When I used to take my bicycle on transcontinental flights every summer, the biggest hassle was finding a bicycle box big enough to hold my 59cm road bike frame.
Bike shops gladly parted with shipping boxes they'd recently emptied, but those boxes usually held smaller-framed mountain bikes. I eventually learned to overlap and tape together two chopped up boxes to hold my bike.
At my destination, I'd reassemble the bike, visit a bike store to buy whatever had been broken or turned up missing in transit, and at the same time lay the groundwork to repeat the whole process for the return trip as the original box had been pretty much destroyed. All this because I was too cheap to part with $350 to $400 for a hard shell case.
Now some enterprising individuals are selling specially designed cardboard boxes to ship bikes. They feature low prices and little bike disassembly. Here are a few:
The Chicago Tribune touted the AirCaddy in its travel section this past weekend. The writer liked the ease of packing the bike into the triangle-shaped box; only the front wheel and seat need to be removed. Everything else stays on.
The inventor, Chicago area bike shop owner Bob Lickton, says it's good for about three round trips. If the outer box gets destroyed early, Lickton sells a cheaper replacement box without the fork mount and reinforcing interior cardboard.
There are tie-downs to carry helmets and other gear inside, and a canvas cover and wheels are also available for extra charge. The overall drawback, according to the Tribune writer, you're paying $100 for what is essentially a cardboard box.
Portland cyclist Mike Wilberding invented a bicycle shipping box made from ruggedized cardboard that he showed last year at the Seattle Bike Expo. Although he was killed last summer by a left-turning motorist while he rode his bicycle home, his family has taken over the business in his honor and currently is accepting orders in the Portland area.
The box is made from double-walled cardboard with interior supports for the forks, crank and bottom bracket. It too is good for three uses. The box costs $35 and is sold in lots of 10.
The CrateWorks transport system is another example of a bike box that uses cardboard.
The bicycle frame is nested separately from the wheels. The kit includes foam buffers for hubs, posts and gears, and a strap system keeps the frame from rattling around.
Unlike the others, the company says the box will last indefinitely; all parts are replaceable through the service department. Like the Cycle-Pak, it requires quite a bit of bicycle breakdown. Cost is $109; accessories are available.
Other cases
Of course bike boxes are made from other materials. The hard case bike boxes from such manufacturers as Thule and BikePro offer ironclad protection. There are also soft cases, like the Sette Bike Travel Bag reviewed this week at Blue Collar Mountain Biking.
For more information about bicycle case and travelling with your bike see “Shipping and bike cases” at Adventure Cycling Association.
Also, check out the BikeAccess website to learn how to best travel by plane, train and bus with your bicycle.
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