Travelling with my bike

Shipping it ahead is the cheapest. And honestly, the UPS monkeys aren't any rougher with your stuff then the airline monkeys. The airlines are really nailing you for taking a bike. At least $80 each way. Plus I have heard that getting broken stuff taken care of is easier with UPS/FedEX. Not that it is easy with the shippers, just that they are the lesser of two evils.

As far as to the hotel or to a shop. Depends if you are comfortable putting it together yourself. To get within size restrictions you will need to at least take off your front wheel and turn or unbolt your handlebars from the stem. Usually you can leave the cables connected and just kind of move the bars to the side. If you do ship to a store, most stores I have shipped to will hold it free of charge (I usually take them a 6pack beer for the trouble), or you can ship to them and for a minimal charge they will have it aseembled, tuned up and ready to go when you get there.

If you have never packed a bike. I'd take it to the Lbs and have them do it, but ask to watch.

I prefer cannondale bike boxes and their packing method. It requires removing both wheels, and the handlebars( Still leaving them connected most times) but it seems to result in the least amount of damage.

I've been shipping a ton of stuff lately, I'm reducing my stable, and FedEX has consitently been the cheapest. But taking it to a Kinkos or other shipping stores is a rip off. Once you have it boxed. Get the measurments, use the bathroom scale to weight the box. The more accurate way is to weight yourself then hold the box and get a total weight. I usually do it a couple times with and without the box. I go with the heaviest box weight and add a pound or two. It usually doesn't matter though because the size of the box just makes it have a fixed weight (usually 70 pounds). You then input the data on FedEx's website and print out your shipping label. I had troubles getting pickups so I just drop off the box at a kinkos already labeled. They do nothing but give the box to the driver.

There are some pretty detailed directions for packing bikes online, just do a search.

Unless you want to drop a few hundred bucks on a hard case, I beleive that a regular old bike box is the best value. If you plan to tavel with your bike a lot, a case may be the way to go. I do travel with mine a bit and I am thinking of getting one of the plastic boxes (like cardboard, just corregated plastic). Oh yeah, most shops will let you dumpster dive for a box, but they usually just cut the toip to open. Go a couple days ahead of time and ask them to save you a box and some packaging material. The Cdale dealers I worked for would give people a box, but if they wanted us to save the packaging material it was 5 bucks (5 years ago, last time I worked for a Cdale dealer) because it requires a bit more time to unpack a bike without wrecking the packing material. It's worth it to pay 5-10 dollars for this.

If you plan on packing it yourself and shipping it back afterwards, throw a bunch of unused zipties in the box and a roll of packing tape that you won't mind wasting that way you can pack the bike up to go home.



Edited by graceful_dave 2008-08-04 10:57 PM

I always fly with mine, but... its getting expensive now. Southwest charges $50 each way, and thats if it is under 50#. Its definitely not a bad way to travel, but its costly. However, nothing about this sport is cheap.

One of the other really good options is www.tribiketransport.com . I have never used them, but I have heard nothing but good things.

I'll see you in Chicago