When you box a bicycle the most important thing to remember is…
At bicycle couriers we send boxed bicycles across South Africa each and every day. We collect every weekday. And can send it to or from a bike shop or door to door or to remote areas or even cross-border. And you have options. You can (A) box the bicycle yourself and we can collect from your door or you can (B) drop off your bicycle at your nearest local bike shop so that they can pack it and we can collect it directly from them when ready. But enough with the long introduction of who and what bicycle couriers is and are and does. Now for the big moment:
Ready to box a bicycle for transport? Do it like this:
Some shops go out of their way to spend a large amount of time in completely bubble-wrapping the whole bicycle frame. Personally, I find this quite annoying, and somewhat useless. You only need to bubble wrap the frame when something is going to touch against it. and you don’t want that to be a wheel skewer or disc brake. So, lets take a feather from a brand-new boxed bicycle’s cap and see how it arrives from the factory and how they box a bicycle…
Brand new bikes come like this
No need for bubble wrap around the frame. Just endless amounts or carton at the right places to keep the bike intact. Whether it is an ebike or road bike or mountain bike, and whether it comes from CANYON or TREK or Specialized or any other major brand, even the most expensive bikes arrive in the box, sans all the bubble wrap, but with carton pieces separating the components. And typically you don’t need to do anything more then the following. See below.
How do we box a bicycle?
I do the following. For myself and for my customers. Whether I fly abroad or travel locally. And never have I had any issues with boxing a bicycle this way. All you need to do is the following, boxing a bicycle is as easy as 1-2-3 or ABC:
- Take off the pedals to reduce the width. All you need is an Allan key (hex wrench) or pedal spanner and bubble-wrap the pedals together and put it either in one of the bottle cages in the frame or separately in the bikebox.
- Take off the front wheel to reduce the length. And place it next to the bicycle frame. Now this is where you DON’T need to bubble wrap everything unless you really want to (and annoy the recipient) but you MUST place a sturdy piece of cardboard in-between the bicycle frame and the loose wheel inside the box to ensure the disc brake or hub doesn’t rub against the frame.
- Turn the handlebars (if it is a large box) or remove the 4x bolts at the stem to put the handlebar down vertically next to the bicycle’s front fork (and be sure to properly bubble-wrap the handlebar when doing so). And maybe drop the seat-post if needed.
TADA!
That’s it! No more, no less. And it doesn’t take ages to box the bicycle. And it will also be very quick and easy for the recipient to build the bike. But that is a story for another blog post.
Now that you know how to box a bicycle – where can we send your bicycle today?
