I'm planning on shipping my bike this year to Seattle for my tour.

Pros:

1) I'm going to have my LBS give it a pretty good tune-up and then pack it and have it shipped from there. In other words, I trust my LBS more than I trust myself to pack it right.

2) It's a long wheel base recumbent.(really big, heavy box) I'm not sure the airlines will take it without a fight. I'm not interested in starting the trip by getting into a fight.

3) At the other end, the nice wrenches at the bike shop will put it back together right.


Cons:

Um, I can't think of any. OK, there will be expense involved. Right.

I'm not as worried about the time factor as I might be because I will be spending about a week in Seattle being a proud matriarch, then abandon my family for a long bike ride. I might make different choices if I had a set schedule, and the bike had to be ready by a particular day.

I'm planning on using a bike shipping company, Bike Flights:

http://www.bikeflights.com/bicycle_shipping.aspx

I'll report back on how well it worked.