PSA: Bike Shipping Services

[cd_davis]

An advertiser on CyclingNews.com is Bike Flights - www.bikeflights.com.
Clicked through and their services and prices seem to take the pain in the xxs factor out of shipping a bike for vacation or a sale; and the charges seem quite reasonable.
Has anyone used them?
Chris

[kramnnim]

There's also shipbikes. I've seen a lot of people recommend both. I guess they are just Fedex accounts with a commercial discount?

[JAGI410]

I used Shipbikes.com which is a similar service. Worked out great!! Shipped my bike in a standard cardboard road bike box, loaded with camping gear too, at 45lbs. Was only $65 from MN to WA. Bikeflights was within a dollar of the Shipbikes price.

[ikecycke]

Yup, I've used Bikeflights a number of times, most recently to ship my 'cross bike from DC to TX when we ran out of room on our moving truck. Full size bike box with my bike, shoes, a bunch of other cycling junk jammed in shipped for about $60 with $1500 insurance. I think I've shipped with them 5-6 times now without a hitch.

[thegunner]

shipbikes has never failed me. that said, i've only done it 2x so the sample size is way small.

[David Tollefson]

I used bikeflights.com to ship a bike from Tacoma to central Illinois earlier this year. When I clicked through the FedEx site, it quoted me $128 (old Specialized Sirrus in a standard bike box). Going through bikeflights.com, shipping through FedEx, same box/weight/everything, it was $76. Sold me.

[texbike]

Another vote for bikeflights.com . I used them a couple of months back to ship a Bridgestone to a forum member in NYC. The price was very reasonable and the service was super easy to use.

Texbike

[madencbm]

Never shipped a bike before. Do people with experience with these two companies feel shipping a carbon fiber frame with something like the Aircaddy cardboard box is a reasonable risk ?

[Ken Robb]

Is there a service that packs bikes as well as shipping them?

[bargainguy]

I have three AirCaddys and have used shipbikes.com several times.

The AirCaddy is only meant to be used 5-6 times before it reaches the end of its first life. You can send it back after those uses and have it recovered at nominal cost. That having been said, it's pretty darn solid, but one caveat - these boxes are huge and not easily fit into a standard size sedan.

Shipbikes.com is essentially the corporate FedEx acct of Lickton's in Oak Park, IL. Beauty of shipbikes is that you can pay and print labels online.

I've taken advantage of this by shipping empty Colorado Cyclist clamshell cases to a seller, having them pack the case and ship the bike back to me, all with preprinted labels for the return trip. All the seller has to do is affix the label, pack the bike and call FedEx for pickup (or take to a local FedEx office).

Did this a couple years ago with an Indy Fab. Cost of shipping the empty box from the midwest to NYC, then return trip with the bike inside, was less than $100 roundtrip.

[bocarider]

I've used bikeflights to ship bikes in both a Trico Case and S&S Case when I needed to send the S&S Bike home, as I was flying somewhere else. I am amazed how reasonable it is to ship a Trico Case with them. Works like a charm.

[mmfs]

I checked out bikeflights for shipping between NY and WI. They offered the same discounts I get when shipping via my online FedEx account. Anyone can sign up for a FedEx account.