Bike box - Buy or rent

iAcesHigh

Once again I need your help (I can just hope that one day I'll be able to help others as much as others helped me here). After a lot of googling and reading online I'm even more confused then before

I was planning to buy a bike box, but obviously the prices and offers are all over the place so any suggestion or personal experiences are more than welcome! I have a carbon road bike and I have a trip to IM Barcelona this year. Potentially, if I buy a box I would also take it with me to Croatia for 3 weeks.

I googled a lot and can't really decide what is best buy. I presume that "casual" folding bags are out of the question (like this, but there are nice ones on ebay) so after a bit of a search I came to several finalists.
The cheapest ones seem to be something like this B&W one, but on boards.ie I read that a bunch of guys seem to be into Polaris Pod (here).

On the other hand, if I'm giving >€300 for it would it make sense to just go ahead and buy something like BikeBoxAlan (here) or you think this is too much/not worth it.

As said, any personal experiences are welcomed! I was originally thinking about just renting the box but after even 2-3 trips it seems that I'll spend the same amount as I would for buying it - or maybe there are some private hires available out there?

fat bloke

Canyon had the B&W for 160 quid recently. Grand box

NBar

http://www.rocasports.ie/#!scicon/c1v9u

Wishbone Ash

Just bear in mind that there are advantages and disadvantages to hard bike boxes as opposed to soft ones when renting a car abroad. If the car is smallish or has a low profile, and you have passengers, the hard box may not fit as they are quite bulky. On the other hand, the bike can be taken out of the soft bag and the bag folded over to make both fit easier.

Carawaystick

Can you not fold the passengers?

Saw a lad on the cycle lane at the end of runway10 in Dublin with a bike box on the carrier one night on me way home from work during the week, it looked too big to fit in a small car alright.

G1032

I know a lad who has come over here to the Tour de Connemara from Scotland for the last 2 years. Each time he's hired a small car (think it was an Opel Corsa this year) and the hard bike box has fitted with no issues. Only himself and his missus though and they didn't need a lot of other luggage (only stayed for 2 nights each time)

Eamonnator

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/polaris/eva-bike-pod-ec043159

This is the box, that I have. I'm not sure,if it's still available anywhere.
It's light,strong and durable. I would recommend it.
I have a Ford Fiesta. I can fit 3 people, luggage for 2 people for 2 weeks and my bike box into the car, not terribly comfortable, but OK going to and from Airport.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/ie/en/brand-x-eva-bike-pod-2015/rp-prod134710

This one looks identical.

Koobcam

i have the Canyon box, which is a rebranded b&w box. I've taken probably 20 or so flights with it and it's done the job, though a couple off bits have come off. Best box ive seen though has to be the Biknd., not sure the model name. Its a soft case but has two inlatable things to protect the bike. Also has room for two sets of wheels, handy if you are doing a multi day race. It also folds up to a size where you could conceivably stick it in a back pack and ride from the airport. Also has great handles and wheels, which believe me is a fairly important thing. One drawback ()according to the mate who has one is that the wheels aren't as well protected, but bubble wrap would fix that. It's pricey, but then so is your bike...