Shipping a complete bicycle
 

Not sure if I am in the right forum but I will give it a shot. What company do you guys use to ship bicycles? Also, do you pack them yourself or have your lbs do it for you? Trying to figure out the most cost effective way to ship a bike. I shipped a bmx bike awhile back, but it seemed like I used quite a bit of packing material and not sure if I may have over done it. Even the shipping seemed like it was quite costly. Anybody have any experience with this please let me know.

I use the post office for overseas shipments and for frame set only. I use FedEx for land shipments across international boundaries. I use Greyhound bus for shipments within the confines of Canada. Each of these I find to be the most cost effective means from where I live.

And this is How I Pack and Ship a Bicycle for over seas shipments.

Miami jim posted a thorough tutorial on shipping a bike. In the US, many report Fed Ex to be the cheapest, and several of us have had bad luck with UPS. Make sure you go to a terminal and not a shipping store, as they mark up shipping rates A LOT.

Pack yourself.

I bookmarked it and referred to it last time I packed a bike.
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...hlight=packing

I have shipped a number lately. I get the shipping boxes from a LBS, pack it myself (Copper pipe insulation is great to wrap the frame in), make sure you cover the whole bike in some kind of padding, take off the wheels, handle bars if needed, pack the pedals, skewers, seat post in a bag, close box. I go FedEx even in US, reason is you can claim insurance with them if they break it, USPS you need a receipt and an act of god. Good luck.

I typically use Fedex Ground for complete bikes. Cheapest method, very low chance of damage, in my (recent) experience. Sometimes, I just roll them into my LBS, though, and pay them to pack and ship. About $100 in that case (used to be more like $60, but both the packing labor and the shipping rates have gone up significantly in the past few years).

For framesets, I almost always use USPS, sometimes Fedex. Stay under 108" girth plus length for framesets if you can (most non-tandems can). Then you can use Priority Mail. Never use Parcel Post, unless you want to have a box of damaged junk at the other end of the trip. Ditto UPS in some cases. UPS beats the crap out of large, surface-shipped parcels, it seems....

The problem I've had lately is finding larger bike boxes. With all the local bike shops gone, or only selling 20" bikes, finding a full size box can be tough.
The big box stores won't let go of boxes, and even they don't sell road bikes or anything that would have come in a large enough box for say a 57cm or larger bike.

I often find myself making a box from several smaller boxes.

I always do my own packing, that way I know the item will be properly packed.
I've received a few 'bike shop packed' bikes in the past and I wasn't very impressed.
I'm not saying that all shops would do a sloppy job packing but no one will take the care you will packing your own bikes.

For anything over 108", it goes Fed Ex, forget UPS, they've destroyed too many incoming packages over the years for me to ever use them.
USPS is fine for smaller items so long as you stay under the 108" limit.

In the past 10 years shipping has more than doubled on bikes, in 2001 I could ship a full size bike coast to coast for $34, now I pay over $75 for that same size box and weight. Large frame bikes have become almost impossible to ship due to cost, let alone the difficulty of finding a proper sized box.

There are many companies providing shipping service with packing but you need to find out the best company for you. I would like to suggest you that you should pack your bike by yourself and shipping charges depend on your bike weight.