the Pourman’s House which is right at the mouth of climbing Whiteface Mountain proper.

Stuff to Do While in Lake Placid

Let’s face an undeniable truth together — you need to keep your family entertained when you come to an IM event, because otherwise, it is an incredibly boring experience. Thankfully, that’s easier to accomplish in LP than with most other races. First and foremost, there’s the beach at Mirror Lake. There’s a protected swim area and a great playground, too. Parking can be a bit challenging right near the beach if you’re driving in from outside of town — best to use one of the centralized parking lots and walk a little — but it’s a great spot to be. There are also numerous shops along Main Street that will rent you a kayak or stand-up paddleboard if you’d like to adventure a bit more on Mirror Lake.

If you’re looking for a slightly more remote experience, there are dozens of short, family-friendly hikes in the area that you can either do pre-race or post-race — yes, they are gentle enough that after the event you should be able to handle them. High Falls Gorge down in Wilmington is also a great place to see the power of the West Branch of the Ausable River, with a gentle walking path and plenty of opportunity for pictures. You can also take the auto road to the top of Whiteface Mountain, where you’ll find a castle, a restaurant, and an elevator carved into the mountain.

If your kids are older, the ultimate to-do in Lake Placid might be the bobsled experience at Mt. Van Hoevenberg. The roughly 90 second ride puts you on the 1980 Winter Olympics bobsled run. Riders must be at least 9 years old, with a maximum of three riders per bobsled. Tickets are $125 per rider and require advance reservations.

Pre-Race Training in Lake Placid Tips

Pre-race workouts are pretty easy to come by in Lake Placid. In terms of swimming — it’s right there in Mirror Lake. Do not leave from the protected swim area. Either leave near the IRONMAN Lake Placid Boulder, or leave from the former swim start area closer to Mirror Lake Drive. Be aware that swimmers may come in multiple directions — although the swim is now a two-loop clockwise route, the historic course swam in the opposite direction and some athletes still will use this swim direction. Just be sure to practice sighting.

If you’re going to get some riding in, first be aware of New York cycling law. New York requires you to utilize a cycling lane, or if one has not been provided (read: most roads), you are to ride as far to the right of the shoulder / lane so as to “prevent undue interference with the flow of traffic” unless you are making movements that are “reasonably necessary to avoid conditions that would make it unsafe to continue along near the right-hand curb or edge.” For most of the full bike course, there is plenty of high quality shoulder to the right of the traffic lane that this shouldn’t be a necessary problem. However, in town, it can get hairier. I recommend avoiding Main Street altogether when riding.

My personal favorite if I’m in Lake Placid itself is to simply ride out route 86 down the course backwards to River Road, do a quick loop on River Road, and come back up on 86. The road quality is better, and the shoulders are wider. If you’re staying in Wilmington or Keene, riding on course is easy: hop on either 86 or 9N and do an out-and-back. 9N was recently repaved and should be in good shape, assuming that there were not significant frost heaves.

Other notes on traffic laws: New York allows double file riding, except when being passed by a vehicle — you then are required to ride single file. Given the amount of traffic during race week, it is probably safest to ride single file. Idaho stops are illegal — you must come to a complete stop, and red lights may not be treated as stop signs. You may only ride with a single earbud. You are required to always have at least one hand on the handlebars.

Running — again, I like avoiding Main Street. It’s so busy with pedestrians, cars, construction, and other people training that it’s a very bad game of Frogger. Mirror Lake Drive becomes very popular as well. If you can hop in a car, drive out to the intersection of River Road and 86, where there’s a fishing spot. Park there and either run on 86 or River Road. Alternatively — try to run on Mirror Lake Drive beyond Northwood School, as it gets much, much less crowded and not nearly as busy with vehicle traffic.

Last Tips

It should go without saying that when we visit our local race communities that we should be good visitors, treating the area and locals with respect. Unfortunately, that has not always been the case. When it comes to Lake Placid, the race came very close to not being renewed due to community feedback. If we want to keep having this classic race on our calendar, we need to be on our best behavior when coming to town.

