It could be a padded bag for protecting your Brompton on an aeroplane, or a cover allowing you to take your Brompton on Eurostar or local buses and trams

Which bag / box / cover should you use for your Brompton?

Choosing the correct protection for your Brompton really depends upon the transport method and therefore the level of protection required

Traveling by air:

Baggage handlers are not renowned for careful handling of luggage / bags - so if you are taking your Brompton away for a holiday - they deserve one too you know! - then you will be looking for something protective

• Brompton cardboard box that it came with

Although not listed here, the Brompton cardboard box - the one that it came with from the Brompton factory is designed for shipping - we have used these to transport our Brompton bikes by air - with no problem so far. They are especially good for one way trips - just unpack the bike and put the box in the recycling - job done! You should be able to pick one up free of charge from your local Brompton shop - or collect from us in Chobham - just 25 minutes by train (and a short bus journey) from London Waterloo station

• B&W Foldon / hard case

We have travelled with Bromptons far afield using both the B&W Foldon folding box and the B&W Brompton hard case (now also confusingly called Foldon)

B&W Foldon or Hard case?

The B&W Foldon box has several advantages over the B&W Brompton hard case:

1. It folds up (albeit like like Zebedee from the Magic Roundabout and wants to spring apart) to a reasonably small size. We've left it in left luggage self service lockers at the airport to save transporting around when we get to our destination, and collected on return
2. There is more storage space inside - this has a downside too as it means that the bike can move more inside the case, potentially getting damaged - to overcome this, we stuff the box with clothes / luggage / bubble wrap. This extra size means that the pedals / saddle don't need to be removed
3. It has four wheels on the base - making it easy to wheel around the airport

The B&W Brompton hard case also has its advantages:

1. It has locks - though we haven't used them!
2. The hard case seems more robust - though we have had one returned with a dented corner (dropped by baggage handlers?)

Both of these boxes we ship direct to you from our supplier

• Brompton travel bag - 2019 version

We think that the new Brompton travel bag could be used for air travel - but would be best for those light aircraft journeys where the handling is a bit more careful

Travelling by Eurostar:

The Eurostar bike policy:

https://help.eurostar.com/faq/uk-en/question/Can-I-take-my-bike-on-Eurostar

Says you can take your Brompton as long as it is completely covered - we have used the new Brompton bike cover and the older QCOV model which also acted as a small saddle bag, with no problem. We've also seen people use IKEA Dimpa bags and even the blue Ikea shopping bag

Staying in hotels:

We tend to cover our bikes using the Brompton cover - it just looks cleaner when you are checking in - some hotels don't like dirty bikes in their rooms (even if it's no worse than taking in a pushchair / wheelchair)

Brompton covers / boxes ranked by toughness:

We think they rank as shown below:

1. B&W Brompton hard case
2. B&W Foldon folding bike box
3. Brompton travel bag - new 2019 version
4. Polaris bike pod
5. B&W folding bike bag
6. Brompton bike cover