Cheapest way to ship a bicycle?

[Yuriman]

A friend of mine is looking to ship a pair of bicycles across the country, and asked if I knew the least expensive way to go about it. I've never done this before, and thought I'd pass it along to you lot. Should I be going to FedEx or UPS for this? Are there other services?

 

[Elixer]

Are they going to take it apart, and ship frame & wheel in different packages, or, the whole bike in one package?

How much weight are we talking about as well?

 

[vailr]

FedEx Ground is likely cheapest.
Greyhound accepts packages for shipment (aboard their passenger buses), but don't have any information on how their pricing compares to FedEx Ground. Shipment would be between bus stations in city A to city B.

 

[OutHouse]

ride it.

 

[Yuriman]

ride it.

Vermont to California, probably not cheapest to ride it.

Wheels can be removed. It's an aluminum frame converted to electric assist. Batteries can be either drained for regulations or removed for shipping, I expect total weight is probably ~25-35lbs.

 

[Humpy]

There are other services, Bike Flights is one that I see advertised a lot.

I've shipped a few bikes. I got a box from my bike shop, packed it, and shipped FedEx. People that have shipped to me just brought the bike to a bike shop and paid them to pack it for them, one of the shops used their FedEx account to have it picked up.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Ship a couple aluminium ingots and tires in a box, and have it assembled on site. Cykel(TM), by Ikea.

On serious note, for that distance it's going to cost a lot no matter what. I was looking at 200w+ solar panels on a site that sells them down south and it cost more to ship them here than what they cost. And that's within the same province. Big awkward things cost a lot to ship because of the room it takes in the truck. Though I'd say a freight company would probably be cheaper than a standard courier company, for something like this. I'd check with a company like Manitoulin (or whatever is the equivalent in the states) and get a quote. They might have a calculator on their site. Just put in some rough dimensions to get an idea.

 

[cbrunny]

Also depends on the purpose of the shipping. I am also investigating how to do this properly as I want to travel to Europe with my bike and do a race there. Bike Flights or a domestic shipper is probably best. Packing it properly is the real trick though.

 

[deadlyapp]

I've had one bike shipped, we just took it to a bike shop and they disassembled it, packed it, and sent it. IIRC it was around a hundred smackaroos but that was a relatively light weight road bike. I'd send the bike as one package and the batteries separately since they will be required to go ground hazardous. If you are handy with bike tools you can probably ship the bike for about 60 and find a box suitable.