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TECH NEWS

Just In: Buxum Box Tourmalet

An easy-to-pack bike box made from aluminium

If you’re heading abroad with a bike over the next few weeks, check out the Buxum Box Tourmalet that has arrived for review here at road.cc. It’s different from other bike boxes and cases that we’ve used in that it’s made from aluminium.

The Buxum Box (buxum is the Latin word for boxwood) is the invention of Ed Morris, a Brit expat who has been living in Hong Kong for the past few years.

“I needed a bike box for a trip to the Pyrenees with a bunch of Hong Kong riders,” says Ed. “In short, we couldn't find anything available on the market in Asia with a specification or quality commensurate with the bikes we were riding. The good soft cases were just too soft whilst the hard-shelled boxes were either too bulky, too heavy or just a bit flimsy on the hardware side.

“Aluminium seemed to be the obvious material to use – strong, light, durable and 100% recyclable. Initially as a bit of fun, I developed a couple of prototype boxes and, taking advantage of the fact I have to fly two or three times a week in my corporate life, put the prototypes through their paces by slinging one on the plane when traveling for business.”

Buxum make three boxes, the Tourmalet, priced at £680, being the most popular.

The walls are made from 0.5mm thick aluminium sheets with thicker aluminium used for the edges and corner caps to provide extra strength. The walls are thin enough to flex when you push on them and Ed says that they’ll dent and scratch slightly in use but without having an impact on the box’s overall strength. He reckons that makes it look better with age.

The Tourmalet is an unusual design in that it comes in two completely separable parts: a base section and a lid, effectively.

To fit your bike inside, you need to remove both its wheels, the pedals and the seat post, and take the handlebar out of the stem. You fix the rear dropouts to a lengthways-adjustable mount and clamp the fork to another mount so the frame is solidly fixed in place.

The wheels slot in alongside in their own bags, along with the seatpost and pedals, leaving plenty of room for additional baggage in the box.

An important part of the design is a rod that slots in place from one side of the box to the other to stop it getting squashed if it’s put at the bottom of a pile.

All the little details appear to be well done. The sealed bearing wheels are recessed so they’re unlikely to get knocked off, the latches are strong and you can use a cable lock to keep them closed, and the handles look built to last.

The Buxum Box Tourmalet measures 1129mm x 781mm x 305mm and our one weighed 13.3kg on the road.cc Scales of Truth (Buxum Box claim a weight of 12.5kg).

We’ve not been able to fly with this box yet so we’re not ready to write a full review. We have packed a road bike inside, though, just to see how it’s done, and it was a simple 10-minute job without any cursing. That’s a good start.

We’ll be back with a review as soon as one of us gets the chance to use the Buxum Box in anger.

For more details go to www.buxumbox.com

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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8 comments

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fenix | 9 years ago
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I've used a soft bike bag for years now and no damage to the bike. It takes a bit of packing though. Pipe lagging everywhere. And then more foam and bubble wrap.

If you're happy to lob the bag down the stairs then you're ready to go.

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velo365surrey | 9 years ago
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Hi Road CC

I travelled to Ibiza two weeks ago from Gatwick North. It was the maiden voyage for my Buxum Box.

The mount for the left hand side of the front forks is too close to the rivets, and it took forever to get the forks locked in. The remainder of the pack was quite straight forward.

The bike was rock solid, You could pick up the bike from the frame with the lower half of the box attached. Very reassuring indeed. The front wheels are 10 times better than the Sci-con I have, and the box is very easy to move with the recessed spring loaded handles. Locks were strong, but I would prefer key operated TSA locks like Sci-con

When I got to Ibiza I slid the box into a cab and headed to to a villa. The next morning I unpacked the bike. On the base of the floor was a 5cm x 5cm tear in the aluminium. There was also two piercing marks on one reinforced corner of the box. One had gone clean through the metal. How could this happen?

I looked at this brand new box and thought, some handler has thought, here is a beautiful bike box. Lets break it and have a laugh. I was raging at the handlers, who I felt had caused the damage on purpose.

I had a £5k Pinarello in the box, but it sustained no damage at all. The bike remained locked in place. However I took delivery of a £10,200 Colnago C60 disc yesterday, and I think that there is not a box on the planet that is 100% safe. Maybe the C60 will remain in the UK. This is as smooth as silk, and has exceeded all my expectations on its first ride this morning. Bit of bother with the thru axel at the front.

Does anyone have a bomb proof box?

Cheers

NoBo Cranleigh

Avatar
gareth2510 | 9 years ago
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You cant beat a well packed cardboard bike box from your LBS.
Free and minimal weight.

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harrybav | 9 years ago
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Looks a bit like a proper roadie's flight case - and may be treated as such - but doesn't have proper recessed latches. That's not necessarily a happy combination.

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crikey | 9 years ago
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13 kilos?
To carry a bike that weighs half that? Needs a bit more work, maybe make it from carbon fibre next time...

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pwake | 9 years ago
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Not sure Ed Morris has addressed his concerns with the hard-shelled boxes that 'were either too bulky, too heavy or just a bit flimsy on the hardware side."
At 13.3kg and a lot of baggage limits being 20kg, I think I'd be factoring in some excess baggage fees on top of the £680 I'd already shelled out.
Looks very professional though...

Avatar
hylozoist replied to pwake | 9 years ago
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pwake wrote:

Not sure Ed Morris has addressed his concerns with the hard-shelled boxes that 'were either too bulky, too heavy or just a bit flimsy on the hardware side."
At 13.3kg and a lot of baggage limits being 20kg, I think I'd be factoring in some excess baggage fees on top of the £680 I'd already shelled out.
Looks very professional though...

If he flies 2-3 times a week in his corporate life as per his quote, I suspect he might benefit from his airline giving him a bigger free baggage allowance (and one or two other benefits)  16

Avatar
don simon fbpe replied to hylozoist | 9 years ago
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hylozoist wrote:
pwake wrote:

Not sure Ed Morris has addressed his concerns with the hard-shelled boxes that 'were either too bulky, too heavy or just a bit flimsy on the hardware side."
At 13.3kg and a lot of baggage limits being 20kg, I think I'd be factoring in some excess baggage fees on top of the £680 I'd already shelled out.
Looks very professional though...

If he flies 2-3 times a week in his corporate life as per his quote, I suspect he might benefit from his airline giving him a bigger free baggage allowance (and one or two other benefits)  16

Or his concern is to protect 10K of bike and the corporate lifestyle comes with the sort of corporate salary that pays for a baggage excess. I bet he doesn't fly RyanAir either.

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