I recently sold my nice, but old roadbike to someone I feel was "hard-up" for cash. I made an offer to him for $200 shipped in the US. I mistakenly assumed shipping a bike would be about $30 to $40. I got the bad news when printing up the shipping lable this morning on UPS. $90.00!!!
Does anyone know how to ship a bike cheaper? Its 33 lbs and in a standard road bike box (53"x30"x10"😉.
Regardless I have to ship him the bike as I made the pricing, so not looking to be a jerk here, just trying to save myself about $50.00!!
Okay-I answered my own question after much work with a utility knife!! The bike boxes are too long. Mine was 53" long. I dont know how short i needed to make it, but when I went from 53" to 44" long, the length and girth measurement from Fedex dropped below the amount to get charged a $30 oversize fee. I also had to drop the weight o 30# for some reason. But somehow in that whole thing I went from $87 to $21!!!
The 2# savings came from a lot less hvy duty cardboard and taking out the heavy steel peddles I was going to give him. I will ship those first class mail if need be.
Moral is-ship the bike in the shortest box you can and try and keep the weight 30 lbs or under.
Get a shipping box from your Local Bike Shop. You can use one that a bike was shipped to them in. These will be small enough for Fed-Ex, but will, of course, require that the bike be broken down somewhat to fit. The last one I got had the read wheel mounted, but the seat, front wheel, handlebars (and of course pedals) removed, and the stem reversed. Fed-Ex charge was <$29. Even at that size UPS wanted >$125! Be sure to lock down all moving and detached parts with nylocks (or similar) and wrap all painted surfaces.
Check out the pics on this thread for some good packing ideas.
Get a shipping box from your Local Bike Shop. You can use one that a bike was shipped to them in. These will be small enough for Fed-Ex, but will, of course, require that the bike be broken down somewhat to fit. The last one I got had the read wheel mounted, but the seat, front wheel, handlebars (and of course pedals) removed, and the stem reversed. Fed-Ex charge was <$29. Even at that size UPS wanted >$125! Be sure to lock down all moving and detached parts with nylocks (or similar) and wrap all painted surfaces.
Check out the pics on this thread for some good packing ideas.
Right on DMF-thanks!!
The bike is on the guys front doorstep!! I am so nervous that it didnt get dmaged by fedex.
As my buddy who worked as the parts manager at a dealership "If it absolutely must get destroyed, ship it fedex!!"
