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I'm rather new to the world of road biking, having only gotten my first road bike a few weeks ago. It's a (secondhand) carbon Fuji SST 3.0, I think from 2012 (not entirely sure).

As part of my training, I have to take my bike over to a teammate's house, where they have a trainer that I can hook my bike up to. To get there, I usually end up taking a bus. It's only a twenty-minute ride or so (each direction), but the roads here aren't in the best condition, and all the stuff in the bottom ends up bouncing around a bit, sliding around, and generally bumping around.

The space under the bus is something similar to this:

bus luggage compartment (picture: Alamy)

Do I need to protect my bike in this case? Is it bad for the bike to be jostled around like this? Am I at risk of snapping my frame?

Riding to my teammates house isn't an option - the roads aren't safe for cyclists here, so I'm stuck with the bus.

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    May be worth clarifying. The city buses in the US cities I've lived have front racks that take 2 bikes and have arms that lock over the front wheel. It sounds like your setup is entirely different. It sounds like you have to put your bike into something like a luggage compartment at ground level. Correct?
    – Weiwen Ng
    Commented Aug 26, 2019 at 18:27
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    @WeiwenNg - Correct. It's basically just a wide open space underneath the bus. I can edit to include a picture.
    – Mithical
    Commented Aug 26, 2019 at 18:51
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    20 minutes away is a nice warmup. Can you find a more indirect route to ride, which is safer and more appealing ?
    – Criggie ♦
    Commented Aug 26, 2019 at 19:55
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    @Criggie - Unfortunately not. I live in the Golan Heights - there aren't really very many different routes you can take. The roads are all extremely windy and have lots of blind turns, with people often going quickly, and it's all on the side of a mountain so there are no real shoulders. One lane each way. And extremely hilly.
    – Mithical
    Commented Aug 26, 2019 at 20:05
  • Yikes. I don't think there is a practical way to do this. @MattSolomon's answer about a travel case is technically correct, but that's a lot of packing to do for a short trip. And good cases can be a few hundred US dollars or equivalent.
    – Weiwen Ng
    Commented Aug 26, 2019 at 23:23

1 Answer 1

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With other items sliding around I'd suggest a case where you don't need to take the bike fully apart to pack it. I think there are some you can just take the front wheel off of and pack it. If you can't do something like that you could use bungie cords to secure it and go to the hardware store and get some foam padding to put around the frame and drivetrain. It's not 100% but it'll manage the risk a bit more. I'd be less concerned about the frame snapping or bending and more about derailleurs breaking or spokes breaking.

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