What is the best way to ship a bike from England? I thought about posting this in General Cycling, but I think we do more "sourcing" from overseas then they do. Thanks

Multiple boxes by ParcelForce (UK Royal Mail)...or multiple boxes as extra luggage (not as a bike) if you're flying.

wait wait wait....WHat'd you get?

Nothing yet, I'm trying to get things lined up first.... IF I get it, I'll divulge....

Royal Post is GBP 137 to ship it to me. Thats 3 times the price of the bike!

Gotta be a cheaper way

I recently paid 40 GBP just to ship 2 new rims to west coast of NA, so by my math, 137 for a whole bike is not too bad, though not cheap to be sure.

It's all about the size of the box. I just had a bike shipped from the U.K. via Parcels2Go, which was a cheaper window to FedEx Express.

The bike was picked up in a village north of London at 11:30 a.m. It was delivered to my house outside Washington, D.C. at 10:30 a.m. the next morning.

The box didn't have a single dent or mark.

The site (parcels2go.com) has a calculator for costs.

It's all about the size, not the weight.

Cheers!

Exactly...which is why you need multiple boxes...

Size dose'nt matter....all the time anyway. I've been considering "partial container sea cargo". There are several Co.s in the UK that will do this. Get the item to the Shippers office, they hold it to fit it into a shared contianer. The typical wait time is 8-12 weeks before shipping. Good for complete bicycles and if you live near a sea port or have someone to facilitate for you. The last quote I had a year ago was for just over $50 US, port to port.

can you post any details

Parcels2Go.com
Type in your dimensions & weight.

If you are careful in your packing, and cut your box to the best possible fit, you should be able to get a whole bike shipped for under, say, $120. As noted above, I got my frame in about 24 hours.

The problem with sea freight is the amount of time your box is left sitting around and, thus, vulnerable to getting squashed, mangled, dropped or otherwise lost or destroyed. All to save 50 bucks or so.

The British call that "penny-wise and pound-foolish".

YMMV.

Not completely accurate. It soes sit around for a bit true, but not in a box unless you pack it. Some Co.s ship fine antiques, sports cars etc. These are the shippers you need to work with. A complete bike is blanket wrapped and packed within the container, you recieve it at the port the same way. You can have the item photographed and insured before departure so that you have recourse it it gets scratched or dinged. The reallity is it is alot safer than shipping it boxed by Fed EX. I've had boxes stepped on, corners shredded etc. come off Fed EX and UPS trucks. It's not about saving a few $, it's about safe transport.

This link has a lot of info about continer and partial contianer shipping.

https://www.anglopacific.co.uk/

Okay. Hey, I'm open to learn something. I'd still think that pre-packing would be safer than a blanket draped over it, but IF you have good handlers, containers can be very good. I shipped nearly 15,000 lbs from Asia. All came w/o incident.

Thanks for the link, too.

Your probably correct, but I think it's what they do to the packaging that becomes an issue. In the containers, there is usually very little movement and you picking it up before any one begins moving it about. I think frames and smaller parts work best via Fedex Ups or the post.

Andrew, if you're planning on having things shipped over in a cargo box, let me know. My BMW needs a new front bumper (I switched to European bumpers, then someone backed into it!) and perhaps I can sneak a bike into the mix as well.

flights are cheap right now to the UK.

Wanna go, find some bikes, load up a container and come back? Stop at pubs all along the way. They've got Holdsworths, Bob Jacksons and Claud Butlers basically littering the streets there right?

This idea could prove dangerous.... I'm doing Boston this weekend, perhaps I'll find something there. I'm sure I'll find a few good pubs.

This is an interesting site but I've entered the dimensions of a bike box and it says that I have to contact them as they do not ship such large items. Is this how it worked for you? I am awaiting an email now but I just wanted to see how others fared...Thanks.

As the cost is all about the dimensions, I suggest you do a serious KD (knock down) of the bike. That includes removing the fork and, after seriously careful wrapping, packing it inside the frame triangle. Etc. Somewhere, I think MiamiJim has a nice set of photos of packing.

Anyway, you should cut the box down to the smallest you can get away with and still have the bike well padded. You cannot hope to just stick a bike in a box and ship. That will cost a small fortune. Or, as you find, it's just too big to handle.

Try trimming the numbers until you get one the calculator will accept. Even just to experiment.

Good luck.

Yes, I actually managed to get an entire bike shipped in a small enough box that the post office took it without any problems however in this case, I am not the shipper but the receiver. Do you have a link to the photos that miamijim took? thanks.

Yup.

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...light=pack#top

Let's not forget Hetchins, and those lovely early Raliegh sport bikes like the SuperSport, oh and Roasdsters. Could make for an all British flip of historic proportions. We need investors!

RobE30- I'm planning on buyiing shipping a bike sometime in the next year. But you don't need to combine shipments with anyone you know unless your planning on filling an entire container. They'll put your bumper in with someone's bedroom set. Contact a shipper, have the bumper sent to them via local carrier and have it shipped to the closest Port. You have about 5 days to pick it up once it clears customs.

I don't know if we're looking at the same bikes, RobE30, but boy, I keep seeing a lot of bikes for sale that I love and they are all in the UK! So when you guys plan a group field trip to the UK, I'm in! That said, if you're in Boston this weekend and you're looking for anything specific in the old Raleigh line, let me know--I am culling my herd...

Hopefully we're not bidding on the same bikes, if we are, well we both have good taste!

I'll be in touch about helping you thin your herd

Nope--I'm not bidding on a thing, just ogling! Never hurts to look, right?

How would I go about contacting a shipper that would do this? Is it common practice?