Road Cycling - Traveling with Bike

My first year of college just got done and Im going back to VA for 2 months from june to august, needless to say my bike is coming with me somehow! The question is 'how'? Ive seen those travel cases but at $200 Im hardly going to buy one to use once a year, twice at most. Even ebay doesnt have any really cheap ones, Im keeping my eye out though. I bought the bike off of ebay and the guy had it packaged in a giant cardboard box by his LBS. It arrived from Illinois with no problems. I kept the box, so should I do the same to travel with it or any other suggestions? Ive heard be wary of putting it on the airplane with you, true? Also, Ive never ridden a bike in northern VA where I live. Any riders from there? Where do you ride? I live about 25 minutes south of DC, about 5 minutes south of fairfax, real close to Burke Lake if you know where that it. Thanks

See if you can get the LBS to pack it and UPS ship it home for you. It should run $50.00 or less depending on how much they charge for labor, etc.

Congrats with finishing the first year of college. What do you plan to major in?

Zack

Originally posted by TriDevil
Also, Ive never ridden a bike in northern VA where I live. Any riders from there? Where do you ride? I live about 25 minutes south of DC, about 5 minutes south of fairfax, real close to Burke Lake if you know where that it. Thanks

Hi, congrats on finishing your first year. I'm in Northern VA too, (Crystal City) to be exact. I actually just bought a bike (see my other post today) after a long break from the sport and haven't ridden in NVA yet either. If you find some good places, please let me know. For now, I think I'll make good use of the path down the Potomac from DC to Mt. Vernon.

Originally posted by ZackJones
See if you can get the LBS to pack it and UPS ship it home for you. It should run $50.00 or less depending on how much they charge for labor, etc.


Right, you can probably pack it yourself (save some $$$) and take it straight to UPS, FedEx, or whatever. They'll ship it cheaper than you'll have to pay taking it on the plane. And, if you're paranoid of it getting lost on the plane transitions, it's a good alternative.

A friend of mine went to an LBS dumpster and got a bike box for free and fixed it all up. Then he took his bike on the plane after he packed it up pretty good. I'm thinking of doing that, and I also heard that I could get a pretty slim bike box from U Haul. I would just break down my own bike and slip it in the bike box and get some kind of velcro or buckle straps to go around the box so it won't fall open on the plane.

Koff

I just realized something, the bike box is giant in size, the bike is a giant and the box is the one that came with the bike. I guess I could pack it myself, any ideas on how to do that? When I got it there was tremendous amounts of bubble wrap and cardboard around the frame,forks,derailleur areas. Should I do that? The front wheel,handlebars, pedals were/will be taken off. Should I ship it through UPS or should I take it on the plane with me? Ive heard there is sometimes an 'oversized cargo' charge or something like that? any experiences with that. My major by the way is aerospace engineering.

:lol: sorry to say this, but you're just another example of how engineers know little of practicality. (trying to think of a nice way to put it) I'm an aircraft mechanic BTW.

I reckon I had that coming...I get that alot hahaha!

Pack it up well.. padd everything.. you can get this foam tubing at a hardware store for plumping that is really cheap to padd the head tube etc..

Check with the airline see how much they will charge you, then I would suggest fedex ground is cheapest way to ship. Most likely cheaper to ship it to you then take it on the plane. Also on the plane they will not accept responsibility if the bike is damaged while if you ship UPS or Fedex you can insure it.

There are 2 packing strategies.
1: Make it look like a box, and make it strong enough to handle being treated like a box.
2: Make it look like a bike, and hopefully it will get treated more carefully.
It depends on how good the handlers and airports are, but generally, smaller airports are a lot better.
I use pluming pipe insulation foam around all my tubes, but keep it bike-shaped/

Quick, off topic, blurb. When I was in Iceland and traveled from one side of the island to the other by plane I noticed one thing about baggage handlers. Those who packed their stuff in suitcases got their stuff thrown around like that old sampsonite gorilla commercial. Those who packed their belongings in black trash bags had their stuff treated like it was the most fragile stuff in the world :)

Zack

couple of things:

1) go to kool bikes (http://www.koolbikes.com/) and
go to section on Packing your Bike, good fotos and instructions.

