need to mail our bikes to which lbs???

[bouncybouncy]

We are starting a 3 week bike tour in the Portland area and need to ship our bikes ahead of time. I have heard shipping shop-to-shop is cheaper...but which shop would any of you Portlanites recommend??? We will have our own tools to assemble the bikes...we just need a trustworthy shop on the receiving end to hold them till we get there to pick them up.

Thank you Thank you

[Grog]

We are starting a 3 week bike tour in the Portland area and need to ship our bikes ahead of time. I have heard shipping shop-to-shop is cheaper...but which shop would any of you Portlanites recommend??? We will have our own tools to assemble the bikes...we just need a trustworthy shop on the receiving end to hold them till we get there to pick them up.

Make sure you call ahead in any case: I have had bike shops refuse to receive my bike, especially for people they don't know. (Just in case something's not right with your bike - they don't want to get in trouble for it. Which I can understand.)

This being said, in Canada at least it turned out not to be cheaper at all. Your mileage may vary, of course...

[Becky]

I'm confused....why is it cheaper to ship to a shop? Could you ship to a hotel maybe?

I completely understand wanting to make sure that your babies are going someplace safe!

[SadieKate]

Shipping rates can be better business to business; I don't think it matters what the business is. Your hotel may be able to hold it. However, you need to be sure your LBS gets insurance on your bikes.

[TsPoet]

I'm not sure why a shop would take the liability of accepting delivery if they aren't getting anything out of it - i.e. not getting paid to put it together.

To be slightly more helpful, I *think* the bike shop's name is Coventry?
Edit - I looked it up. Coventry is the bike shop I have worked with and my friend's recommend, but it's recumbent/folding bikes. I'm sure they wouldn't have any trouble with DFs, but they aren't a DF shop, so maybe someone will come up with a better shop

[SadieKate]

Why can't UPS/Fed-ex/whatever just hold the bikes for pick-up?

[bouncybouncy]

I have been told by several folks that shipping directly to a shop is better because they are just used to handling those size packages. I would have inquired about sending it to a hotel but we are staying with a friend while in Portland...said friend lives in a neighborhood that has had packages stolen from porches (not something I wanted to risk) Also...we are talking about 4 good size bikes with racks, fenders and such! We are sending boxes of goodies elsewhere but they are normal size boxes...

Why can't UPS/Fed-ex/whatever just hold the bikes for pick-up?

Have not thought of that one...will have to check on that!

Thanks for all the inputs