Shipping "The Precious"

[mimitabby]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/fa...ssandnutrition

The Fourth Leg of the Triathlon: Bike Transport
By YISHANE LEE

THESE days, triathlons take place all over the country, and getting your bicycle to them can be an endurance event in itself.

Although the majority of athletes drive to races, USA Triathlon said the growing national interest in its big events means more racers are flying. Sales of bike travel cases have grown correspondingly.

Bill Langford, the president of Tri All 3 Sports, a manufacturer in San Clemente, Calif., said sales grew 20 percent in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period last year. Hard cases like Tri All 3’s are meant to withstand airline baggage handlers as well as shipment by ground, but the tradeoff is weight. Soft cases can help skirt airline weight limits but generally can’t be shipped. Both types have interiors that either cushion or lock in the bike frame once the wheels are removed.

Tony Claudino, 37, a triathlete from Brooklyn who will compete in the Ford Ironman World Championship in Hawaii on Oct. 11, tested five bike cases. He frequently travels with his bike, and owns the Trico Sports Iron Case, which is hard plastic and weighs 31 pounds. Besides protecting the bike, he said, a case for use on a plane needs to be easy to pack, move and access, particularly after inspection by the Transportation Security Administration.


there's more... go to the link

[neocelt]

Great ideas and loads of thoughtful input. Thanks to all for sharing your wisdom and experience with a noob. I don't plan to be flying with my bike on a regular basis, so the hardshell cases are not a viable option (unless perhaps I could rent one...). As there seems to be pros and cons to both shipping and carrying as baggage, I'll need to pursue "due diligence" and weigh my options accordingly. Thanks again for the beneficial input (and the links!); I do appreciate it. I'll check back in when I've gathered a bit more hard data (prices, etc.)...

Ride hard!
Aden

PS: Jane--we'll talk...

[motochick]

Greyhound bus. It was way cheap to ship our tandem frame that way. Just need a bus hub to pick it up at. May be worth checking into.

Brenda

[divingbiker]

Aden, I'm in the DC area and would be happy to lend you my hard case for your ride in August. I'll be back home with it next week, so if you're in the area any time before your trip, I could meet you with it. (It's big like Mimi's, so you need a big car!)

Just PM me, and I'll get back to you after Sunday when my ride ends.

[wavedancer]

We just returned (a few hours ago) from a mountain biking trip to California. We flew with the bikes from Boston to Oakland, non-stop to minimize luggage transfers. We used hard-sided cases similar to the Trico and a Team bike case. Everything came through fine, although we took a lot of time packing, padding, and strapping everything together so nothing could escape if the cases were opened by TSA.

We watched the TSA agent hand search the cases in Boston, and nervously tried to give him instructions about how to latch the cases back up (the latches were a little tricky on the Team case). He did remove a couple of gear items that we hadn't tied down, but managed to get them back in OK. On the return from Oakland, there was no sign that they had been opened by TSA.

We flew Jet Blue, who still charge $50 each way. That was the cheapest we found on the airlines currently. The Jet Blue agents in Oakland seemed to be very familiar with handling bikes. In fact, they kindly added my special bottle of extra virgin lime olive oil that I had unthinkingly padded carefully and placed in my carry-on bag. Even the TSA agent in Oakland was kind and understanding as he pulled it out of my bag and escorted me back out of security so I could take it back to the Jet Blue counter and get it into my checked bag. As luck would have it, the baggage claim checks on my receipt were the bike cases. But they put it in the case and it arrived safely!

When I priced out shipping coast-to-coast through FedEx, it was going to be well over $100 each way for each bike. If you are not flying so far, that would probably be less.

If you use a cardboard bike case, make sure you pad it well. Someone put another bike on our flight home today in a cardboard box that looked like it came through OK, but the rear axle was poking out the side

The mountain bikes required quite a lot of disassembly to fit into the cases. Road bikes would probably have been an easier fit. For future travel, we are thinking of looking into the Velo Safe II. Both bikes could go into one box, reducing the airline charge, and should require less disassembly.

It was great to have our own bikes out there, but the logistics can be a little challenging!