I recently strapped my tenkara rod in its case to my mountain bike frame to ride to fishing spots along a local river. It was a rough trail and by the time I got home my case had cracked from the shock. I made a virtually indestructable replacement case for such bike trips and other uses where heavy items may inadvertently be placed on the case. It cost me a grand total of $2.60 and is made from a scrap piece of 1 1/4" schedule 40 PVC pipe (free from Home Depot), a cap, a pipe-to-threaded end piece, a threaded cap, and some styrofoam cut from old packing material (to place in the end caps to cushion the rod tips), and an official TenkaraUSA sticker for good looks. I thought I'd share with everyone. Note this is not for backpacking as it is heavy!

Where did you get the sticker? I want one for my Landcruiser!

You can ask Daniel if he has any for sale. I got mine when I ordered my Yamame from him. If he see's your question he usually will respond directly. He is really good at responding. Don't let me down Daniel!

_________________
GentleShepherd
穏やかな羊飼い

Late in the game, I know.... Another material option that is equally indestructible and is lighter than the heavy pvc tubing and is also available at The Home Depot is central-vac tubing and PVC end caps. I've used it for some Western fly rods and it's less than half the weight of the PVC and just as inexpensive. A little better for the backpacking crowd!

I drop my rod down the seat tube in the soft case. Works great and can't get broke in there. People get surprised when it start fishing because you would never expect a fly rod show up from thin air.

I used ABS (black drain) pipe for my rod tube. ABS weighs less than an equal size and length PVC pipe and floats if dropped in water without the cap. It is very impact resistance. One blogger's 1.5" sch. 40 PVC case weighed in at 20.7 ounces but my same size case made from ABS pipe weighs 12.5 ounce so an 8+ ounce weight savings. The pipe was 89 cents a foot, and the fittings 99 cents. Only drawback is 1.5" is the smallest diameter it comes in but I wanted to be able to fit my rod with sock covering the rod so 1.5" worked out well for me.

_________________
Illegitimus Non Carborundum

Drill a small hole in the cap, and another in the side of the case near the top. Thread a cord through the hole in each, and make a knot on each end of the cord on the inside of the rod case so it won't come out. Now you won't loose the cap because it's tied to the rod case.

Also, the hole will allow the air pressure inside the rod case to equalize when you fly.

_________________
Why let the truth stand in the way of a good fish story.

Thanks to all those who posted already; I realize I'm resurrecting an old thread but I have some photos of a version of this case made from black, 1-1/4 inch ABS plastic.

Total price of materials: about $9.76CAD. (had the ABS solvent glue already)

We found some high-density, closed-cell polyethylene foam and plugged it into the bottom and top caps.

A friend gave me some 1/4-inch shock cord that he found at the dollar store for about a dollar. While I haven't installed it yet, I'm planning to make a twisted wrap with it and use it as a sling of sorts.

From this thread, one of my local Tenkara fishers has used this cord sling system with a Tenkara USA rod case quite successfully, like this: