Hey, I am off for a charity bike ride from the south of France (Bordeaux to be precise) to Paris.. i will be flying with easy jet and have purchased a DHB hardcase bike box to fly with as bag handlers scare me
As soon as I land in Bordeaux I need to post the bike box back to the UK for as little as possible. Google hasn't helped me much so if anyone on here has any experience with the french postage system it would be greatly appreciated
Not easy as the box is so big! It is outside the limits for just taking it down to La Poste and sending via the Colissimo service.
According to the Interparcel site http://www.interparcel.com you can Fedex it back to the UK for £106 + VAT. Probably more than your airfare to Bordeaux cost you!
I'll second hilbunny. I flew Easyjet to Bordeaux (& back from Barcelona) last summer with the bike in a cardboard bike box without any problems. It wasn't the prettiest of packages but it seemed to work fine.
FWIW My strategy was to leave the back wheel on (for lateral rigidity) with the chain on a mid gear (so mech didn't stick out unduly from fram) with chain on largest ring (some protection for teeth is something violent happened), handlebars removed from stem (had problems previously of forks/headset dropping out of frame in transit & rattling around if stem removed from steerer) and forks reversed with plastic spacer (scrounged from bike shop) as brace between dropouts. Front skewer removed & taped/zip tied to wheel, mudguards removed & fixed round front wheel (this will all fit down the non-drive side of the bike). Finally I used a few cut-off lengths of foam pipe insulation to pad between bits I thought might damage each other or were against the edge of the box.
Rick.
Former member of the Cult of the Polystyrene Head Carbuncle.
I agree, cardboard box it. There is a lot of panic spread by the very few who get their bikes damaged. I travel regularly by air and very rarely have any problems. Currently, LGW> Dubai>Bkk> Hanoi, out of box, front wheel on handlebars straight, pedals on, etc and off I go.
Also, as a last resort, there are bike shops in France who would be able to fix any problems in the unlikely event of anything happening (oooops, that sounds a bit like the life jacket donning instructions!!).
I don't know how much you are raising for charity, but with the cost of box, shipping, etc perhaps better to stay at home and donate all that!
Extra edit: some of those hard cases are very heavy. Check you will not be going overweight and incurring even more cost.
