Does anyone have suggestions on shipping a road bike from Pittsburgh to LA, and back? I'm visiting a friend, and planning on biking from LA to San Diego, and back, and would like to have my bike with me. Is this a good or bad idea? Would I be better off buying one there, then trying to resell it? Or hoping for something to borrow? Or is it reasonably safe and inexpensive to ship a bike? I'm very nervous about it.
Thanks so much for any advice you can offer! I really appreciate it!
I'd imagine there are numerous shops that rent bikes in LA/San Diego. If you were going there for racing or mountain biking I would say ship yours but for just cruising around and sight seeing I would rent a road bike. A lot less hassle and probably will be around the same price.
You can take your bike to a bike shop and have them pack it for something like $50 and then ship it for something like $100-$200. Everyone says this is the safest and simplest way. (If there's damage in shipping a good bike shop will handle the claim for you.) If you don't have a place to receive it just ship it to another bike shop and have them set it up. So you'll end up spending $200 or so for each shipment and have no hassle.
There are cheaper ways to do this, but there's no significant advantage unless you ship your bike somewhat regularly. You can, for example, buy a shipping container from shipbikes.com, pack it (minimal disassembly) and have them ship it and save something around $100. But then you have to deal with storing the container, worry about damage yourself, etc.
EDIT: @steevo, right, I was assuming flying to the west coast. Ground travel offers other good options and you can save most of the money if you pack it yourself. Just get a bike box from a bike shop and learn to pack your bike. However, if there is damage to the bike in shipment you will have trouble from the shipping company. The first thing they ask is, "was the bike professionally packed?"
Depends on which method.
How are you getting there?
5 extra dollars on the greyhound. 10 on
amtrak. those are prices frrom when i had no
money.
50-150 on a plane (southwest - united)
YOu have to pay to have it boxed up and
assembled if you dont know how to properly
do that or follow internet directions.
fedex would be 80-100 each way.
If you are competent at breaking the bike down and building it up, I would consider going to a bike shop and asking for an old cardboard box which was used to ship a new bike. I have never been charged for one and they work reasonably well if you are careful with packing. I'd wrap some towels around the forks, etc.
Also, this isn't responsive to the question, but I understand that CO2 cartridges cannot be shipped on a plane via checked baggage, if at all. I am not 100% sure on that but I would inquire before you try to take any on the plane.
It can be hard to find a place to rent bikes, but if you're only looking to ride a day or two, most shops will demo a bike for quite a bit less than it would cost to ship yours. And it will probably be a much nicer bike than you could rent.
If you end up deciding to ship the bike, or for the general knowledge of anybody shipping a bike, you can save yourself a chunk of change by using FedEx and scheduling your shipment online.
When you schedule online you designate the measurements of the box yourself and then print/apply the shipping label to the box. An inch on a given dimension will literally make the difference between a $40 shipment and a $110 one. If you let FedEx or UPS or whoever do the measuring, they'll always bump you into that $100 plus category. If you set it up online, however, you can play with the numbers to get it into that $40 category.
I tested this method myself a month ago when I had a bike shipped to PGH from Charlotte. FedEx quoted me $130. I printed my own label for $44, and everything worked out fine.
@matt, thanks for the tip!
thank you all so much for the advice! It is all very helpful, and clearly, I have a lot to consider!
@matt: did you feel safe shipping your bike with FedEx? Did you insure it?
Thanks again!
@firmania, FedEx insures it automatically. There's a field for entering the value of the cargo.
In my case, the person shipping the bike took a bunch of pictures of it prior to shipping in case something happened for which I would have had to file a claim. I was a bit hesitant, both on account of the shipping safety and on account of whether or not my own $44 printed label would get changed to $135 somewhere in the shipping process. In the end it all worked out fine; bike was pristine, and it only cost $44. I felt like I discovered some great secret, hahaha.
I had a good experience renting from Downtown LA Bicycles in February. Their web site says road bikes coming soon...you could call in case the site is not up to date. I rented a porteur-style bike just for getting around downtown. The shop is near several bus lines and the buses have racks (this was good 'cause I got a flat.)
http://www.downtownlabicycles.com/about-us.html
Just a little googling came up with this, http://helenscycles.com/articles/helens-bike-rentals-pg97.htm
If you rent a bike, pack your saddle and maybe that would be sufficient to keep comfy. $65/day sounds expensive to me and at $375/wk, I would just find an early-mid 90's steel frame bike or something decent enough to either resell or ship it back.
Also, wasn't there someone who gave away a free travel box during spring cleaning with the comment of sharing it with others on here?
http://www.sandiegobikeandkayaktours.com/bike_rentals.html
$45/day
$http://www.sdbikeshop.com/rental.html
$130/week
http://www.rentabikenow.com/store?loc=hollandsbicycles
Has a pretty good selection of bikes for $50/day, $150/week
we ship bikes / parts all around the world,,,,bicycle heaven bike museum bike shop,,,i may be able to help you,,after noons best 412 716 4956
