Shipping an empty S&S bike case
 

Does it need to be boxed, or can the label go right on the case?

Have been shipping my bikeFirday's samsonite cases as is - no need for the boxes.

Thanks

I fly with a checked soft S & S case along with a hard Pelican case in the overhead. The empty S & S case can be folded and stuffed into the Pelican at the arrival airport. Then I ship that forward and ride away.. FedEx has been ho problem with labels but UPS once insisted on boxing the Pelican. They claim that labels cab go amiss on plastic surfaces and they don't like handling odd packages. In any case their box charge was less than the charge for "customer provided" packaging. Better check with the shipper.

And then you re-assemble right at ethe airport? i would think security would have a problem wirh that. In any case, my arrival will likely be midnight, and so I will assemble elsewhere.

excellent. Do You have photos of this ? I would love to see it.

I have assembled at an airport. It was not problem at all. Some airports even have stations for that.

Airports are not a problem. Everything is open and the most you will get are friendly passersbys. I usually disassemble and pack the day before at a hotel/hostel where I can do it in a more relaxed setting. The Pelican is a Model 1510 which is designed to be the biggest to fit overhead. Interestingly, the S & S will fit into the Pelican and the Pelican will fit into the S & S. Whichever way you go a 50 pound box with no wheels is a pain to carry. I'm working on keeping the weight down to under 40 lbs. by transferring as much as I can to the carry on bag (which has wheels).

The others that have posted, I am not sure which one posted something you want a photo of.

If your question is the S&S case that can be folded, I use the S&S backpack case. I added corroplast stiffeners to it, those can't be folded but the case by itself can be broken down to a much smaller size. The four side pieces are attached to each other by velcro, can be separated from each other. I probably could fold my corroplast stiffeners that I put in the top and bottom, but choose not to. When the four side panels (and in my case the corroplast) are removed, the remaining case is just a floppy fabric bag that can easily be folded.


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7dfe6072e2.jpg

In the above photo, you can see white in between the spokes in the case, the white is one of the sheets of corroplast in the bottom, the other sheet of corroplast was removed when I openned the case up, a bit of the corroplast can be seen in the upper left corner, it is the white thing in the corner.

In the photo below, S&S Backpack case is on the far right on the cart. It is 26X26X10 inches that is the max that meets most USA airlines for size at 62 inches.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1bed388c0c.jpg

which one of them is the hard pelican case?
Reply

My photos are mine, I am not the same poster as the person that had a pelican case. I was just trying to help since I had some photos of the case. Sorry if I added confusion.

oops, sorry. I did not pay enough attention.

I travel with a soft S&S case and large suitcase. I have disassembled the S&S case and put inside the suitcase and shipped without boxing. It was either Fedex or UPS, and arrived at my destination a few days before I did. On a recent trip, I took a free shuttle to the hotel where I had reservations at the end of my trip, and they held my cases until I checked in. Right now I’m in the Keys, and left my cases with friends in Naples, hopped on the ferry and will return the same way.

I have shipped a hard sided 26x26x10 S&S case many times using UPS. I've done this in the US, US to Canada, and within Europe. Never a problem. The mailing labels don't always stick to the case so they often use a clear label packet zip-tied to the handle.

One piece of advice: If you aren't a Swiss citizen, don't ship an empty (of full) box to Switzerland.

I've read that some folks assemble at the airport but they seem to be those who have had a fair amount of practice to be able to do that in an hour or so. But if one has an S&S hard case, what does one do with the case when cycling away from the airport?

Harbor Freight has a little platform with three wheels on it. I roll my bike box in on that, check the box, and put the carriage in my carryon. I'd post a pic, but my phone has not been up to the task of late. On their website it's called the Haulmaster three wheel wood dolly. $3.99

S&S and UPS
 

Shipping by UPS. If you ship a S & S case unbox and it gets damaged, UPS will NOT pay for damages to the case. If the S and S case is in a card board box and the case gets damaged, UPS will pay for the case.

I occasionally read that someone assembled their bike at the airport and rode from there, but every situation I recall reading about is using a non-coupled bike. Most of those situations I recall reading about were full size bikes, but occasionally were a folder.

I can see taking a bike out of a box, putting pedals on, the front fender on, handlebars and stem, setting the seatpost to the right height, then trying to find a place to dispose of a large box. My S&S bike just barely fits in the S&S case, the manufacturer in their literature says it can't be done. I have to pull off the crank arms & pedals, pull the fork out, saddle and seatpost, all three water bottle cages, both racks, etc. to fit my bike in the S&S case. None of it is difficult, but it is time consuming and tedious.

I can't fit the fenders in the case, so that is the only thing that speeds up the process since fenders were left at home. Assembling my S&S bike is best done at a hostel in the town near the airport, preferably not on a rainy day. On a positive note, it is much easier to get my luggage and S&S case to a hostel from the airport than a full size bike box which some shuttle buses can't take. My luggage shown in the photo above in post number 9 all fits in a Prius, which is fortunate since most of the taxis in my community are Priuses.

