Shipping from UK to USA?

[PoppaWheelie]

Can anyone recommend a good method for getting a wheel box from the UK to the USA? Wiggle ships via Parcel Force, but I'm getting a quote for about $250. FedEx is giving me $500! I need it picked up at a residential address.

I'm willing to pay, but this is a bit nuts. Am I screwed here?

Thanks in advance.

[Steve530]

I've had a few small parts delivered by DHL, but nothing as large as a set of wheels.

[PoppaWheelie]

i just spent an hour figuring out that without an account (which takes a few days to set up and can't be done for a single shipment), DHL won't arrange for a London pickup via credit card. Why, I have no idea.

This can't be that difficult!!?

[jemoryl]

Hmmm, bought some Campy wheels from Ribble a few years ago and the shipping was reasonable (Parcel Force) - well under $100, IIRC. Also bought a NOS frame from a guy in the UK who has a lot of experience with this. He used a courier service which normally deals in data tapes, disks, etc. and charged about $100. Frame was delivered to the US east coast in about 3 days.
I think it came to my house via DHL.

[pdmtong]

try pricing your shipment using these guys

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

I have used them 3x and so far so good. prices are reasonable. spoke to the owner. nice conversation. very helpful. no issues.

[biker72]

Can anyone recommend a good method for getting a wheel box from the UK to the USA? Wiggle ships via Parcel Force, but I'm getting a quote for about $250. FedEx is giving me $500! I need it picked up at a residential address.

I'm willing to pay, but this is a bit nuts. Am I screwed here?

Thanks in advance.

Just did a "test buy" from Ribble. Shipping to the USA for a set of Campy Zonda two way fit wheels is $56.

[happycampyer]

Send a pm to jonjones. He's sent me several parcels from the UK, but I can't recall which method.

[phcollard]

I'm wandering how Wiggle is able to do free shipping on a $200 wheelset. Sure they sell at loss.

A few years ago I enquired about shipping for a frame from Enigma (http://www.enigmabikes.com/) in the UK. Cool guys. The cheapest they could find to Canada was Fedex and I believe it was around 120 GBP.

[PoppaWheelie]

Yeah, I bought a single wheel from Ribble a year ago for my trainer and they shipped for free...which is what I had in mind when I committed and paid for THIS wheel. Only to find out it ain't so easy. Bikeflights is quoting me $350-$450 for the one-way trip for a single wheel box. Parcel Force appears to want my money (for about $200, which has come to seem reasonable) but their payment processor won't take any of my credit cards. I'm going with Parcel Monkey, who seems to have a Parcel Force bulk discount that results in my cost being more like $160. However, doing some due diligence I've found a lot of negative reviews about their courier leg and customer service, so I'm praying that nothing goes wrong.

In this day and age I guess I'm surprised this is so difficult AND expensive!

[RedRider]

I have shipped a lot of personal items to the UK and it can be expensive as a "retail" person. The big internet sellers, such as Wiggle, have the best shipping rates that can be fractions of what we can get.
You also have the issue of US customs charges for importing a purchase. From experience this is somewhat random but odds on getting held up depends on the originating shipper, packaging and how the paperwork is filled out.
When packaged properly wheels can be 2 or 3 times the shipping cost of a frame.

[Pierre]

I got three bike bags delivered from Evans Cycle via DHL...the shipping was free because I spent over $600. They were fast...very fast.

[UberBike]

Its best to find someone or local business that does a lot of international shipping and pay them to send it.

The FedEx retail rate (john doe off the street) is almost $400. But someone with an established volume account may pay half or even less. Do you have a friend at an airline? Those guys get a pretty good employee discount with FedEx. The pickup option would run up the cost. If the sender is near a FedEx office he can just drop it off with a prepaid label attached.

[kgreene10]

This isn't meant to be jerky - would it be more economical to sell the wheel and either buy another in the states or buy from Wiggle etc with free shipping? Or, what about disassembling, chucking the rim and sending the hub back here where you can have it built up again with a new rim. Just thinking out loud.

[PoppaWheelie]

I'm going to circle back on this thread with my final resolution in case anyone else ends up looking for the same answer.

A good number of UK retailers use Parcel Force to ship packages to the US...the items are handed off to the USPS when they get here and sent out with the regular mail for local delivery. Parcel Force has three options...the cheapest doesn't have tracking so I did the middle-tier option. The trick was to get it from my seller's house to Parcel Force, and for that I used a courier called Parcel Monkey, who also has a bulk rate w/ Parcel Force. They have some poor reviews relating to customer service, and I wills say I found it took them about 48 hours to respond to my inquiries, but in the end it all worked. I booked/paid via the Parcel Monkey website and they arrived to the seller's place in a timely manner. Package was quickly transferred to Parcel Force and within a day I had a tracking number and could watch the progress. It took 2 days to get the box to the US and another 2 days to have it in my hands...no problems, 4 days total.

For a wheel box, I was getting FedEx quotes of about $500. Ordering from Parcel Force was also expensive but Parcel Monkey obviously has a better rate and was MUCH less (think it was around $100?).

Your results may vary...just FYI in case its' of any use...

[PoppaWheelie]

This isn't meant to be jerky - would it be more economical to sell the wheel and either buy another in the states or buy from Wiggle etc with free shipping? Or, what about disassembling, chucking the rim and sending the hub back here where you can have it built up again with a new rim. Just thinking out loud.

Used Lightweight Ventoux III...buying new wasn't in the budget and rebuilding obviously would be a bit of an issue. :)

I've been looking for a mate to my orphaned front Ventoux for several years, so shelling out a bit of $$ to ship was ok.