Road Cycling - Bicycle Shipping Costs

What's the most cost-effective way to ship your bike in the US in less than 5 days... I want to pack my bike in a standard road bike box from my local bike shop and ship via USPS Priority Mail. When I use their online postage calculator, guessing the weight will be approx. 30 lbs and the dimensions will be 50x30x10 inches, I'm getting costs around $100?! Now I know I've shipped bikes before via USPS and it's always been around $40-50. Am I off on the dimensions (because the price break is at 84 "total" inches)?

Right now the best way to ship a bike is by using FedEx.

The extra couple of inches could definately be a problem.

What's the most cost-effective way to ship your bike in the US in less than 5 days... I want to pack my bike in a standard road bike box from my local bike shop and ship via USPS Priority Mail. When I use their online postage calculator, guessing the weight will be approx. 30 lbs and the dimensions will be 50x30x10 inches, I'm getting costs around $100?! Now I know I've shipped bikes before via USPS and it's always been around $40-50. Am I off on the dimensions (because the price break is at 84 "total" inches)?I've found online calculators to be notoriously in error toward the high side. Oversize always cost more too.

As LowCel already mentioned, FedEx Ground is the lowest cost going right now. They're over-sized rates are significantly lower than USPS or UPS right now.

I've recently shipped two frames. One shipped by UPS which cost 63 dollars. The second I shipped via FedEx ground and it was 30 dollars and change. Both were shipped to the same "zone" and were in boxed that measured out to the same over-sized rates.

Bikein MN,
that's weird, i shipped a litespeed frame, fork and seat post Tues. from a UPS store and it was $26.80 insured for $1,000. It was a smaller box i picked up from my lbs that was for shipping frames only.

Fedex is the only way to go. Always try and go to a fedex place and not an authorised reseller as they charge more

Well folks.He said less than 5 days. Depending on where it's going, fed-ex or ups don't do that regular ground, and air cost alot more. USPS priority is faster,but may cost more.And again don't bet the farm on online calculators.

I guess I've been lucky, I've never had a problem with UPS or Fed Ex getting a bike across the country in less than five days. I've shipped 30 bikes or so. According to Fed Ex it only takes 4 days to go from Daytona Beach Florida to Santa Barbara California. That is from a residential adress to a residential adress.

As far as USPS Priority it is not gauranteed. I've only had packages get delivered within three days using that about 3/4 the time.

Bikein MN,
that's weird, i shipped a litespeed frame, fork and seat post Tues. from a UPS store and it was $26.80 insured for $1,000. It was a smaller box i picked up from my lbs that was for shipping frames only.

Not strange at all. If you take a specific size (say 32/32/8 for arguments sake) which has a billable weight of 70 pounds at UPS, the cost from my zip code to San Diego CA would be 58.62 insured for 500 bucks. The exact same package insured and shipped by fedex ground is 31.55. Not quite half as expensive but close.

The frames I shipped were both a large enough size that they needed boxes big enough to hit over-sized specific over-sized charges with each carrier.

All that being said, my local UPS counter never used to hit me for over-sized charges but that changed maybe a year back. I shipped my MTB in a Trico Iron Case insured for 4k to CO for a vacation and paid something like 30-35 dollars a couple years back...

BikeInMN - They started getting real strict about the time you mentioned. I don't know why they cracked down so hard but they certainly did. Both my family business and the bike shop that I help out from time to time had to switch to Fed Ex. They are about half the price of UPS.

Try a place called SportsExpress - http://www.sportsexpress.com. They are a full service sports equipment shipping company. They make all the necessary arrangements for pickup and delivery. My cost for shipping from Seattle to Long Beach was $75 but the door to door service was excellent, along with the email updates of where my bike was en route. A good experience but perhaps a bit more pricey that doing it all yourself through FedEx.

I guess I've been lucky, I've never had a problem with UPS or Fed Ex getting a bike across the country in less than five days. I've shipped 30 bikes or so. According to Fed Ex it only takes 4 days to go from Daytona Beach Florida to Santa Barbara California. That is from a residential adress to a residential adress.

As far as USPS Priority it is not gauranteed. I've only had packages get delivered within three days using that about 3/4 the time.Well, I just had a frame come from NJ to just east of the rockies, UPS and it took 9 days. So don't go betting the farm on 'what they tell ya'.

Well..... I also had UPS lose a new specialized epic for me. However, they still had the box it was shipped in.

Unfortunately there are no gaurantees.

According to Fed Ex it only takes 4 days to go from Daytona Beach Florida to Santa Barbara California. That is from a residential adress to a residential adress.


That would be a real good trick. Figure the first day at least to get it on the right truck. Another day to get it off that truck and the third for delivery. Wonder how long it takes to drive across the country? It don't go non stop.

I find if i post an item ground with fed ex on a monday it is always delivered by friday sometime before anywhere in the mainland US.

What's the most cost-effective way to ship your bike in the US in less than 5 days... I want to pack my bike in a standard road bike box from my local bike shop and ship via USPS Priority Mail. When I use their online postage calculator, guessing the weight will be approx. 30 lbs and the dimensions will be 50x30x10 inches, I'm getting costs around $100?! Now I know I've shipped bikes before via USPS and it's always been around $40-50. Am I off on the dimensions (because the price break is at 84 "total" inches)?
You need a smaller box. A major cutoff is at 108". Your dimensions add up like this:
50+(30x2)+(10x2)=50+60+20=130"
The last bike I mailed was in a box 40x27x7 which works out better -
40+(27x2)+(7x2)=40+54+14=108" I think it cost me less than $20. Good Luck.

I find if i post an item ground with fed ex on a monday it is always delivered by friday sometime before anywhere in the mainland US.My set of wheels took from the 2nd when dropped off at the Fdx ex facility till the 9th to be delivered in NYC, and that's only half way across the country. I got wheels today(7th) usps priority shipped from NJ that were mailed on the 5th,and it only cost $3 more than fed-ex.