Christmas Time Travel

Saturday, November 19, 2005, at 06:20AM

By Eric Richardson

One month from today I fly to South Carolina, where I'll be spending Christmas. In the week before Christmas I anticipate having some free time, and planning for the trip I thought it would be fun to figure out a way to bring my bike along and do some riding.

The problem? Transporting a bike is neither cheap nor especially easy. United charges $80 each way for bicycle transport. Plus baggage handlers and screeners aren't the most delicate of people, so some rugged packaging adds cost to the venture.

I had almost given up on trying to figure out a way to make this work. Then I found USA Cycling and their free bike vouchers. So now I'm a member of USA Cycling (which I guess means I could race in 2006 if I felt so inclined) and have sitting on my desk two "Check Your Bike for Free" vouchers.

That still leaves the question of a case. Right now I'm looking at the Thule Round Trip. At $329 it isn't cheap, but it looks to be built to last and I could see myself getting a good bit of use out of it over the next twenty years.

Now all that's left is to figure out some good South Carolina cycling, preferably centered out of Sumter. Some interesting distances out of Sumter: Charleston, 99 miles; Myrtle Beach, 95 miles. I think I could be up for a century by then.