We
strongly recommend letting your own local bike shop handle
as many aspects of your personal bicycle shipping plans as
possible from and to your home town. They'll be able to give
you valuable advice, make
sure eveything gets done that needs to, and if they pack
and unpack your bike professionally there
will be much less
risk
of damage or additional charges.
Boxing
and Unboxing Your Bicycle
You will need to have your boxed bicycle disassembled,
boxed, and shipped on your own before the start of the event,
as well as received, unboxed, and disassembled preferable after
the end of the event.
Before disassembling,
boxing, and shipping your bicycle, it should be clean and
in great mechanical working
order. This will significantly help our mechanic
properly reassemble it and ensure that it will be ready to ride at the
start of the start of the event!
Scheduling
and Timing
Planning the time frame for shipping your bicycle
before the start of the event is critical so that your bicycle
arrives in plenty of time for
our mechanic to build it up and have it ready for you to
ride on time when you arrive. It's much better to let go
of your
bike early and miss a couple days of training than to ship
it too late and have to miss a couple days of the event or
pay more money for express shipping services.
Generally, you should allow at least three weeks total time
to ship your bike. This includes the time to have your bike
disaasembled and boxed, shipped, and unboxed and reassembled.
You should plan on at least five days shipping time for your
bicycle to arrive from anywhere in the continental U.S. to
our mechanic when using ground transportation. Also plan
on having your boxed
bicycle arrive at our mechanic at least
one weekbefore the start of the event so there is
plenty of time for him to unbox and reassemble it and address
any other mechanical issues that might come up as necessary.
You may also want to allow even more time to account for
any unforeseen
circumstances
and shipping delays beyond your control such as inclement
weather
situations. Don't take deadlines
lightly and don't cut it close - extra time is always your
friend.
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Here for more information about
shipping your bicycle through our mechanic before
the start of the event.
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Here for additional travel schedule
and timing considerations.
Shipping
Documents and Additional Labelling Considerations
Your specific shipping documents are not included
in our mechanic's fees. You will need to generate them, attach
them to your bicycle shipment before the start of the event,
and/or provide them to our mechanic for your bicycle shipment
after the end of the event yourself.
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Here for more information about shipping
carriers.
It is critically important that your shipping label
is properly attached to your shipping container and does not
fall off during transit. If you are using a reusable shipping
container, you should secure your labels with tie-on tags and
zip ties available at your local retail shipping centers upon
request. You should also include three additional copies of
your shipping label - an extra one on the outside of your shipping
container, one inside, and one attached to your bike itself.
Remove or black out any old shipping labels or information
and only provide the current label and specific shipment information.
Print your return shipping labels before you
depart since you can't depend on an internet
connection or a printer after the end of the
event. If you will be using the same shipping container both
before
and after the end of the event you should attach the return
shipping labels to it as soon as possible after it is received
in the starting town so they are not lost, damaged, or destroyed
during the event. If this is not possible, you will need
to make sure to keep them safe in your baggage yourself and
easily after the end of the event.
Additional Labelling Considerations
You cannot be too prepared or include
too much information when shipping your bicycle. In the event
that your shipping
label is lost or damaged in transit
or if your shipping container opens and the contents spill out this additional
information will allow the shipping carrier to quickly and easily identify
its owner to confirm shipment, report damage, or get more information. In
addition, this information makes it much easier for our
mechanic to easily identify your
bicycle and its parts, particularly if he receives many unidentified boxed
bicycles with no names or other identifying information.
In addition to the shipping labels issued by your shipping
carrier, you should clearly write your name, home address,
mobile phone number, tracking number, destination information,
and the event you are attending in big bold letters with
a permanent marker both directly on the outside AND INSIDE
of your shipping container and also on a piece of masking
tape on your bicycle frame, both wheels, and every other
individually packed item. Do not just put your information
on a separate tag or label, just the name of the local bike
shop from which you shipped your bicycle, or no identification
on your bike itself. You should also mark 'ASSEMBLE' on everything
so our mechanic makes sure to reassemble your bike for you.
If someone else will pick up your bike for you, you should
include their name along with yours to make claiming your
bike easier.
Items NOT to Pack
There are many items that are best not to pack
and ship with your bicycle.
Small, Loose, and Valuable Items
It is best to plan on carrying with you as many small, valuable, easily lost,
or loose items as possible and carrying them in your baggage instead of boxing
them for shipment. Such items include removed pedals, electronics (cycling
computers, GPS units, etc.), water bottles, saddle packs, skewers, etc. These
items could become loose in transit and can fall out of the shipping container
and get lost or move around and damage or stratch other items. You will
be able to easily replace these items on your reassembled bicycle on your
own or have our mechanic do it for you.
Packing these small, easily removable items in your baggage
beforehand will also make the process of preparing your bicycle
to be transported aboard our transportation services easier.
This is because we require that you remove all loose items
from your bike that could easily fall off or get lost, damaged
or mixed up in transit and store those items in your baggage
before we will load your bicycle onto our moving truck.
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Here for more information about our bicycle
transportation means.
If you must pack these items they should be contained
in separate plastic bags securely taped or zip tied to your
bike's frame so they cannot fall out of the shipping container
or move around and damage or stratch anything.
Helmets
It is not safe to ship your helmet with your bicycle.
If your helmet gets hit or damaged in transit you would not
know, and its ability to protect your head in an accident could
unknowingly be compromised.
Hazardous Items
There are many hazardous items that are regulated or restricted
to ship and many complicated regulations about how to properly
ship these items including packaging, labeling, and handling.
It is extremely important to check with your shipping carrier
about how to properly ship any hazardous items, especially
airlines. Failing to identify these items or improperly
shipping them can cause delayed or missed shipments, serious
safety problems, and severe penalties. You should always plan
on not travelling with any hazardous items if at all possible.
Two of the most common hazardous items in cycling that are
mistakenly assumed as non-hazardous are CO2 cartridges and
all types of lithium batteries, such as those used for electronic
devices (cell phones, GPS units, etc.) and e-bikes.
CO2 Cartridges
CO2 CARTRIDGES CANNOT BE TRANSPORTED IN ANY AIRCRAFT by the
Federal Department of Transportation and FAA and there are NO exceptions to
this policy. These are the metal cylinders used in the quick tire inflators
(as opposed to a hand operated frame pump).
It is best to leave any CO2 cartridges at home. If you must
rely on CO2 cartridges to reinflate your flat tires you will
need to purchase them from our mechanic or a bike shop before
the start of the event.
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Here for more information about our parts
and accessories.
Particularly if you are flying to or from our events, we strongly recommend
relying on carrying a hand operated frame pump with you while
riding to fix flat tires on the road rather than a CO2 quick
tire inflator.
- Click
Here for more information about handling
flat tires during our events.
Lithium Batteries
The quantity, electric capacity, charge and how they're packed - whether they're
contained within equipment, shipped with equipment or all alone - are all
determining factors in how to properly pack, label, and ship lithium batteries. |