I recently received a bike from Europe where the seller had removed both wheels and tied them to the well padded frame with twine. He then reversed the fork and put the padded bars between the reversed fork and the downtube. The rest was between the stays. It made a tiny bundle not much larger than a wheel box (hard to believe, but I have some photos of it, if anyone wants to see them, drop me a line) and the whole box came through the U.S.P.S. to my door. It took 6 or 8 weeks, but reducing the size of the box will get it into the postal system and reduce the price somewhat, I am sure. The whole thing was one neat bundle that one could lift right into or out of the box.
The result was a NOS Legnano without a scratch.
Tom Sanders
Lansing, Mi USA