The weather can also be changeable. It almost always will rain at some point during the day on the course in Lake Placid. The wind will manage to switch around; the wind tends to accelerate through the notches and will blast through Wilmington. Nights and mornings can get chilly; plan on packing more cooler weather gear than you originally thought unless the long range forecast is for 90 degrees all week. Regardless of temperature, sunscreen is your friend. You are at elevation, and it almost always feels warmer than it actually is.

And lastly, but most importantly, have fun.

The post Slowtwitch’s Ultimate Triathlete Travel Guide to Lake Placid first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

I sat on a plane at LAX getting ready to take off, destination Kona. This year was unprecedented with 4,500 bikes racing instead of 2,800. The plane was delayed and the pilot came on the intercom to explain why: the need to load a larger number of bikes into the cargo hold. As we finally prepared to take off the pilot gave us the bad news: The bikes belonging to two dozen passengers on the plane weren’t going to make it on this flight.

I had been chatting with the man sitting next to me, who was entered in the race. “I hope your bike made it onto the plane,” I said and he looked at me with a wry smile and replied, “I sent my bike ahead with TriBike Transport.”

We’re polling this question right now and it’s very early in the poll (the poll was just put up a few hours ago and has just under 200 responses). The question is how your bike will fly if you fly to an IRONMAN race. The ardency of our Slowtwitch population is evident when you consider that, “I will never fly to an IRONMAN,” is one option and only 19 percent of you selected that. But as of now, when you factor out that 19 percent, 62 percent of you report that you’ll take your bike with you on the plane; and 35 percent say you’ll use TriBike Transport. The remaining 3 percent will choose another solution.

As we’ve reported it’s easier to fly on the plane with your bike these days, because major airlines have inexplicably (but thankfully) removed the high charges for checked bikes. But the anecdote I relate above is not exceptional. A thread popped up on our Reader Forum a few months ago on the travel problems associated with IRONMAN Alaska. The CEO of Alaska Airlines, himself an IRONMAN athlete, went into overdrive to get athletes their bikes for that race.

But IRONMAN Alaska’s cargo bottleneck wasn’t unanticipated. The airline reportedly told IRONMAN months ago to warn its customers to find other ways to get their bikes to Juneau for the race. Sometimes those warnings aren’t adequately shared; sometimes athletes don’t weight those warnings as they should. A lot of athletes resorted to BikeFlights as a last minute option, but even then, “Some of us opted for Bike Flights and now our bikes are stuck in Anchorage via UPS,” lamented one competitor on that forum thread.

If you do travel to an IRONMAN via air, there are two things I would consider if I’m on the fence about taking the plane with me versus sending it ahead on TriBike Transport (or sending it using some other means). First, will this race result in an unanticipated flow of bikes? Any first-year IRONMAN race is a candidate for this. Any race that blows up big, year over year, in registration totals is a candidate for this.

Second, is this race contested in a rural area, served by a smaller airport? What equipment will the airlines use to get you to your final destination. Even a 737 us not a large plane. When we used to fly into Penticton for IRONMAN Canada the planes were positively tiny.

TriBike Transport has a stellar reputation among U.S.-based triathletes, but it does represent an additional race cost, for sure. Some folks deem this money well spent even if getting the bike to the race in time is not a consideration. There is no assembly or disassembly. I’ve got a bit of experience in what athletes do to their bikes – or what the airlines do to their bikes – from my Quintana Roo days. We used to perform no-charge neutral support at IRONMAN Hawaii, back in the 1990s, and at our peak we had 11 mechanics at 11 workstations under 6 pop up tents in a row on the front lawn of the King Kamehameha Hotel. There were only 1,400 racers back then and we worked on 600 bikes. We saved a lot of races that the airlines did their best to ruin, and that was before TSA looked inside every bike case. (I’ve written elsewhere about how to best inoculate yourself against TSA bike handling misadventures.

