Shipping a bike to a friend in Australia

[makoti]

I want to send a frame I have to a friend in Australia. Just the frame & a few parts. Not a full bike. It's a small frame, so it may fit in a kids bike box. Anyone know of a reasonably inexpensive way to do this? I looked at bikeflights, and the estimate from DC to Canberra was $341. I thought that was crazy, until I looked at UPS. That said $822! For a 42x10x22", 20lb box! There has to be a cheaper way, right?

[DRietz]

No, that sounds about right.

[Louis]

Earlier this year I used https://www.shipito.com/en/ to send a bike to Sydney, AUS.

You ship the box to their US address (the have multiple locations, I used one in CA) and they send it on to the final destination. It worked well.

The initial estimate they gave the recipient was $236 for CA to Sydney. I'm not sure if that's what the final price was. The recipient opens the account with them and pays for the final leg so the sender doesn't have to deal with that end of things. It's a service for folks who live overseas who want to buy stuff in the US from sellers who don't want to deal with overseas shipping. I do know that it cost me $66 to send the frame from St Louis MO to CA.

[rustychisel]

Earlier this year I used https://www.shipito.com/en/ to send a bike to Sydney, AUS.

You ship the box to their US address (the have multiple locations, I used one in CA) and they send it on to the final destination. It worked well.

The initial estimate they gave the recipient was $236 for CA to Sydney. I'm not sure if that's what the final price was. The recipient opens the account with them and pays for the final leg so the sender doesn't have to deal with that end of things. It's a service for folks who live overseas who want to buy stuff in the US from sellers who don't want to deal with overseas shipping. I do know that it cost me $66 to send the frame from St Louis MO to CA.

sounds like the go.

Shipping rates have gone offthefrigginchart in the last few years.

[ultraman6970]

Did you check USPS?? if the box is small enough might not be as salted as the other companies.

[Llewellyn]

sounds like the go.

Shipping rates have gone offthefrigginchart in the last few years.

Obviously rusty has got his power back on :hello: Best wishes to all the croweaters. Stay safe :)

[jtakeda]

USPS for international always.

It's not Australia, but I shipped a frame and fork to Sweden for $80 with $800 of insurance.

[rustychisel]

Obviously rusty has got his power back on :hello: Best wishes to all the croweaters. Stay safe :)

Thanks mate. Power on again after an evening of sipping chardonnay by candlelight. More storms tonight!!

[makoti]

Earlier this year I used https://www.shipito.com/en/ to send a bike to Sydney, AUS.

You ship the box to their US address (the have multiple locations, I used one in CA) and they send it on to the final destination. It worked well.

The initial estimate they gave the recipient was $236 for CA to Sydney. I'm not sure if that's what the final price was. The recipient opens the account with them and pays for the final leg so the sender doesn't have to deal with that end of things. It's a service for folks who live overseas who want to buy stuff in the US from sellers who don't want to deal with overseas shipping. I do know that it cost me $66 to send the frame from St Louis MO to CA.

Thanks. Checking it out. I sent a bare frame (which is about what I'm sending here) from DC to NY for $12, so $340+ seems like a lot! $700? Forget it. I'll take it myself.

[makoti]

Did you check USPS?? if the box is small enough might not be as salted as the other companies.

Next on my list...

[ultraman6970]

Measure the box and put that in the web site, if by "law" you can ship a box that big to australia I dont think will be more than 120 bucks.

As you might know, sometimes there's limitations in box sizes depending on the country. Never had a problem sending bikes to japan, but if you want to send to chile or brazil by usps, you can't do it all and there's no other way than other curriers.

Another option that personally I havent used it ever but my friend from colorado did a few times to send to chile and brazil is to go to the airport and use an airport currier. he said was super cheap.

[Polyglot]

Australia is one of the few countries that limit the size for mailed packages to 108 postal inches (postal inches are calculated by taking the length and adding it to the girth). You can fit most bikes into such a sized box but it requires making a custom box and dropping the fork. My suggestion would be to make a box having the dimensions 36" X 27" X 9".

I would also advise one use virgin cardboard of a slightly better quality than most modern bike boxes, with double corrugation. You need to use Global Express Guaranteed as the other services are limited to 79 postal inches which is too small to even ship e wheel.

Conditions for Global Express Guaranteed can be found here: http://pe.usps.com/text/Imm/immc2_001.htm#ep2365811

Refer here to all mailing conditions for Australia: http://pe.usps.com/text/Imm/ab_012.htm#ep1572941

Look here to find the rates for shipping:
http://pe.usps.com/cpim/ftp/manuals/dmm300/Notice123.pdf
For Australia, with Global Express Guaranteed, look at page 41 under column 6. If shipping a whole bike that weighs 30 lbs (including the box), the charge would be just over $300. If shipping a frame and the weight including the box was 15 lbs, the cost would be just over $200.

[eric01]

It's the size of the box for shipping bikes which drives the price up, not usually the weight.

Find the smallest box, of if necessary cut a bigger one down to size. Use pipe insulation for protection. A tightly packed frame in a small box is better protected than a loose fitting one especially if one of the parts shakes loose and bangs around like a bowling ball.

[ultraman6970]

The op can do a frame w/o any problems in 108 inches. Actually try to keep the box in 107 or 106 to play safe.

If its a whole bike what I would do (and ive done before) is to split the bike in two boxes, one with the frame and some small parts and another smaller box for the wheels, the rest of the parts can go inside of any of the boxes w/o any problem.

Hey steve, how is the super bike going? :)

[makoti]

Australia is one of the few countries that limit the size for mailed packages to 108 postal inches (postal inches are calculated by taking the length and adding it to the girth). You can fit most bikes into such a sized box but it requires making a custom box and dropping the fork. My suggestion would be to make a box having the dimensions 36" X 27" X 9".

I would also advise one use virgin cardboard of a slightly better quality than most modern bike boxes, with double corrugation. You need to use Global Express Guaranteed as the other services are limited to 79 postal inches which is too small to even ship e wheel.

Conditions for Global Express Guaranteed can be found here: http://pe.usps.com/text/Imm/immc2_001.htm#ep2365811

Refer here to all mailing conditions for Australia: http://pe.usps.com/text/Imm/ab_012.htm#ep1572941

Look here to find the rates for shipping:
http://pe.usps.com/cpim/ftp/manuals/dmm300/Notice123.pdf
For Australia, with Global Express Guaranteed, look at page 41 under column 6. If shipping a whole bike that weighs 30 lbs (including the box), the charge would be just over $300. If shipping a frame and the weight including the box was 15 lbs, the cost would be just over $200.

Thank you! Before I read this, I looked at USPS. $477. It'll be frame, fork, stem, and bars. It'll be under 15 for sure.

[ultraman6970]

How much is a plane ticket to australia? :)

[Louis]

It'll be frame, fork, stem, and bars. It'll be under 15 for sure.

Don't forget to include the weight of the box and padding. Usually that's trivial, but for a bare frame it can be a significant % of the total.

[makoti]

How much is a plane ticket to australia? :)

We've considered this option. At hundreds of dollars, it was an option. Plus, There's a lot of Oz I haven't seen. :)