[CR]Two Shipping costs UK -> USA(bike), USA -> Taiwan(frame)

Don writes about shipping a frame to Taiwan for $192. Please remember that the USPS is your friend, you can ship for far less than that with them. I recently sent a complete Masi bike to a fellow in Taiwan for less than $170 and it arrived in less than a week in perfect shape. In fact, you can ship up to 28 pounds to Taiwan in a 108" postal measurement box for $168.75 using the Global Express Guaranteed non-document service. You can see all the country specific info for Taiwan here: http://pe.usps.gov/text/imm/immicl/immicltz_001.html

For Australia the information can be found here: http://pe.usps.gov/text/imm/immicl/immiclab_012.html Here too the only option is to use Global Express Guaranteed. You cannot ship by surface mail or EMS or airmail. I have found one person at my local post office who understands these things and will only deal with them as the other employees are all rather lost when it comes to documentation and other.

As far as packing goes, you must pull the fork, as well as many components, but it is generally possible to fit anything up to a 62 cm frame bike in a 108" box. You can see some photos of how it is done here: http://album.foto.alice.it/maasland/842476 I always use a very heavy duty cardboard and cut the box to fit the individual bike. I do not generally use bike boxes for international shipments as the cardboard is generally too flimsy for this once they have already been shipped once . I know that the corners of my boxes can support my own substantial weight as I have tried this many times. Perhaps how to pack a bike for internationalshipment could be a topic for a future cirque.

Steven Maasland
Moorestown, NJ