Sending / Posting / Shipping a bike to/from abroad / overseas by post / courier

Potentially shipping a bike box (with bike inside) to Germany from U.K. - I've got a quote from Parcel Monkey (£70) which seems reasonable with a 2-3 day transit time.

Has anyone used this service before?

Potentially shipping a bike box (wheels inside) to Ireland from U.K. - any suggestions forum users ?cheers cow

I need to send over a bike from London to a friend who lives in Rotterdam.
Any suggestions please on how to do it best? Any companies that’d take it responsibly?
It’s a carbon road bike so needs to be safe during transport. I’ve thought about sending it over via ferry but would prefer a door-to-door option for various reasons.
Ta!

Parcelforce

Has anyone got recent experience of shipping a bit from Australia back to the UK? Got a bike I’ve been hoping to repatriate, but some of quotes I’ve been getting have been close to the value of the bike! Also, will I need to pay some kind of VAT on it?

I've just had my bike shipped 2000 miles.

I used Parcel Hero but it was carried by TNT, you can track it the whole way.

It was packed in a large triple-layer cardboard box from Send Bike on Amazon, pedals off, bars turned, front wheel off. cardboard was wedged down the sides and bubble wrap protected the parts. It arrived with damaged mudguards, bent handlebars and a buckled wheel. I paid €15 to true the wheel and the bent bars I can live with, but the force needed to bend handle bars must be pretty big, like maybe 300 pounds in weight stacked on top of the box.

Cost me £120 to ship. I can't get a bike as good as mine where I am and to get a UK bike shipped over would cost 40% of the cost of the ike in customs fees so I'm pretty happy. I just wish I'd paid £70 to carry the bike with me on Jet2 with much less chance of damage.

If you choose to do it I don't reckon any amount of packing would protect it fully from the way it's handled.

Need a bike sending from US > London. US side has said bike flights are charging $900 for customs / charges / taxes and fee’s.. wtf. The actual sending would be about $350 full insured bike worth $2000 anyone have any experience using a good company not going to charge a fortune? Paging Americans @JB @Eeyorecore

Don't use Bike Flights. I cannot fathom why anyone is still using Bike Flights.

Try Ship Bikes. They use FedEx. I have used them plenty of times to send wheels and frames around the country. You'll need to contact them for an international quote, but it'll be cheaper than Bike Flights for the actual shipping and also - they don't charge you taxes up front.

Any recommendations for shipping a bike to myself from UK to Italy?

Last time I did (pre-Brexit), it was significantly cheaper than the quotes I can find now

Edit: also happy to be told it's more convenient to fly wit it

Cheapest like a chips is parcelforce

I bought a frame which needs to be shipped from UK to Germany. On Parcelforce I dont seem to be able to get a quote for the mesurements (10kg - 128cm/26cm/70cm)

Can anyone recommend another service for shipping? Bike is located near London and needs to get to Berlin.

Try Interparcel/ParcelMonkey/Parcel2Go etc, but check the Ts&Cs first, some carriers refuse to take bike frames.

Hey, has anyone shipped anything from UK to ROI since brexit?

Any hassle? I need to send a frame.

Hi @Schnitter - did you have any luck with this?

I need to do get a bike to Germany and the only way I can see to do that is to by splitting it into 2 parcels: a v small frame box 110cm*66*25 (Parcelforce quote £103!) and then wheels.

Cheers.

Edit: can now get 15 kg | 110x70x25 for £16.35 with DPD on parcel2go so 2 parcels looks like theway

Anyone knows where one can get those frame foam pad to protect a frame when shipping?
Also dropout protectors?

I can't seem to be able to find them on either ebay or amazon or anywhere!

Not sure about dropout protector, but any B&Q or Homebase should have pipe lagging that you can cut down and wrap the tubes in.

Pipe lagging!

Cheers!

Best way to send in the UK? Any collection services?

Paisley Freight. They'll send you a box and packing bits if you need as well.

Great thanks

Hi everyone,
Looking to ship my bike over to Australia in June when I will be moving over there. Just a one way trip for the bike. Been checking out luggage mule (quoting ~£300) and Send my bag (quoting ~£120).
Does anyone have any experience with these couriers? or can suggest a preferred courier? Is there specialist insurance cover I can take out?

My bike is a 2020 trek emonda SL6 disc. Not sure what the value of it would be today its seen a fair few miles but I've kept it in great condition and service it regularly.

My query is, should I risk boxing it myself (just perusing through this forum there are some horror stories from some experiences with boxing and bagging) or can I rent/hire a hard case bike box? Anyone have any recommendations appreciated.

Thanks.

Go to LBS. Get bike box and dropout/thru axle spacers if you can. Box it yourself and use a bike specific courier like ShipBikes or BikeFlights. Pipe lagging and newspaper is all you need to ship a bike safely. I'd expect to pay 200-300 though. 120 sounds unrealistic.

Hi JB,

Thanks for the info. I've checked out Bikelfights and they're quoting +$1000. Not sure if thats right. Both sites are based in the USA. and ShipBikes aren't currently doing quotes as they switch over to UPS :(

Will take on board the packing tips though :-) thanks.

Cor bikeflights on some crack. Thought shipbikes would’ve completed that migration by now. Been doing it for a year!

For what it’s worth, when I moved to New York, I took my bike as a second item of luggage, using the same packing method I mention above. Think it only cost £70. Though I appreciate Australia is much further away and likely involves two separate planes.

What did you end up doing? Just wondering how feasible it would be to send a bike to Oz via post rather than wait for my next visit.

For what it's worth, I used an "unaccompanied baggage" service going from Oz to UK many years ago.

BikeFlights just use another courier - I think FedEx in USA - so I'm not sure what advantage they have over anyone else other than convenience of them knowing which service will take a bike box.