I've shipped 10 or 12 bikes and frames in the past couple years with no problems until a few weeks ago when the Fed-Ex elephant sat on my Eddy Merckx frame. (still pouting here...).
I always put in a rigid spacer between rear drop-outs and in the fork. Styrofoam sheets below the frame, and between the rear drop-out ends. If it's a pre-paint shipping like my Merckx, I don't wrap each tube. If it's a pretty bike, I put on foam pipe insulation over every inch of the bike - including the BB.
Bubble wrap or those big air-bags to completely fill the box. I always use a bike-shop frame box, and mark it with Up arrows, do not crush notes, bicycle-enclosed notes, everything.
Still, when something heavy drops onto the flat side, it can do damage. One seat stay was bent far enough to bend the other one. Like I said - elephant.
Now I'm looking at buying a hard-case like a travelling case to move bikes back and forth. Not sure how else to protect from ham-fisted freight handlers.
Dave Whitney
Portland, Maine
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 18:43:39 -0800 (PST) From: Neill Currie <neill1234@yahoo.com> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: [CR]Packing and Shipping Frame - Looking for Guidance Message-ID: <20041218024339.21431.qmail@web51910.mail.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii MIME-Version: 1.0 Precedence: list Message: 1
Well, I had a frame packed and shipped to me by a bike shop once, and they did a good job of protecting and packing. Unfortunately, the bike was dropped heavily in the box, and the seat lug got bent, not too severely thank god. A plastic insert probably would have helped, and that was the ONLY thing they'd forgotten in the whole job!!
=====
Neill Currie
595-B E. Deering Rd
Deering
Nh 03244
tel: 603-529-6472