Here are some detailed instructions (thank you to
Wayne Bingham who authored this and posted it
on Classic Rendezvous list)

Packing and Shipping a Bicycle

If you're doing the shipping, first and foremost, don't cut corners.
Don't just do the minimum. Take the extra effort to do as much as you can to protect the cargo.
Make everything secure, and assemble as much as you can as a single unit BEFORE you put it in the box.
Most damage is done by things moving or shifting during
transport, or from bits floating around in the box.

Most contemporary bike boxes (the once-used variety you scrounge from your Local Bike Shop)
are designed to ship the bike with the rear wheel in place.
If the bike fits that way, go with it, but remove the skewer.
Some older, long wheelbase/touring types may not fit in the modern boxes.

If possible, disconnect and/or remove cables and chain.
Take off the wheels and remove the skewers.
Remove the pedals, saddle, seatpost, and handlebar/stem combo. Hold all this aside to pack later.

Cover ALL the frame and fork tubes with pipe insulation (preferable), wrapped foam, or bubble-wrap.
Fold a piece of heavy cardboard over the seat cluster
and secure it. Put the rear wheel back in (sans skewer) and
secure it with zip-ties. Trapping a layer of cardboard where it
contacts the (already padded) frame, secure the front wheel
over the main triangle using zip-ties.
Depending on fit (you have to test-fit your assembly several
times by dropping it into the empty box) you
should be able to secure the handlebar/stem combo (stem may
have to be rotated) over the top tube or over the rear wheel.
Put a layer of cardboard wherever it contacts anything and
secure it, again with zip-ties. Put a brace in the fork drops
(either a standard plastic one from your LBS or a piece of wood)
and tape it into place. Place a strip of heavy cardboard along the
front of the fork legs, around the braced fork-ends and up the
back of the legs. Secure this with tape. With the
fork turned perpendicular to the frame,
fold a piece of cardboard around the head tube and upper
part of the fork and secure it to the frame. You
should now have a complete assembly. Check it to make sure
everything is tight and nothing shifts around.
Drop it into the box and see how it fits.
Now's the time to make adjustments.
See where the axles and other protruding parts are
close to the sides of the box and mark the spots.

Wrap all the loose parts in bubble-wrap and place them in a
couple smaller boxes. I prefer this to using bags,
as the boxes can usually be fitted into the bottom corners
of the main box to help secure the structure of the box.
If using bags for the loose parts, brace the corners of the box
with extra cardboard or foam. Check fit again.

At the potential contact points you marked inside the box,
tape in an extra layer of cardboard or, preferably, a 6" x 6"
square of 1/8" plywood.

Tape the small boxes (or the bags) into the corners
of the main box, put some newspaper in the bottom and
set the bike assemble in place. Pack
enough material (newspaper, foam, whatever) in the box
so that NOTHING MOVES. Foam peanuts hold the structure
better than newspaper.

Write the TO and FROM info INSIDE the box.
Close the box and tape securely both the top, sides
AND bottom. Don't rely on the original staples in the bottom
flaps! Label the box with the shipping information
and cover the labels with clear tape.


3) check out the W&OD trail that runs out to leesburg (may
be further now), can hook up from Rte 66 bike path.

Good luck,
Marty

well, packing it and taking it on an airplane is no problem - ask at your LBS for bike boxes and they'll give them to you for free (b/C they always get new bikes in) but you might have to wait until a particular day of the week. just remove both wheels, pedals and maybe the stem so it fits and padd it with whatever - bubble wrap or foam pads or bike tubes or whatever.

BUT, almost all of the airlines now charge between $35 and $50 one way for a bike!

i heard that the cheapest way to send a bike is by Greyhound. in colloge one time my dad shipped a backpack to me that way for like something super-cheap ($8 i think) and another time i used greyhound to ship some keys back to a friend of mine (somehow she had left her house keys in my apartment and drove 100 miles home and Greyhound could get them there in like 3 hours or something). anyway, recently someone on the forums wrote that he had success shipping a bike by greyhound, although i never have.