Pack A Bike for Shipping: Tips for Your Next Adventure

Pack A Bike For Shipping: Tips for Your Next Adventure

1. GET A PROPER BIKE TRAVEL CASE

Imagine this: You arrive at your destination after a long day of travel, open up your cardboard bike box and find a bent or broken derailleur hanger or brake rotor. You next spend half a day looking for bike shops to fix the problem. You don’t find a bike store and end up watching the race from the sideline. Don’t be that guy who trusted a cardboard box. Rent from us and put your fears to rest with our top of the line Thule bike bags. Our bike travel cases aren’t made from paper.

2. WIPE DOWN YOUR BIKE BEFORE YOU GO

Fact: Many countries (like New Zealand, for instance) have travel restrictions about items coming into their countries. They do not want foreign dirt coming into the country. Thus, your dirt-caked tires might look sweet, but they could result in your bike being sent back to America. Again don’t be that guy watching the race from the sidelines. Prevent this risk and give your bike a proper cleaning and washing before packing it up for travel. Plus, you may even gain some much needed speed with less dirt stuck to your bike.

3. MARK YOUR BICYCLE

Remember you are going to be breaking your bike down when shipping it and you will have to put it back together. Take a few easy steps now to prevent a ton of work and hassle later. Use electrical tape or a sharpie marker to mark the height of your seat post and stem. Shift the chain into the largest chainring (front), and the smallest cog (rear) as well to prevent wear and tear. Trust us, you will thank us later when you have that perfect seat post up and running.

4. SHIPPING VS. FLYING

If you’re flying to your destination then you have two options for having a bike at your destination: ship it via mail/courier or bring it with you on the plane. With our rental bike travel bags, we can help with either option. Our bike travel cases work well on a plane or great with fedex.

5. PATIENCE

Packing your bike may take more time than you think. It is not like packing for a weekend trip to Vegas. Expect this process to potentially take 3-4 hours to pack your bicycle into a bike travel case the first time you try it. Once you get some experience, your timing will probably come down to a shorter time period.

6. MARK YOUR BIKE CASE

Trust you will want to do this if you are traveling on an airline as everyone has black luggage. The last thing you want is for someone else to walk out of the airport with your nice bike. If this happens you once again will be watching the bike race from the sidelines. We recommend taking a permanent marker and writing your name, address, and phone number on two 3 x 5 index cards. Take some clear packing tape, and attach one card to the inside of the bike case, and one card to the outside of the bike case.

Lastly, besides bike cases, we do rent other biking gear. Keep the memories and not the bike gear for your next trip.