For all of that, I almost always take my bike with me on the plane when I fly to events. I have hard shell bike cases; I’ve got about 4 decades as an experienced, working bike mechanic; I’ve got the tools and I know how to pack a bike, including the best practices that attach to bikes with disc brakes. But here’s one case where I might just say fudge it, give it to TriBike Transport: If my tri bike had aerobars difficult to disassemble, specifically the inability to easily take the pursuit bar off the bike. I know one bike maker who displays at North American IRONMAN expos who told me he always takes a few extra bikes to those events because of what he says is the high incidence of bikes breaking when shipped on planes in soft shell cases that allow the pursuit bar to remain assembled. Make of that what you will.

In preparation for this article I wrangled a discount for Slowtwitchers using TriBike Transport services for races upcoming. The code is SLOWTWITCH40 and you would place it in the promo code box at checkout. This code gets you $40 off TriBike Transport bookings; would work for multiple events; and expires November 11th. If you need to cancel you retain full value to use in the future if it's at least 30 days from the race.

As you are considering how you’ll send your bike to races to which you’ll travel by air, consider some of our archived articles on this. Travelgate reminds us to know the airline’s bike case policies.

I have a folder on my iPhone that contains all the apps of the airlines I fly or might fly. A screenshot of those apps are on the left, above. If you click on the American Airlines app and you navigate to baggage policies you’ll find what’s om the image above right. We’ve written about the more liberal baggage policies but ticket agents have not gotten the memo (as in, they actually did get the memo, but that memo didn’t register). This is therefore a discipline in which I engage before every trip with a bike: go to the app, navigate to the policies for bikes, take a screenshot, have it ready. What they see on their screens is no different than what you have on your phone.

If you really want to be anal about this, take that screenshot when you book your travel, in case the policies change. That screenshot memorializes the policy in place when they sold you the ticket.

The post TriBike Transport or Take it With You? first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

As 2020 winds to a close, we have many reasons to be hopeful as we head into 2021. COVID-19 vaccines are rolling out globally. People got outdoors and explored in previously unheard of numbers. And we got to do some racing, and every IRONMAN full distance event in North America is sold out of general entry.

We have reason, then, to expect that we're going to do at least some full-distance races, which also means that you're likely going to need to do some long-distance traveling in order to get there. Here are some of the things that you can look forward to, based upon my recent travels to the western United States.

Flying

Our experience is limited to flying through Bradley, Midway, and Salt Lake City International Airports. We also flew Southwest, in part because we needed five checked bags to lug the majority of our ski equipment and other needed supplies for our eight day adventure.

First, airports are empty. According to the TSA, air travel is down 50 to 66% on any given day, year-over-year. Despite our original flights being cancelled (more on that in a minute), our re-booked flights and the airports themselves were still significantly empty. The largest crowd that we saw was at the check-in counter to get our bags screened and checked. This is where airline status can help you; because we are A-List passengers on Southwest, we were able to skip the line and get our bags checked in plenty of time. TSA screening took under 10 minutes, and we were off to our gate (and our fifth cup of coffee of the morning).

Now, about those flights. Be prepared for re-booking and build that lead time into your plans. Our original flights were supposed to leave on Wednesday, and flying home on Christmas Day. This would give us a night in Salt Lake City before doing our long drive up to Yellowstone on Thursday. However, Southwest cancelled our flights in advance of a large snowstorm. Despite snow not coming until Thursday. After a lot of wrangling with customer service, we re-booked for Friday — making it a very long day of flights and driving (not helped by a four year old that was "too excited" at the airport hotel on Thursday night and waking up at 1 AM Eastern).

