Shipping a bike

[skibum]

I guess I've been lucky. I've shipped my bike a couple of times using Fedex Ground and it's all gone very smoothly. It arrived on the estimated date in perfect condition. I found that Fedex Ground was less expensive than UPS. It cost around $30 from Atlanta to Colorado and $40 from Atlanta to California.

[DeniseGoldberg]

On my first tour with my own bike I shipped my bike via UPS. As I remember, shipping the bike at the time cost less than paying the excess baggage fee on the airline. I really did it for another reason though. While I had taken some classes at my LBS, and I did pack the bike for shipping (with a mechanic looking over my shoulder), I decided that I didn't want to deal with the reassembly on my own - so I shipped it ahead to a bike shop and paid them to reassemble it for me. I have taken other trips with a diamond-frame bike and checked the bike as baggage, paying the excess baggage fee. And now that I travel on a Bike Friday that packs into a suitcase that counts as regular luggage, my bike goes on the plane with me.

If you're traveling within the United States and you're going to check a bike as baggage, I believe that all of the airlines are charging excess baggage fees for bikes. I'm not sure, but I think that some international carriers include a bike within the allowed checked baggage limit. I did find a site with a list of fees for excess baggage for travel within the US - I don't know how up-to-date it is, but it looks like a good starting point: http://www.bestfares.com/travel/desk....asp?id=150111.

No matter how you ship it, stuff sometimes gets lost or delayed, so you definitely should make sure that it's insured. If you use a reputable carrier (like UPS or Fed-EX or others like them) you shouldn't have a problem. I'd recommend calling ahead and getting some shipping prices for comparison purposes.

--- Denise