Samuikon

I will be moving to California soon. I have pretty much figured out how to get most of my stuff down there. Furniture is not my concern, as I can buy new, possibly better furniture in California (with the money I save by NOT using a moving service ehehehe). But one problem is...How will I get my bike down there? I could take the train, but that takes 3 days. The plane takes up to 10 hours (which I prefer), but I sure can't take my bike on the plane. What should I do? Should I just ditch my current bike and buy a new one in California as well? I'm hoping that I could somehow get my bike down there, but if I can't, then a new one would have to do

This would also help me decide whether to do a tune up. Why tune something up that I would be using for one month more?

Blue Order

Ship it. Take it to your LBS, have them box it up, and ship it to yourself.

Banzai

If you can take the time, take the train. It's a rather gentlemanly way to travel, and you have leg room, and the opportunity to see a fair bit of the country. California has fairly extensive rail lines as well, so once you take the Zephyr to San Fran, you should be able to go North or South almost anywhere.

froze

I'm sorry your moving there, life is different as you will find out. Actually I use to live there and I'm jealous your going there, but then again my house in Fort Wayne Indiana was paid for by the house I sold in California that I owed a lot on and now don't owe a dime...except for taxes but my taxes are 1/4th of what the taxes were in CA and my house is twice as large now.

But I digress, you can pack up the bike yourself by getting a used bike box from a LBS, then buy some pipe (foam tubing) insulation from Lowes or wherever and cut the foam to fit your frame tubes and handlebars and place on the frame/bars to protect it; then get bubble wrap to wrap any exposed areas and lose parts so they don't bang around and mar your frame or other parts. Wrap any lose bubble wrap or foam tubing with the old standard duct tape. Then ship your bike yourself to yourself.

chromedome

A few years ago, Amtrak ****ed up my bike, which was properly packed, unrepairably bent the fork and pretzeled the front wheel. Then denied it happened on the train, refused to pay for damages, which I paid extra for the phoney insurance they offer.
One of the few things that can really **** me off just by thinking about it is that ****ing Amtrak and their incompetent ***k A** **d d*** **** ****ing ..........
I got that off my chest!
Where are you moving from, and to what city?

Nachoman

If you decide to take it with you, make sure to have it properly boxed. I've got a trico hard case and my bike still gets a little dinged up. Once it leaves your hands you have no ideal how rough they are with your precious baby.

DCCommuter

Ride it.

froze

Sorry to hear about your problems with Amtrak. Years ago I made several trips from Santa Barbara to San Francisco by Amtrak with my bike along with ridding buddies and none of us or others that also did it ever suffered any damages, and these bikes were never packed in a box because we were going to ride them back home. Heck I never got a scratch, at least none that I could make note of. I think a lot of businesses today just don't care like they once did.