This all being said, our flights were still well under capacity. Being a family of three, we easily were able to find a row up front on the plane and be distanced from other passengers. In flight service is limited, which also limits the amount of time that people won't wear masks. And kudos to Southwest — flight attendants were very attentive to passengers wearing masks incorrectly. If you weren't actively eating or drinking, your mask needed to be on and over your nose. And their attendants made sure you got it done; Ivy was having a little trouble with one of her masks and the flight crew gave her a Southwest-branded one that fit her well.

My recommendation, if you have a Sunday race, would be to plan on flying Wednesday, and a return trip on Monday or Tuesday. This avoids some of the peak travel days, and also puts you with travelers who more frequently deal with TSA, security, and airports generally. It helps. Seasoned travelers are safer travelers and less likely to devolve into chaos. Also plan on bringing snacks; most airports have limited food options open, and those that are open are extraordinarily busy.

Mask Fatigue is Real

Unless you are a frontline worker, you're going to need to get used to wearing a mask all day. For example, on our travel days, we were masked for up to 10 hours continuously. This is a big change from our work-from-home experience, where our limited masking time is when we are in retail shops or in downtown Brattleboro, Vt. It means you should probably practice wearing your masks before your trip, and to pick those that are going to be comfortable for full-day wearing.

Early on in the pandemic I picked up the De Soto masks. These are great for 95% of what I needed. The other 5% of the time I opted for masks with ear loops, which are easier to put on and take off as needed. Be forewarned, though, that those types of masks are significantly more taxing on your ears, especially if you're going to be wearing them for hours at a time.

You also need to plan on wearing your mask throughout your outdoor activities. For example, masks are required in all lift lines, at the village, riding the lifts, and whenever you can't maintain at least 6 feet of social distancing (regardless of location) at both Big Sky and Snowbird. The only time my mask came down while at either resort was when we were skiing, and we were careful to pick both trails and lines on those trails to keep distance from everyone.

In those instances, I opted for this balaclava/hood combination from Blackstrap. It was warm when I needed it to be, and breathable when it was warm. It fit very well under my Smith CODE MIPS helmet. (I always wear a helmet skiing, and I go for MIPS after my TBI and concussion history.)

Distancing from Others

Sadly, it appears that social distancing has become as politicized as the rest of the pandemic. On our trip, we went from Salt Lake City to Yellowstone's northern entrance through Gardiner, Montana, then came back down as we skied at Big Sky and Snowbird. We spent a significant amount of the trip in our hotel room, away from others, due to the fact that we didn't feel particularly safe in certain situations. (It was also because Ivy was exhausted, as evidenced by the picture above. Who knew she might get overtired from that travel day?)

Your destination will likely be the thing that dictates what you will be doing once on the ground. In Yellowstone, we wound up not eating at our hotel (Mammoth Hot Springs Lodge) due to discomfort around our fellow guests. Instead, we frequently drove back down to Gardiner, Montana and ate both our meals at The Wonderland. We did so because of the ease of distancing from others, the quality of the food, and the atmosphere for Ivy. I wound up buying a photo off the wall of wildlife from Yellowstone. Highly recommend this place if you're ever there.

It was pretty much the same case in both Bozeman and Big Sky. Montana had billboards throughout our drive about "mask up, adventure on." The local community really seemed to care for one another and making sure that we kept one another safe. The same held true for our hotel and its restaurant, allowing for to-go cocktails or having dinner sitting outside around a fireplace. Big Sky was probably the best mix of feeling safe in the community and having as close to "normal" operations as possible.

The same couldn't have been said when we traveled through Idaho to get back down to Utah. We stopped in Idaho Falls for coffee and gas. Masks were on fewer than half the people we saw. Those within the Starbucks, where masks were required, would pull them down in order to talk to others. We kept our distance and got the hell out of dodge as quickly as we could.

Utah was more of a mixed bag. The ski community seemed more fractured than it did in Big Sky. I think this is more due to the proximity to Salt Lake City. People within lodges were not nearly as well-masked as they were in Big Sky, nor did it have the same feel of "we all need to keep each other safe." Once on the mountain it was fine. But it was the same when we got back into town. It meant that we didn't eat out in Salt Lake City; we did take out and otherwise isolated back in our rooms.

