Bike shipping for NYC Tri

That sounds great, except that I have never heard of EGL...are they an independent shipping company like UPS or DHL? Do they only service certain areas of the country (I'm in TN)? I will definitely look into that if it's widely available.

I will never let anyone else touch my bike again after last week. I dropped it off at a reputable bike shop in San Fran WITH my $300 plastic shipping case, and guess what? They dropped it in a cardboard box, poorly padded, and it arrived with serious (but mostly cosmetic) damage to the bike frame. My fancy expensive, well padded box is still sitting out in California. Luckily, the bike is ridable, no damage occured to the components, but it easily could have.

I know that not everyone has had this experience, but this was my first and last time letting a shop pack and ship my bike. If they only knew teh amount of mental energy, searchign for the right box, ordering it (paying for it), and learning how to pack the bike on my own...only to have them drop in a single walled cardboard box with a single loose wrap of bubble wrap and scotch tape holding things together. Believe me, no one cares about your equiptment as much as you do.

I may ship my bike in the future, but I am never letting anyone else disassemble or pack the bike. All you need is an allen wrench and a pedal wrench. if you are the least bit mechanically inclined it is a piece of cake.

Flying with it is the same cost, and frequently you can get away without paying the typical $80 charge for flying with a bike case.