Shipping tips
 

I want to send a bike to my brother in Atlanta. What are your shipping tips? How disassembled should it be? He has no tools or expertise to reassemble, so I'd like to keep it as together as possible. If that's not doable, I could ship it to a bike shop, but that would increase expenses.

http://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...ike-101-a.html

USPS or Fedex ground (prepaid, not at the drop shop) will net you the lowest prices, YMMV.

Include a crescent wrench for the pedals and the Park AWS-9 and he should be good to go.
Robot Check

Because of dimensional penalties, it's often less expensive to pack in two smaller cartons, One for the frame, one for the wheels (with skewers removed). Go the sites for the various carriers, ie. Fedex Ground, UPS, USPS and read the rules on size and weight and work within or around them o save dough.

The most important thing to do whenever you pack a frame or bike, is to put pacer blocks in the fork and rear dropouts. Properly braced these are strong and travel well. Not braced they're prone to crushing. You can make a brace with a piece of 2x1 and 2 nails, or get one free at any bike shop (fronts are much more common than rears).

Also, I find it advantageous to remove the RD (leave the cable attached) and tie it inside the rear triangle for safekeeping. Also, shove a cork of some kind in to the top of the seat tube to prevent damage there, especially if it sticks out above the top tube. If you have a threadless headset, you can save space, and the fork will be safer if you remove it, but this usually isn't worth it for threaded headsets.

The rest is about properly padding the frame tubes to prevent cosmetic damage, and securing removed parts **** pedals so they don't move around and cause damage. Be sure to pack small parts in zip-lok baggies, and/or in a small box within the box so they don't get lost.

trotsky, what kind of bike and what size?

Schwinn Le Tour, I measure 58cm.

Lots of good tips in that thread. Thanks, [MENTION=305894]oddjob2[/MENTION].

This does not add any pressure to me shipping you a bike this week!!!! :-)

No pressure at all!

If I need to ship an entire bike, I have the LBS prep as they charge a very fair $30, including disassembly and packing materials.

If I need to ship a frame, a bike box is too big. I encase the frame with about $5 pipe insulation, two wooden hub spacers cut to length, and scrounge for a flat screen TV box. 40" screen and up works for most bikes. You can even drop a box of components in the box too, just not rims.

This may be redundant, I've mentioned before on other threads! Take photo's (digital or smart phone)as you pack the item! As reference for the buyer (email the photo's), shipping carrier, insurance, and yourself!

How well do you trust your mail carrier? This one was posted a while ago on the CR-list. No reassembly required!

Gillot Spear Arrived

I assume you mean "spacer" blocks, and I agree. I often make them by rolling up corrugated cardboard. In a rolled up state, it is very strong. Or you can scrounge them at a bike shop. They receive them when they receive bikes from their suppliers.

For shipping a bike crated in a single box door to door, FedEx beats UPS and USPS by a lot. If you want to spend even less, bring it to a Greyhound station and ship it there. The recipient has to pick it up at Greyhound on the other end, as Greyhound doesn't pick up or drop off. But it's a nice way to save money.

I shipped my 58cm Bianchi Volpe, from Fairbanks, AK to South Florida, in May 2012, with no problems, via the USPS. I got a frame carton from my LBS, removed both wheels and the Q/R skewers, the freewheel, the chain, and the rear derailleur; removed the pedals and pulled the cranks; detached the brake and derailleur cables; pulled the stem/bars, loosened the stem-handlebar clamp; removed the saddle. Padded the frame, crankset, wheelset, handlebars, and rear derailleur with bubble wrap. Secured the wheels to opposite sides of the frame, using tie wraps; ditto, the crankset; hooked the drop bars over the top tube and tied them down; secured the saddle/skewers within the down/seat/top-tube triangle.

Zero damage over 7,500 miles shipped, and met the USPS dimensional limits. Cost? $110. YMMV.

Great Tip! I shipped a Paramount and took pictures of the box, inside and out just before I closed it up. The seller received the Paramount but the box with the Brooks and some other components were missing, but the box was still taped shut. I had the oh crap! moment when I thought I may not have put it in.

Luckily with the picture of the distinctive box in the box FedEx was able to find it.

Hmm, Appears to be suspicious that the "distinctive box" was found outside of the box by FedEx!!!? I'm glad you were able to resolve the issue with no further ado:)

Boxes get damaged in transit all the time, expecially things like bike boxes which don't have good support from within. I always put address labels, mine and consignee on all inner boxes when packing stuff with a high risk of transit breakup.

UPS and Fedex both devote lots of effort to their OS&D departments, who make sincere efforts to connect "found" stuff with the rightful owner. A good description is forwarded to all the way stations the original shipment passed through, and a human will search through the OS&D room to try to find it.

I shipped commercially with both Fedex and UPS and they had excellent track records finding lost goods. Sometimes, too good, because I'll get back stuff that isn't mine, or at least a phone call when boxes of my products turn up in the system.

at trip's end , peoples bikes get boxed and shipped home I take the RD Off, so hitting it wont bend the frame-tab
wheel off zip tied down , front spacer piece in the fork ..

a small box takes things like pedals in it . racks often have to come off bars packed so shifters dont get hit.

New Bikes in the factories are Packed and wrapped extensively .. so as to arrive scratch Free.
as a result Assembling the bike produces a big waste stream to be thrown away

does knock back some of the Green credits. but if you are up on when Garbage Day is at The LBS, the Packing materials are abundant.


BTW Commercial to commercial rates are lower than shipping to a residence ..

maybe because there is always some one to sign for it in a Shop, and so driver wont have to try 3 times then send it Back.

Their Business hours are the same as Most people's At the Job Hours .

then not sending it to a place that can re assemble and adjust it is kind of penny pinching-Pound foolish.

The residential upcharge at both UPS and Fedex Ground is a flat $2.50-$5.00 depending on ho far out of town the address is. It's not dependent on weight or size, and so becomes small by comparison when shipping a bike.

OTOH- commercial shippers qualify for volume discounts and these can often be in the 20-30% range for the weight and volume cost. The upcharges for oversize and residential aren't discounted. Since you're shipping From home, you might check to see if a friend with a business can help you out.

I've never found it to be significantly less expensive to ship in 2 boxes, in fact, I more often than not find it more expensive.

For the beginner try finding a Trek Madone clamshell box, the only problem with them is most Trek dealers like to charge upwards of $20 for the box. I only use them when I'm sending a very, very expensive bikes.

Recently I've been removing the left crank arm when I package a bike as it give more flexibility with front wheel placement.

Small dimensional changes in box size make a big difference as well. If it's a small bike, 54cm or less, look for a wider box, the extra inch goes a long way.