N0WBIE

My bike is about 20 pounds.

Cyclosaurus

Depends upon the size of the box, the source and destination locations, and the shipper (UPS, USPS, Fedex, etc). I just did a quick calculation on USPS a 30 mile trip in my area for a 54x30x8 box which is the biggest box of the typical cardboard bike box dimensions (50-ish x 30-ish x7-8-ish) that USPS would allow. It was $63.04. I'm guessing it will cost you $50-100 depending on how you do it.

Seems like a good excuse to take a 30 mile bike ride to me.

spdntrxi

insanity to ship a bike 30 miles....

awfulwaffle 

This.

N0WBIE

30 mile mountain bike ride with knobbies. Yeah.....

treadtread

On this forum I doubt you'll get advice other than ride it

raqball

Free! Peddle, peddle, peddle...

Artkansas 

I used to work at UPS, transferring packages from the small trucks to the big semi trailers. Time is of the essence. Don't assume that there is the time to carefully move the object from A to B. Instead, imagine that the package is thrown from the local truck to a conveyor belt. It's thrown twice if it misses. If you wrap it so it will survive Matt Prater kicking it over the goal post you are good.

Then, when it comes off of the conveyer belt it's put into the semi-trailer. It is sorted and packed in the trailer by someone who works too fast to give any real thought about where to put it and does it all by reflex as an unending stream of boxes containing everything from solid bubble wrap to solid steel comes at them.

Think of Lucille Ball at the candy factory, only with industrial parts.


At the destination, just reverse the process.

That or you ride it. Last weekend, I did a 32 mile ride to a conference, gave a talk and listened to 3 others and rode back home.

Is there a train you could take? Do you have a friend who drives who might give your bike a lift?

Nick The Beard

Don't forget about the cost to have the bike disassembled and boxed and then reassembled.

Def ride.

mrt2you

maybe i am in a minority here.
i say toss it in the back of your car and deliver it. what would it cost in gas and time?
you are shipping for a reason. if you ride it to deliver it. how do you get home?

tpelle

I agree with throwing it in the trunk of the car, bungee the trunk lid down, and roll.

Don't have a car? Have a friend with a car? Tell 'em you'll buy 'em lunch and 10 gallons of gas. You'll be ahead in the end.

walrus1

Put some slicks or treaded tires depending on the terrain you're riding on. A cheap pair of tries will get ya there and cost less then shipping it. Plus you're much less likely to lose or damage than a shipper is.

10 Wheels

Where is the nearest city bus route?

xenologer

costs about 1.5 burritos and 2 water bottles



... and this is a problem why?...

Machka 

Yep ... why not? I've ridden 200 km all in one go on a mountain bike with knobbies.


It'll be faster to ride it than to figure out how to ship it ... go ride!!

spdracr39

A local hot shot delivery service would do it for 50 - 100 dollars and wouldn't require packaging or disassembly

Wanderer

Where to where**********

bbbean 

I'm pretty curious as to why you'd ship a bike 30 miles instead of riding it or driving it.

Bug Shield

The question seems to me to be how you are going to get back after riding the bike 30-miles more than how the bike is going to get 30-miles away.

Northwestrider

What is the reason you don't ride it the 30 miles ? Are there borders involved ?

fietsbob

Out here The LBS ships people's bikes home at the end of Long tours , no foreknowledge ..

the bill of lading is filled out weighing the box with the bike in it , then UPS bills the shop , and the shop bills the customers credit card account .

If you want to really know, ask the Shipper Directly .


but you have to put the bike , knocked down in a carton first, before the shipper will accept it .. and cartons are not weightless.


only Exception I know of from my experience ..

is If you were in Europe, example: in '88 our group took all our Bikes 2 days ahead to the SNCF station in Paris
and the French (and Swiss) Rail system put them in an overnight train , and when we arrived in Bern Switzerland, the Bikes were waiting
in that cities' railroad station ..

John Redcorn

I've only been riding about 4 months, on a mountain bike, with knobbies (it's what I could afford) doing 10-15 mile rides. I'd jump at the chance to do 30, get the buyer to drive me home. My trouble is finding time. (as long as it was relatively flat too, I'm still not good on the hills)

no1mad 

I haven't bothered to price it, but it appears that some have given pretty good estimates based upon their own experience. I'll add to that by commenting it has been my experience that UPS/FedEx pretty much don't comprehend the word "fragile".

If for whatever reason you can't get to the bike and ride it home under your own power, you'll likely be money ahead if you just toss an old blanket in the back of a small rental car and fetch it yourself. Cheaper still would be just to ask one of your friends/family to use their car- bay them the gas money for the r/t and throw in a little extra coin, beer, brats, burgers, wings, or pizza as compensation.

xenologer

are you the OP? username mismatch


20lb mtb, could afford
wait, what!?

john4789

Come on now, I've ridden from Chicago to Schaumburg and back in a day on a MTB. No reason to ship it. Even at 15mph, that is only a 2hr ride one way. Any cyclist with a little bit of experience should be able to handle that.