In Conclusion

Traveling during the pandemic means you need to be prepared to be flexible and to otherwise isolate away in your hotel room. And you also need to take into account isolation on the way home. We are currently isolating at home, working, and otherwise attempting to keep a four-year-old entertained (with varying results). Another two days left on our isolation period, and then we'll look at how we can keep adventuring in early 2021.

The post What to Expect When Traveling During COVID-19 first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

When we ask you, 44 percent say you’ll bike will travel underneath you, in the plane’s belly, more often than before because of these new rules. More to the point, if you’re an airline, 1 in 3 of you say you’re likely to change carrier loyalties because of this new policy. And of those who do are loyal to a carrier who doesn’t have this new liberal bike policy (e.g., United as of this writing), 73 percent of you say you intend to change your loyalty. (Even if you clicked that radio button out of frustration and not stark reality, if I were a non-conforming airline I'd be concerned.) Many of the remaining 27 percent say you just can’t change your loyalty because of the airport you use.

On the Ministry of Travel thread the issue has come up, and unique bike cases like the B&W Bike Box II (below) I recently reviewed is a – pardon the pun – case in point: Is there a way to inoculate yourself against the TSA agent who doesn’t repack your bike correctly? I had a conversation with TSA’s media liaison, Lorie Dankers, and BrookHunter Whelchel, a transportation security manager at Sea-Tac Airport (Seattle).

My specific question for Mr. Whelchel was, “Is it appropriate – is there a convention known to TSA agents – that we as travelers ask TSA for an inspection of our bikes in our presence?” The answer is yes.

The protocol is, “Let the air carrier know when your bag is checked that you want the bag to be screened in the traveler’s presence,” according to Mr. Whelchel. “Let the air carrier know, they’ll direct you to the on-site [TSA] station; there may be someone from the airline present, assisting the TSA officer. If the passenger says ‘I’d like to be present,’ that’s perfectly fine.”

“For the actual screening process, the officer will open up the bag, do a sampling of the inside of the bag, move around items in the bag, sample the toiletry bag, the bike repair kit, if there are no alarms or security threats, the agent will repack the bag while the passenger is there.” Mr. Whelchel added that, “For security the passenger can’t repack the bike, however the passenger can guide the officer when repacking the bag, same as we do with passengers with firearms and pets.”

I asked if this was limited to certain airports or universally available and Ms. Dankers said, “Because every airport has a unique config, sometimes you’ll encounter something a little different, but what is across the board is the access to make that request. TSA will try to work with that traveler within the limits and the airport and its footprint.”

These TSA folks asked that I relay to you all a particular limitation to this. Every piece of baggage on a plane that originates outside the U.S. that connects to a flight inside the U.S. will be subject to search, and that won’t be done in the presence of the traveler. This includes flights from U.S. carriers. For example, last month I flew on an American Airlines flight from Madrid to Ontario, California, changing planes at Dallas DFW. My bike case was, presumably, inspected at DFW. I asked if TSA has pre-screening in any foreign airports, such as is the case with U.S. immigration, and the answer is no. I asked if there are any countries that have screening relationships with the U.S., where if a plane originates in Ireland or Israel that by virtue of their comprehensive, qualifying screening that baggage is not TSA screened at American hubs. Nope.

I asked about guidance on the lithium batteries that are used in bikes with electronic shifting – both the batteries installed on the bikes and spare batteries we might take in either checked or carry on baggage. And, while there is watt hours guidance already listed, I was surprised to find out that TSA has nothing to do with batteries. “It’s a safety issue, not a security issue,” said Mr. Whelchel, “so the FAA will need to provide that guidance.” Ms. Dankers kindly offered to help me find my correct liaison at the FAA for this, and when I know you’ll know. I'll ask about CO2 cartridges as well.

