Originally Posted by
rushbikes
Also, who has some insight on shipping internationally? I got a quote from UPS on the same box to go to the UK and it was $485!!! At that price it's worthwhile just to buy a roundtrip ticket and fly the bike myself.
Competitive Cyclist manages to ship bikes anywhere in the world for $230 or something like that. They are the only ones with such a low rate. Most other places give a rate that is comparable (speedgoat.com wanted $900 to ship me full-sus 29er!!).
Try using a freight forwarding company like usamail1.com - their rates are often cheaper than the international rates quoted by most bike places. Because the bike box is so big, it ships by Volumetric Weight. Basically, this means Shipping Weight = L * W * D / 166 (where L, W and D are in inches, and Shipping Weight is in pound). Get the bike box dimensions and compare it with the shipping rates on usamail1.com.
V.