frndlyfire

I’m moving to the UK shortly which means I’ll be shipping the 7 bikes i can’t part with. The bikes will be going by shipping container, though. They will be packed in cardboard bike boxes with all the usual protection - but I was wondering if there is any more that I can do?

I’m mainly worried about things being packed on top of them, or even them being laid in their sides. I was thinking about adding wood supports to the ends of each box (super glued/taped to the box from top to bottom), and also doing the same with an I support sitting in the very middle to protect any sideways crushing.

Am I over thinking this? Or thinking about it all wrong? Any advice greatly appreciated - it seems all the shipping companies I’ve looked at have reviews from people saying they broke their stuff - and the kicker is that if I pack the boxes myself they won’t insure them! However, I feel much safer spending an hour or so packing each myself than letting the movers do it.

bobwysiwyg

If you are in control of the container packing, why can't they be laid on their side.. but on top so nothing else rests on them.

gugie 

7 bikes, consider removing wheels, pedals, and possibly the handlebars, and building one plywood container for the bikes, another for the wheels. 2x6 screwed and glued to the bottom, cut down to match dropout spacing. Screw dropouts to wood using fender washers, then something to space the top tubes so they won't rattle around. Wheels, pedals, and possibly handlebars in another wooden crate.

Just spitballin' here.

ryansu

Riv has a nice video on a bike if you want it really secure

xiaoman1 

I see others chimed in with good suggestions while I was typing...
frndlyfire,
Is the whole container yours or are you shipping with another person? if I were packing for shipping I would do a google search to see how others have done it..there are some good videos out there that can provide helpful information.
I would be sure to wrap everything with pipe insulation as well as bracing/blocking the stays to keep them in alignment and use zip ties to secure everything so items don't bounce around.
I am not sure about laying them down, when I ship I usually stand them up and put loads of arrows around the box that point up.
Others will add their thoughts, Good luck on the move.
Ben

DiegoFrogs

I have done this twice, each time with two bikes.

Moving from California to Sweden - I packed all my stuff and the company collected and inventoried it. They packed it into a crate on a pallet, and I received one sealed crate in Sweden some two months later. One bike was in the way you would expect, the other was horizontal on top of everything. No damage, though I used pipe insulation and zip ties to help ensure that things didn't move around in the box. Since they palletized it, there was very minimal handling of the individual bikes, so no problem. All my other stuff was well received. It was well protected by the crate and tons of internal packaging material. I paid the US company just to 'get it to the port in Europe,' and had to contract again for customs and delivery and whatnot, and just paid their partner in Europe to deal with that. Pleasant experience all around. I think it cost something like 3000 USD, but it wasn't my money so I didn't care so much.

Moving from Sweden to Ohio 5 years later - Different company. The guy who collected my boxes said "it is bicycle, yes?" and then immediately flipped it on the wrong end while I could still see him. I volunteered to carefully load the second one into his truck. This time it took three months since my stuff sat in a warehouse in Philly for 5 weeks after clearing customs in only a day. All of my other moving boxes were completely trashed and a skewer was sticking from a hole in one of the bike boxes. I saw in the truck that they were standing tall on the small side. Guy ignores the hand-carry cutouts and hoists the bike on his shoulder, then stacks them in the elevator the same way they were in the truck. Through some miracle, there was no damage to my bikes or anything else except one wrinkled book despite the damage to the boxes, and there were clearly some attempts at repairing the boxes. I even found markings on the inside of the top of one box from the open seattube, so it may have made the journey actually upside down. The big difference here is that they didn't package my stuff in a crate separately from the other stuff in the container and there must have been more handling of my stuff individually. This one I paid for door-to-door in advance, but the company that they selected on the US leg of the journey has a poor reputation, and I had no choice. This cost more like 1200 USD for roughly the same quantity of stuff, then I had to pay the delivery company 50 USD to go in the super-fast elevator in my apartment building. Noteworthy was that this time it WAS my money, which played a role in the affair.

The second time around I saved a LOT of money, but I think I really was lucky that my stuff made it safe.

frndlyfire

Thanks everyone.

Yes, it’s a partial container so I have no idea how they will treat the stuff once it’s leaves my site. One company comes here and takes it to the docks, someone else packs it in a container, then someone else unloads and delivers it to me in the UK.

As we only have around 300cf and a container is 1,200cf it will be full over other people’s stuff as well.

As much as I’d like to build my own wooden boxes i’m afraid I don’t have the time (or probably the skills!) to do that. So really I’m relying on traditional cardboard bike boxes, then doing everything I can to protect them from all eventualities!

frndlyfire

I should have said, I’ve also completely stripped them down, so the only thing in the boxes are the frames, forks, and wheels.

All the groups are going separately. I’m even tempted to put all the forks in a separate box - but would be devastated if that went missing!

Cyclist753

..

randyjawa 

This is how I prepare bikes for shipment - Packing and Shipping Bicycles. The method shown is for overseas shipments. I can, for most target countries, get a bike into a box that will be accepted by most postal services. Post is way less expensive that Fedex or Purolator, by hundreds off dollars...

Get this into a box size identified by black tape...


And this disassembled PX10 fitted fine and then went to Japan...

Random Tandem

I used sections of pool noodle to protect my frame when I put it in the Greyhound to get home from my last tour. They are seasonally easy to find and more reusable than bubble wrap.

-Will

speedevil 

I used pool noodles when I packed framesets for shipping to the painter. Blocks in the dropouts, and secured the fork to the already-noodled (is that a phrase?) frame. Both frames arrived without damage. I decided to pick them up in person, didn't want to press my luck. I'd have been sick (literally) if they were damaged in shipping after being painted to perfection. One of them was the Masi, which I started a thread about a couple of days ago, the second is a Pinarello which is next to be built.

Good luck and I hope everything arrives in good condition.