The post Straight from TSA: Best Practices on Bike Inspections first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Were we premature? A thread sprung up on the Slowtwitch Reader Forum asking about this and, indeed, the language was confusing to some. While most readers are now reporting bikes-same-as-checked-bags, a few were charged $150 per trip and had to appeal to Delta after their travel for relief.

Baggage must be less than 62” (length + width + height) to be considered not oversized. Are bikes an exception to this? “Bicycles… are allowed as checked baggage on most flights and fees … apply.” Seems straightforward. “Bicycles weighing over 50 lbs. will be charged the applicable excess weight fee,” which is in keeping with American’s new rules.

However, the policy goes on to say that when dimensions, “exceed 115 linear inches (292 cm) or exceeds 100 lbs item not accepted.” The policy as written does not explicitly say that bicycles between 62 inches and 115 inches travel as regular checked baggage, with no oversized fee applied.

Delta Airlines has a department that handles questions from the media. I placed this question to them. "The 'Standard baggage allowance and fees… apply' argues that bicycles go as regular checked baggage," I wrote. "But the policies on the website are not clear about whether an item (bicycle in particular) between 62” and 115” are simply allowed on the plane (but subject to an oversize charge) or whether it travels as regular checked baggage. Are bicycles, under 50lb, hard shell case, charged as regular checked bags? Or are they subject to oversize fees?"

The Delta media representative wrote back with the following: “There are no specialty fees for bicycles. Bicycles are charged as a standard checked bag, and standard baggage fees (including overweight and oversized fees) can still apply.”

Nevertheless, ticket agents can be confused by language that isn’t 100 percent clear. Wrote one Slowtwitcher, “I flew at the end of July before I knew about this updated policy and it was a tale of two. Leaving Los Angeles flying to Michigan, was charged $150. Leaving Michigan for Los Angeles, was charged $0. So, I got home, found [the Forum thread referenced above] and called Delta to tell them about my $150 charge. They refunded my money and apologized. So, the policy does exist!!”

The tricky part isn’t the size, it’s the weight. Read today’s review of B&W’s Bike Box II. With a tri bike (especially) the case itself places the travel in peril of exceeding 50lb, when the case itself weighs more than 25lb and many cases do. Weight of the empty case was never that much of a consideration to me when making a bike case purchase. It is now.

Note there is a new "superthread" on our Reader Forum, as of today, Ministry of Travel, which will be a curated thread answering any questions you have about travel in the context of swim, bike and run (whatever "Travel" may grow to encompass).

The post Delta Demystified: Yes, Bikes Travel as Checked Bags first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

According to B&W, this isn’t the case I should be showing you all. This one, the Bike Box II, is its best selling model. But it’s not what triathletes buy. Because B&W is a German company and has a close relationship with Canyon, I suspect its opinions are somewhat colored by Canyon’s exhortation against not removing the pursuit bar on its Speedmax SLX (the shipping of which is discussed in this Reader Forum thread). But I wrote B&W back with pictures of a P-Series Cervelo I’d just built slotting pretty easily into this case. I’m going to write about the case in the context of tri bike travel.

Why do I like this case? First, it costs $299 ($265 on Amazon as of today). Do I have your attention? Second, it’s rather smallish; and third, the case weighs about 23 pounds, depending on what all you count in the weight. We’ll get to why those last 2 points are important.

The Bike Box II is called a “box” instead of a “case” because, I guess, it’s less substantial than their cases. But there’s nothing insubstantial about it. It’s a rugged, hard shell case. But it is unique, I’ll say that. It’s got 2 robust wheels on the back and 2 steering wheels on castors in the front (or the other way around, the castors in the back, which is my preference). The case is made of a pair of disconnected halves. It only becomes an actual case when assembled. Of course you could say that about, say, a Tri-All-3, but that case (a fave of mine) has a separate top and bottom. This case has a left and right.

