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HOW TO PACK AND SHIP A BIKE
- Shops will gladly give you free cardboard bicycle boxes for
shipping.
- ALWAYS remove or cross-out old shipping address labels on boxes.
- Check for any airline or shipping company container size
restrictions.
- Most bike shops will professionally pack your bike for you.
- For more rugged packaging, TWO cardboard boxes of slightly different sizes
placed one inside the other, gives you a stronger, double-walled box.
- To fit bike into shipping box, remove pedals, handlebars, seats, and front
wheels.
- Very sturdy, strapped-shut, foam-filled, ABS hard plastic bicycle shipping
cases are excellent for fast, easy packing, and safe shipping.
- Tie or tape parts securely so they don’t shake around inside the
box.
- Consider packing bicycle gear and/or re-assembly tools inside the
box.
- If you’ll need to re-ship your bike home, pack a roll of tape inside the
box.
- Use plastic packaging or strapping tape to seal the outside of the
box.
- To SIGNIFICANTLY strengthen the box, wrap plastic packaging tape in a
cross-hatch pattern a few inches apart around the box vertically and
horizontally to help prevent shipping damage box holes from enlarging.
- You can minimize possible costs, carrying hassles, and other problems by
shipping your bicycle (by UPS, RPS, FedEx, etc.) to its destination a few days
prior to your trip, and then home again. Check price comparisons, shipping
time, and for a “ship-to” location where you can pick-up your bike.
- If unsure about your mechanical abilities, arrange for a bike shop at your
destination to (inexpensively) re-assemble your bike. If you’ll later need it
disassembled for shipping home, ask what they’d charge to store your box and
re-pack your bike.
BE AWARE: Some airlines charge a
high, extra fee when you take your boxed bike on a plane. Try to check it as
luggage or “sporting goods,” NOT as a bicycle (but pack it WELL!).
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