Best way to get a bike over the pond?

thedoc46

thedoc46

thedoc46

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18 Jan 2003
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Expat in the USA
So the opportunity has arisen, to be donated a nice road bike. Except the bike is in England, and I'm in the USA.

I'm really looking at packaging options really, since the bike is expensive, and i do not want it getting damaged during transit.

I also have friends coming over in the next month or so, so if the airlines still allow it, i could have it sent over as baggage. Not sure on cost, or size restrictions these days. Last time I took a bike on a plane was over 10yrs ago, and the crank arrived bent ! and that was in the original manufacturers box.

Alternatively i could just have it shipped via Fed-ex or UPS. Depends on how much they'd charge.

Really first things first, what is the best way to pack the thing so that it will not get damaged. Secondly, will BA allow it as 'additional' baggage? and if so at what cost.

This is the bike.
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Call BA, they should allow it for a fee. Flying out on holiday easyjet charged £58 a person for bike as luggage return, after that if it's going one way it will be best to get a bike box from a shop (they'll just give them away) and strip it down a bit and package it up with a lot of padding.
 
I flew internationally with BA a few years back from Vancouver to London with a full downhill bike. It cost me about £50 or so I believe it was to take my bike boxed up in the hold, which I prebooked with them before doing so. This was also actually a 1st Class flight, so even with that I had to pay this extra concession.

I had looked at sending it back with one of the big couriers, however it worked out to be far more expensive than £50-ish so taking it on the plane was a no brainer.

You can buy/hire a proper bike box as mentioned above.
I personally though just went to a bike shop and got one of the cardboard boxes they come in and just bubble wrapped the hell out of it.
 
You can buy a polyethene bag from CTC for packing your bike to put on a plane.

I would personally go with as much protection as possible, but i have read a lot of stories of people who have less damage to their bike when packed in a plastic bag. The idea is that the more protective the packaging looks, the more likely your bike is to get stacked on the bottom of the pile with everything else on top, and is actually more likely to get damaged.
 
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