The wheels need to be assembled on the case, if you were to buy it unassembled via mail order. The whole assembly process took me about 20 or 30 minutes. Here are the parts and the tools I used, though an electric tool is unnecessary.

The case comes with a bunch of protective aids which I believe (if I recall correctly) I’ve seen on Canyon’s bikes when they arrive in boxes. These are handy foam blocks with Velcro-like closures that will protect the tubes from contact.

This case also comes with a pair of wheel bags. I have a lot of wheel bags and thankfully these bags are made slightly larger than my others, so that they nicely accept a 700c wheels with inflated gravel tires! There are also 3 foam pieces, layers, like lasagna layers, and you put the “filling” in between the layers. Finally, ther’es a hard, like a Styrofoam, block inside of which sits your big chain ring. You’ll see this in the image below.

I hope you don’t mind if I share a few tips on how I pack bikes as I discuss packing this P-Series in this case. We’ve always had to use devices to keep the airlines (or Fedex or UPS) from smashing our fork ends or dropouts in compression. The P-Series is a thru axle bike, and I cut a couple of pieces to length out of a piece of 3/8” aluminum conduit, and when I take the wheels off I put the thru axles back into the frame and fork, thru the conduit. That protects the frame and it keeps my thru axles from getting lost.

I always take the RD off the bike when shipping. You can tape the RD to the frame if you want or wrap it in bubble wrap but, screw it, I’m lazy, I just leave it sitting there inside the rear triangle. I take it off because this is the most likely bad thing to happen in shipping: a bent derailleur hanger or dropout. Taking the RD off (5mm Allen Wrench in most cases) inoculates your bike against this problem.

I promise you, your new disc brake bike came assembled to the dealer with a couple of shims inside the calipers. Ask your LBS to give you those, and shove them back inside the calipers when you travel. Otherwise you may find your calipers sort of closed up upon reassembly.

You may find that it’s inconvenient, when you take the stem out of the steerer, to put the top cap back on the fork and have that fork flopping all around inside the frame. I know I do. It offends some sense of appropriateness in me. So, I travel with a pair of 20mm headset spacers, and when I take the stem of the fork I put those spacers in. Stems are almost always about 40mm in height as they pass over the steerer, so any combo of 40mm of headset spacers does the trick.

Speaking of discs, you may want to remove the your rotor from the wheel. This is why Shimano’s Centerlock standard is so much better than 6-bolt. I wrote about that here, so, read there if you want a little more info on that.

There’s one layer of foam on the outside, against the shell. Then I put in a wheel and then the frame and a second layer of foam. I also put my handlebars – I didn’t need to disassemble any wires or cables when shipping this bike – on this “layer.” Then the other wheels and here’s a bag (not included) inside of which I put the seat post/saddle, and the front hydration bottle, and my pedals. Then the last layer of foam and I’m done. Ready to close it up.

Now for the genius of this case, and why it can be so strong while remaining so light. You might think that you simply place one side over the other. No. The two sides overlap several times. It’s very clear where they do overlap.

There is a guide, on each shell, where it’s clear that one shell slides inside the other. That’ll get you started. From then on it’s pretty straightforward.

It took me one bike packing exercise to figure it all out. Now, when I use this case, I lay one shell flat on the ground, and it’s the shell with all the straps attached. Strap are laid out, extended out, like your snow angel arms. Once the bike is packet, the other shell goes atop, and the top shell slotting into the bottom shell’s guide.

Once the top shell is on, appropriately overlapped at every interval, the straps from the bottom shell are affixed (with Velcro). Then it’s pretty much ready to roll and I place the Bike Box II upright on its wheels.

Once the top shell is on, appropriately overlapped at every interval, the straps from the bottom shell are affixed (with Velcro). Then it’s pretty much ready to roll and I place the Bike Box II upright on its wheels.

The last thing to do is close up a big strap that spans the entire case. There’s a pin, around which the clasp pivots, that you must insert into a receiver with which it mates. Then you flip the clasp over, it locks, you’re done.

