On Fri, 9 Feb 2001, Jonathan Cowden wrote:
> Hi all. The best packing job I've ever seen on a frame came courtesy of
> Brian Baylis. I could have drop-kicked the box and still not have done
> any damage to the frame (although I would have needed surgery on my
> foot).
>
> These days I think it's critical to pack a frame under the assumption that
> the shipper will drop it, put other heavy objects on it, sit on it, throw
> it across the floor, kick it, etc. When this assumption isn't made, the
> result can be very distressing. This past summer I got an extremely nice
> frame from a prominent builder who did a good but not a great job packing the
> bike. The box got abused, and when I pulled the frame out, it was clear
> that the rear drops had gotten bent.
When our entire household was moved from CA to CO, our bikes went along on the large moving van/truck. Since I'm basically paranoid, I spent about two hours prep'ing the bikes for their trip. I didn't know how they'd be packed/shipped, so I assumed dents and constant rubbing would be distinct possibilities, and packed accordingly.
The first thing I did was make sure that the frames/forks were clean. I just used a damp cloth, as both bikes had been recently waxed. Then, I covered each frame tube with thin bubblewrap that had been used to protect computer motherboards. Over THAT I wrapped foam pipe insulation that I purchased for a couple of bucks at the local hardware store. I taped over the pipe seams so they wouldn't get knocked off. I also wrapped the cranks, brakes, etc with the thin bubblewrap.
When they unpacked the bikes I went over them with a fine tooth comb. The foam insulation had numerous dents, as the bikes were stacked near the top of the van. Neither bike had ANY dents, scratches, or rub marks in the finish. By contrast, my Klein mtb--which I left unwrapped--had obvious rub/wear marks from the 1000+ mile van ride (but, it's an Al mtb, and by nature, gets abused).
--mc
-- cyclist [at] dimensional [dot] com