Originally Posted by
teamzissou
Hi all, I'm moving to France from the states soon (weird timing, I know). I've been looking into the possibility of shipping my bike over with me, after looking into it briefly and finding quotes of around $150, which is less than I expected. I'm wondering if anyone here has any experience with international bike shipping and could give me some advice.
I've seen some advertisements for cases made specifically for bike shipments. I'm not planning on doing this frequently, so I don't want to invest in one of those. Is it safe to ship packed in a standard cardboard box?
Anybody have recommendations for particular services? I've seen ShipBike and BikeFlights, anyone have experience with either of these?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Also, if anyone here has been on any bike trips around the Burgundy region, let me know! I'm looking forward to exploring the area.
Burgundy? Oh man, you're gonna be in heaven! Can't go wrong. It's just hard to cycle after the fifth winery though...
In the old days, you could bring your bike on the plane for free. Nice on that front, but not nice the way they treated your bike. They must have had an incentive program to see who could do the most damage. The best/worst story I heard is of a friend who flew to DC and when he got there, the luggage person retrieved his bike from in back and handed him - just his bike! No box. "Where's my front wheel?" "What wheel?" Front wheel, pedals, other misc. parts GONE. He was pretty pissed off. Apparently the boxed bike sat outside on the tarmac at one point in the rain. Box disintegrated and all the parts were scattered to the wind. So the lesson there is BE SURE EVERYTHING IS FIRMLY ATTACHED to your bike.
Given the airlines' animosity toward bikes - and luggage in general - your are most certainly better off shipping it for $150. FAR less hassle and risk than dealing with the airlines. One less huge thing to bring to the airport too.
And the moving company transporting your stuff abroad? If so, it seems they'd be the ones doing the bike. But if you do, have it properly packaged in a bike box at lease by someone who's VERY familiar with bicycle packaging. Lots of pitfalls with doing it wrong (no fork brace, for example, causes all sorts of problems. Fork tips poke through box, getting bent, even damaging the frame...).
Bon voyage et chance!
PS And if you ever become a frequent bike traveler over the pond, you'll want a travel bike if you intend to always be avec le velo. Breaking down a bike with couplers and properly packaged in two airline-approved hard cases is THE WAY to go. But you say you aren't planning frequent overseas bike travel, so not an issue now.