Has anyone shipped bikes to Europe lately?

[ackwards]

We're thinking of doing one of those bike tours in Italy in early September. Has anyone shipped their own bikes to Europe lately? My impression is that since 9-11 it's harder to pack them up well, as they can no longer be locked and they tend to be opened along the way. This makes shipping our not-so-cheap Serottas a bit worrisome -- will they be stolen, dinged, or otherwise mangled? On the other hand, I don't really want to spend day in, day out on a bike that doesn't fit, especially given my temperamental knees.

Assuming one has a case or two to ship the bikes, what does one do with it once one gets there? One of the touring companies noted that it would arrange for shipping of one's bike case, but given Italy, that doesn't inspire confidence that it'll really be there at the end when we need it.

Perhaps we should save the $$ we'd spend on the tour and just take a week off, hoof it, stay in nice hotels, eat a lot, and buy lots of Prada. Any advice most welcome. Thanks --

kb

[dbrk]

I have recently both shipped a bike and brought one with me to Europe. As for the latter, it's simple and relatively safe. We went on two different airlines (JetBlue to NYC/AirFrance to Rome) and the bike case (soft Sci-Con works perfectly and is easier to get into vehicles than the hard Trico, I've used both) came through without a hitch. I stood around anxiously in Rome waiting for them to unload it without any idea if it had arrived, but it did. And both flights were close transfers, the trip home bumped us and the bike came on the correct flight. With two bikes you'd need a van and those are expensive (very!!) to rent.

I also just shipped a bike to the UK. I sold my Seven Axiom, boxed and shipped it to a fine fellow in Norfolk, I believe. It was about $325 just for frame and fork, so I would not venture to ship a whole bike. You are far better off taking it as baggage, for which there is no fee on international flights. (JetBlue charged us one way and not the other, go figure...).

As for packing and unpacking, Customs took a cursory peak into the bag but security in the airports in Paris and Rome was more mature than in America. I suppose one could say that European security was more lax but I travelled less hassled and annoyed in Europe than I ever do in America (I travel all the time and the pat-downs of _obviously_ harmless people) because they seemed to make better judgments about risks.

dbrk

[Birddog]

I just returned from Europe a couple weeks ago and we shipped our bikes in a Bike Pro double case. The Bike pro has fork mounts and a BB mount to secure the bikes. 4 wheelbags and a Misc bag hold all the other stuff. The learning curve to pack the bikes was a couple of hours for the first time and about 45 mins for the 2nd. We took the precaution of wrapping the tubes and stays with foam pipe insulation and zip tying them on. We also removed the bottle cages (at least going over, we did). The Bike Pro is a soft case, but it did well. On the return trip one bottle cage was broken, but it was already partially broken and it was left on the frame. The Bike Pro is rather big, about 36X48X14, but the 4 wheels made it pretty easy to maneuver. You can't really compress the case when it's empty either. It is easy for inspectors to check because it has a very large double zipper around the outside. You could probably throw in your helmets and some other stuff too, we packed our pedals and helmets separate in the chance the case didn't make it with us. Bike assembly took about 30 mins. Make sure your tools are in the misc bag. A pedal wrench, dykes (for cutting zip ties) and allen wrenches are about all you need.

Delta and some other Airlines WILL NOT let you check a bike as part of your luggage, we had to pay extra for oversize baggage, and the fee was $110 each way. It would have been $80 each way if they had been in single cases, so we saved by combining. Bottom line is I'd do it this way again in a heartbeat, the biggest hassle was transporting the bag in the car. If this interests you, I believe there is a double case currently on E-Bay, they are not cheap, about $600 new. We did have one concern, my case is older and it says it will hold a 60 cm plus bike, but it does not account for head tube extensions or spacers on the fork. Ours (a 54 and a 56 ) made it in, but it was literally a stretch. I'll bet the newer cases are slightly taller, or perhaps the mounting plate on the bottom is lower to accomodate.

It's worth it to take your own bike.

Birddog

[ackwards]

Thanks, guys. DBRK, no kidding about the cost of renting a van. Yikes! It's bad enough getting a half-decent sized car when they're charging 40 Euros a day for one of those barely-bigger-than-a-motorcycle Smart cars. In any event, it's helpful to know people have had decent luck with the airlines not mangling their bikes.

[BikerGrl]

I hear crateworks makes a decent case. Haven't tried one, would be curious.