Ship your bike
Jul. 24th, 2014 05:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebeccmeisterI'm mostly writing this post as a "note to self," but with the idea that it may be informative for others as well.
So, taking your bike with you on an airplane can quickly get expensive. The last time I attempted the Paris-Brest-Paris, I paid four bike fees, each about $80, because I took flights to and from Boston, and then to and from Amsterdam, on separate airlines. So, that was an additional $320 on top of my airplane ticket costs. Pricey.
What are some alternatives? One option would be to acquire a folding bike, such as a Brompton, or get a bike with couplers built into the frame - both methods make it possible to pack a bicycle into sufficiently small dimensions that one can avoid the oversize bicycle airline fees.
Another option would be to look for a rental bike, or to borrow a bike at your destination.
But if you're determined to get your bicycle to your destination, you may want to consider shipping it instead. I keep forgetting this, but the magical number for shipping a bicycle via FedEx is ~130 inches, length plus girth. You can double-check this by plugging different numbers into their shipping estimator. I imagine UPS has a similar number.
Now, what to use as your shipping container? Hard-sided plastic bike cases provide pretty good protection, although they can be expensive and quite heavy. I lucked out and got one on Craigslist a while back - you might have similar luck if you keep your eyes peeled.
But another common alternative is a cardboard bike box. When bicycles are shipped to bike shops, they're generally delivered in large, cardboard boxes, so the mechanics at the shop have to do minimal work to assemble them. If you contact your local bike shop sufficiently far in advance, you can often put in a request that they save you a cardboard bike box. Just make sure it is sufficiently small, because if you go over the magic dimensional number, your shipping costs will go up by ~$50.
Next, putting the bike in the box. This is not a trivial project. I'm not going to cover the positioning of different parts in excruciating detail, other than to note that you'll have to give yourself some time to fiddle around with positioning of things. What I'm going to focus on is this: what could go wrong? In general, the biggest thing that could go wrong is crushing forces on the sides of the box. Imagine a medium-size child jumping up and down on the side of your packed bike box, and you'll have the right mental image going. So, how do you keep that child from damaging your front fork, rear dropouts, and wheels?
We tested out a good trick for this a couple years back, which we've nicknamed "dynamite sticks." Cardboard is nifty stuff (unless it gets wet, but that's a whole nother story). It's fantastic at resisting crushing forces, but only in one direction. To harness this power, take a strip of cardboard, and roll it up. Bonus points if it's the same width as your bike box. But before you tape it closed, do one other thing - run a big piece of string through it.
Don't stop there - make 3 or 4 dynamite sticks.
Then, figure out the weakest points in your bike box - between a wheel, middle of the box, et cetera. Punch holes in the sides of the bike box, and run the string out of the holes - the string will help hold the dynamite stick in the correct orientation. Make the string long enough that you can run it up to the top of the box, and tie it together.
It won't win a beauty pageant, but it will ensure that your bike arrives, safe and sound.
Assuming that you aren't caught out in a rainstorm. But that's a story for another day.
So, taking your bike with you on an airplane can quickly get expensive. The last time I attempted the Paris-Brest-Paris, I paid four bike fees, each about $80, because I took flights to and from Boston, and then to and from Amsterdam, on separate airlines. So, that was an additional $320 on top of my airplane ticket costs. Pricey.
What are some alternatives? One option would be to acquire a folding bike, such as a Brompton, or get a bike with couplers built into the frame - both methods make it possible to pack a bicycle into sufficiently small dimensions that one can avoid the oversize bicycle airline fees.
Another option would be to look for a rental bike, or to borrow a bike at your destination.
But if you're determined to get your bicycle to your destination, you may want to consider shipping it instead. I keep forgetting this, but the magical number for shipping a bicycle via FedEx is ~130 inches, length plus girth. You can double-check this by plugging different numbers into their shipping estimator. I imagine UPS has a similar number.
Now, what to use as your shipping container? Hard-sided plastic bike cases provide pretty good protection, although they can be expensive and quite heavy. I lucked out and got one on Craigslist a while back - you might have similar luck if you keep your eyes peeled.
But another common alternative is a cardboard bike box. When bicycles are shipped to bike shops, they're generally delivered in large, cardboard boxes, so the mechanics at the shop have to do minimal work to assemble them. If you contact your local bike shop sufficiently far in advance, you can often put in a request that they save you a cardboard bike box. Just make sure it is sufficiently small, because if you go over the magic dimensional number, your shipping costs will go up by ~$50.
Next, putting the bike in the box. This is not a trivial project. I'm not going to cover the positioning of different parts in excruciating detail, other than to note that you'll have to give yourself some time to fiddle around with positioning of things. What I'm going to focus on is this: what could go wrong? In general, the biggest thing that could go wrong is crushing forces on the sides of the box. Imagine a medium-size child jumping up and down on the side of your packed bike box, and you'll have the right mental image going. So, how do you keep that child from damaging your front fork, rear dropouts, and wheels?
We tested out a good trick for this a couple years back, which we've nicknamed "dynamite sticks." Cardboard is nifty stuff (unless it gets wet, but that's a whole nother story). It's fantastic at resisting crushing forces, but only in one direction. To harness this power, take a strip of cardboard, and roll it up. Bonus points if it's the same width as your bike box. But before you tape it closed, do one other thing - run a big piece of string through it.
Don't stop there - make 3 or 4 dynamite sticks.
Then, figure out the weakest points in your bike box - between a wheel, middle of the box, et cetera. Punch holes in the sides of the bike box, and run the string out of the holes - the string will help hold the dynamite stick in the correct orientation. Make the string long enough that you can run it up to the top of the box, and tie it together.
It won't win a beauty pageant, but it will ensure that your bike arrives, safe and sound.
Assuming that you aren't caught out in a rainstorm. But that's a story for another day.