If you find the clasp not sufficiently tight, there’s a pin on the clasp that you can remove with a Phillips screw driver, and the placement of that pin in 1 of 4 holes makes strap yet tighter, if need be (I didn’t need to adjust it).

Now, let’s talk about size and weight. My first use of this case was last month. I and the wife flew to Rome, gravel bikes inside, rolled our cases to the train station, took a couple of train rides to Florence, threw the cases into the back of a taxi, drove to the airport to pick up a rental car. Now came the moment of truth. The car was a Fiat Tipo. Go ahead, click that link, look at that car and tell me if it inspires you with confidence, if you’re traveling with a pair of bike cases.

As you see the cases slid right in (one was this Bike Box II, the other a B&W Bike Guard Curv). This case barely cracks 90” inches when you measure length + height + width, and the airlines variously require a case not to exceed either 115” or 126” or thereabouts using this measuring system.

Second, this Cervelo P-Series, when loaded – and this was no small bike, it was a size L, or size 58cm – weighed 47.6lb. I had room for, and could’ve placed in there, my helmet and shoes. For this Italy trip I had all of that plus my floor pump and it came in at exactly 50lb. That’s the magic number.

It isn’t that the airlines will fly your bike as checked luggage. It’s that it’ll fly as checked luggage if it doesn’t exceed 50lb. This is the tricky part. You may get an extra 20lb if you’re flying in a forward cabin. Or not. If you’re flying coach on an airline that grants you this new same-as-checked-bag benefit, 50lb is the max. This is where the weight of the case becomes paramount.

The cases were extracted from the back of the Fiat Tipo in the Strada Bianche region of Chiante, and rolled over cobbles and gravel. Back into the car and to a Schwable tire launch in another part of Florence. They were packed in and out of the cases several times. Then, finally – long story of bad navigational principles – they were muscled over 4 bridges spanning Venice canals, placed on a bus, then the airlines lost both cases for 3 days before they were finally delivered home, cases intact, bikes fine.

A couple of notes. First, the case B&W most sells to triathletes is the Bike Guard Curv, the other case we took to Tuscany. It sells for about $800. Great case. I’m just struggling to find the extra $500 in value over the case reviewed here. Frugal by nature, I just… can't… find a good reason to spend more than the $200-and-something this case costs.

Second note: The overlapping of the shells might be a bridge too far for TSA. Mind, I didn’t even think about this on last month’s trip and the Bike Box II was disassembled, checked, and reassembled (properly) by TSA. However, you may want to ask TSA to check it in your presence at the point of departure. (I do this with every bike case, though I forgot to do this on this recent trip and all went okay anyway.)

And finally, if you look at the bottom of our pages you’ll see B&W is a Slowtwitch Partner. I first saw the bike cases made by B&W at Interbike last year (which was the last year of Interbike). I admired the cases, spent a lot of time in this company’s trade show booth, but I argued against any sort of partnership with Slowtwitch because I just didn’t intend to write anything about these cases editorially. We just left it there.

What changed? I sent an email back the day after I read about American Airlines’ change of posture on checked bikes. (Airlines don’t generally announce they’re making travel better, cheaper, more comfortable for us.) “Now I have a narrative,” I wrote, “and I expect to be writing a lot about travel.” They recommended I try their cases and they sent some out. I asked for the lesser expensive cases not because of the price, but because their light weight works in conjunction with these new bike rules.

This is the first of a number of bike case reviews forthcoming, including the Trico Ironcase, Tri-All-3, and others. Here’s B&W International if you want to read more about the case, tho this company has a U.S. office and warehouse, so cases purchased will generally be shipped to you from the continent in which you live.

Note that we have a new “superthread” on the Reader Forum, Ministry of Travel, which will be a curated thread designed to inform and answer any questions you all may have about anything related to travel (you or your bike) that relates to this sport we’re in.

The post B&W Intl Bike Box II first appeared on Slowtwitch News.