I've done all of those things. Sort of. I did fly into an airport with my S&S bike, and I decided not to assemble it at the airport, but instead to bus myself to the other side of town, get a bite to eat, and assemble it out near the end of useful bus service, so I could bike the rest of the way. Turned out bus service was kind of a mess. After squeezing my case into a seat on the light rail, and then dragging to to a connecting bus because the light rail track was under construction, and then transferring it to another bus, and then learning that I had to abandon that bus a mile from my planned stop because the street was torn up and the bus had to detour, I set off on foot with my case on my back, but after two blocks, I stopped and assembled my bike on the city sidewalk. It would have been better to have done it in the relative comfort of the airport, and I could have condensed my other baggage into the S&S case and had one bike and one, giant bag rather that two giant bags. As long as the bus had a rack, the bike is easier to manage than the case. Assembling the full, uncoupled bike takes longer than an uncoupled bike, possibly twice as long, but it has to be done at some point, and while I agree that if you can get the case your first night's destination and assemble it in a leisurely fashion, that is a good idea, but that really depends on a lot, and there's definitely something satisfying about leaving the airport with/on your fully-assembled bike.

I've done this with a folding bike, and that bike still had to be split to fit in case. It was probably a little faster than the S&S bike, but not much. To get out of the airport with my folding bike, I had a Bike Friday trailer frame that I attached to the suitcase my bike traveled in. I imagine something similar could be done with a hard-sided S&S case, although, as you say, it can be a tight fit in the case for just a bike. What I have done in some situations is to put the less awkwardly sized pieces into my checked duffel bag: fork, seatpost, seatpost-mounted rack. That allows the other pieces to fit in the case a little easier.

By far, the easiest is the full-size, uncoupled bike. If you pack it in a cardboard box that you will not be needing again, you can ditch that at the airport and ride away without a care. But even that is not necessarily a speedy process. The one thing I've learned from having flown my bike multiple places over the past few years is to allow plenty of time for building the bike up. It's great if you can get up and running in short order, but if you count on that happening, then it can throw you off schedule when you hit a snag. Better if you find yourself with extra free time than if you find yourself rushing through the set-up.

And you make a good point about an S&S case being easier to put in a car than a full sized bike box (or a full-sized bike). For the OPs purposes, the the desire is to ride out of the airport, then the choices would seem to be:

• Avail yourself of airport adjacent shipping services. I've seen these listed when planning a trip, but I've never actually used them, so I don't how practical that is.
• Use a soft-sided case that you can fold up and travel with until you can ditch it. Even soft-sided cases are bulky and heavy, and I wouldn't want to tour long-term with them.
• Turn your case into a trailer. This method has some appeal for me since I've done it with a folding bike. It's handy and self contained, and you should be able to fit a full tour's worth of luggage into an S&S case, depending on how light you travel. But as much as I like the self-sufficiency of this method, I don't actually like traveling with a trailer.

It varies ... for my upcoming trip to Scotland I plan to assemble the bike at the airport, consolidate the boxes into one and check it into luggage storage right at the airport for about $10 per day. I plan to bike right out of the airport, do a look tour and return back to the same airport to fly back home.

That sounds like a perfect solution when coming and going from the same place. Is that an option in the U.S.? I feel like with airport security being the way it is these days, just leaving anything at the airport would not be encouraged.

Sometimes. You want to search for "left luggage" along with the airport to see if they have provisions. Here is an example of what comes up if I look for Atlanta - https://freetoursbyfoot.com/luggage-storage-atlanta/

However, in general I've found it more useful to book a hotel for both 1st/last nights and then ask further then.

My plan is to fly into one city and out of another. I am using a Co-Morion hard case, and my bike fits in fine, if packed correctly. I only do light touring, and no camping, so my extraneous luggage is a lot less. The plan is to get to a place to overnight, assemble the bike, take the case to the shipper, and then ride away from the overnight place.

And while we're here...I'm hoping to take the train out of Indianapolis, to San Antonio, where I can catch a bus back home to Mexico. I have no idea what their baggage rules are on Amtrak

Most likely two choices:
1. The connecting trains (Cardinal and Texas Eagle) both have "roll on roll off" bike service. If there is room, you can reserve for ~$20 and roll your bike up to the baggage car, hand to an attendant and they'll hang it on one of the hooks.
2. If the roll on/roll off slots are all taken, you can buy a (large) box, remove pedals, turn handlebars and perhaps remove seat and check it as luggage.

US mail. No Box. Your name address and phone number taped to the inside of the case in a easy to see location. In addition to the mailing label.

Do you have a place to mail it to.? Some Post offices hold packages in general delivery. C/O general delivery might hold it for 30 days. Call the post office in question to be sure.

An s&s case can be carry on luggage for Amtrak. I use a cable lock to secure mine to the luggage rack.