Bike Transport
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dscf23 posted 32 weeks ago.
The transport by plane with you, should cost 100. Check again with the airline. Some don't charge if the bike is not a racer's bike. But check. You can just go to a bike shop and have them box it up for you. Also ask them what you will have to do to assemble it back. Or have a french bike shop do it.
just my 0.02!
Daniel
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CadenceGuy posted 32 weeks ago.
dscf23 wrote:
The transport by plane with you, should cost 100. Check again with the airline. Some don't charge if the bike is not a racer's bike. But check. You can just go to a bike shop and have them box it up for you. Also ask them what you will have to do to assemble it back. Or have a french bike shop do it.
+1 Call and find out the price of the 'throwers' loading your bike on the plane. I would also suggest maybe a sharpie marker to mark your seat height and draw a line on your bars to mark the angles of them as well, then you shouldnt have to worry about your fit, just line everything back up.
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Tri_it_out posted 32 weeks ago.
1++ on marking seat height, angles etc. If you just mark everything up you can probably put it back together yourself and it should be pretty good assuming you have the tools. I bet riding the French countryside in the summer will be beautiful. Good luck.
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TriSooner posted 32 weeks ago.
Amish wrote:
I need to transport my bike from Boston to France in order to train for Timberman in August . . . I don't know too much about assembling the bike back together . . . will the fit get messed up?
Based on this, it sounds like you currently live in France but the bike is back home in Boston. So you aren't flying with it right now? Then just have someone from home FedEx/UPS it to you. Have them take it to the LBS and pack it, assuming you have a hard-sided bike box. Re-assembly after shipping only takes a pedal wrench and Allen wrench: You only take off the pedals, drop the seat, and loosen the stem and rotate, flatten the bars. The fit won't really get messed up if you put the seat back at the same height and put the bars back at the right angle. Just handle gently because you don't want to crush the fork or bend the derailleur hanger (that's why you use hard-sided boxes).
When you fly from France to Timberman, it's not any more complicated. I flew from DFW to Frankfurt in July in this is what I did: Pack the bike in a hard-sided bike box and fly with it as 'oversized luggage.' It is ~$100 each way. Get a mini-van cab and drag the monster all the way to the hotel, re-assemble, and race.
My discussion about 'Airlines and Bike Boxes'may help too.
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xc800runner posted 32 weeks ago.
I've flown with bikes from Chicago to London (but didn't have it on the return from Frankfurt - damn Straussburg hooligans) and Houston to Kuala Lumpur/Labuan, Malaysia. Didn't use anything more than a standard cardboard bike box your LBS gets frames/builds sent in. As said, all you need to to is mark the seat height and bar angle (though if you ride a lot, you'll get these back within millimeter precision based on feel after the first ride or 2), loosen the bars and drop the seat, remove the pedals and wheels and toss in the box. When you get to France, just tighten everything back up (if you have a carbon post/bars, be sure to use a torque wrench, though) and ride on. When coming home, repeat. If using a hard case, that's all you'll need to do. For the cardboard box idea, you will also want to remove the rear derailleur. Just unscrew it from the hanger and leave it running through the chain and the cable attached. This way you have some give back there and won't bend the hanger/derailleur cage in the event of an impact.
Total cost for flying the bike to London: $10 (I had to buy a box, which United actually provided in 2002). I bolted everything up and actually rode away from Heathrow (albeit mistakenly on the M4). $0 airline fee.
Total cost for flying a bike to Malaysia in 2006: $75. Baggafe fee on Continental from Houston to LAX, due only to the fact that I was unable to check baggage through to KL/Labuan because my layover was more than 8 hours. $0 charge for flight to Malaysia from LA.
The baggage charge for multipl segment flights is based on the final carier's policy. So if you're making a connection somewhere, look into the final carrier's requirements, not the carrier from Boston.
France in the summer is goregous. You'll love riding over there.
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Amish posted 32 weeks ago.
I actually live in Dallas, go to school in boston, and I landed an internship in Perpignan france for the summer, so I'll be working there--I need my bike to train for timberman though...do any of you suggest shipping it via LBS to my final destination?
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slammy posted 32 weeks ago.
I am flying to Europe with United Airlines and they charge 200 dollars each way to bring a bike...
I've looked into UPS and Fedex, looks like they will charge a bunch, too... ~400 dollars from what I could find through a quick search,
USPS - I'm not sure how big a bike box is, but it might be able to ship it for around 80-90 bucks, but I need to go ask the post office to make sure...
let me know if you figure out the cheapest way to send your bike to europe, I might bring my bike home for the summer if it's worth it
Hi everyone, I am working in france for the summer, but I need to transport my bike from Boston to France in order to train for Timberman in August--> do you have any suggestions about transporting the bike? I hear it gets kind of expensive, and I don't know too much about assembling the bike back together...will the fit get messed up? Is there a cheap or easier way?
please help with any suggestions.
thanks