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Re: TriBike Transport [ChrisM] [ In reply to ]
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Look bro maybe try stop hating on people who are actually trying to help on this forum and specifically this thread. Guess what a lot of people have been using the airport bike storage since 9/11. A shitload. I am using it in one month. Already have it arranged and paid for. Maybe you shouldn't speak so much for everyone. I put out fact - based on what a lot of other international travelers just told me within the last few months. I just looked up those LAX prices and they are available.

Yes, if you fly into and out of different airports then no storage will suffice for your needs. I am glad you love TBT. I actually had two really bad experiences with TBT - research a little on ST and you will find a ton of other people have as well. I shared my previous experiences on previous threads. On one occasion TBT left multiple expensive triathlon bikes out on a curb in Houston because the bike shop wasn't open yet and they needed to get on the road.

I have no time for hateful people who love to troll and be devils advocate on this forum. And do me a favor - save the sexist language for someone else. I absolutely do not appreciate you speaking to me referring to sexual organs. It is never appropriate.
Last edited by: Trigirl357: Mar 14, 19 19:17
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Re: TriBike Transport [Trigirl357] [ In reply to ]
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Trigirl357 wrote:
I am using it in one month. Already have it arranged and paid for. Maybe you shouldn't speak so much for everyone. I put out fact - based on what a lot of other international travelers just told me within the last few months. I just looked up those LAX prices and they are available.

Yes, if you fly into and out of different airports then no storage will suffice for your needs.


Yep, I have used Luggage Storage places in Europe quite frequently, especially London Heathrow and Waterloo station to store my bike when traveling. Sometimes just stored the box there. If memory serves, I think Nice airport even had a bike stand and tools - just ride out of the airport if you wanted to. Super easy and convenient.

For US airports, more of a challenge. Luggage Storage varies between on property and some off property. Price is usually a pretty good indication. When off property you are not rolling up to the place and storing it there. You have to wait, they put it on a van and take it someplace nearby, then wait coming back. When on property, roll up and leave and thus the pricing is usually more. Not sure about LAX but remember looking at SFO and believe they were on property and like $40 a day for a bike (but think day was 24 hours so may be converted to hourly for less time).

Have had good luck with TBT myself from Houston, including when Tru Tri announced they were closing and my bike was going to be coming back there after Indian Wells so was concerned if the store shut down before truck arrived or shuttered with my bike in it! A few emails and everything sorted.

Idea is interesting on tracking but personally not something I would pay extra for to know exactly where my bike and bag is at the moment. If I want that security, I'll fly with it but even then between TSA opening it and repacking and the weight of peoples luggage that gets thrown on top of it, or the guy that takes it away at IAH that I hope gets it to the plane, no guarantees it will be working when I arrive.

Half the time I probably take with me and the other half shipping and probably split by what I am doing. With road and mountain, probably flying with me, but for tri sending with TBT and also have used Bike Flights to races where TBT was not an option for an event.

I think the service is really important for the sport, especially for those that do want to spend some time in the area before/after and not necessarily have to rent a larger car and/or shuttle the bike.



I miss you "Sports Night"
Last edited by: Quo Vadimus: Mar 15, 19 13:21
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Re: TriBike Transport [ChrisM] [ In reply to ]
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ChrisM wrote:
Trigirl357 wrote:
In regards to vacationing with your bike, most airports have a luggage storage sections that you can rent for fairly cheap. For instance, LAX will let you store large specialty items to include your bike for $15/day. In Athens, Greece, you can store it within their international airport 14 Euros/day ($15.22). For more than 10 days, Athens will give you special pricing of 59 euros ($67) + 4.5 Euros ($5.10) for additional days. This is how people handle racecations. There is no TBT option for most international travel and shipping it costs a fortune.


Many airports do not offer this post 9/11 and it simply does not work for our itineraries. For example, last trip was flying into Boston, leaving from Newark. Next trip is flying into Ottawa and out of Montreal.

Sorry, "this is how people handle racecations" is a ridiculous thing to say. May also handle it with TBT. For some reason that bothers you [/shrug] You have a hard on for TBT, I get it. Me, I'm fine with them.

Also, let's say I come from Montreal and fly into and out of LAX (even though I live here, just for example). TBT is charging me $360 to go LAX to Montreal so assume it's the same for reverse. two week vacation. Now I spend airline fees (let's say $300) plus 10 days of storage. So now I've spent $450 instead of $360 (not including an amortized box, I travel once per year typically to race so it has to be added) No idea how that is supposed to make any sense.

And I don't really have to say that I don't use TBT for races it doesn't service. Non sequitur

It's not ridiculous. I have traveled with my bike dozens of times, maybe 1/3 with TBT and 2/3rds of the time with my case. Internationally, TBT isn't even much of an option overseas although they are starting to increase their coverage in Europe (at $600 plus). When I do travel internationally, I don't think I've ever paid more than $160 RT for my bike bag. Most of the times I get the bike checked as luggage for $0 roundtrip (e.g., twice to Switzerland and back, twice to South Africa and back - all for $0!). Last year I went to IM Norway and my roundtrip bike fee was $38. Coming back from Norway, I stayed several days in Iceland and put my bike into storage at the airport ... imagine that! I have a future trip in Europe where I will store it a central train station. Taking my case ALWAYS beats TBT for overall price, but sometimes I'll pay their premium out of sheer convenience. I've had good luck with TBT but I do recall the time where they lost an entire truckload of bikes (stolen out of their hotel parking lot) amongst other issues. In the end, I look at the logistics of each race individually to determine what I'm going to do. YMMV.
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Re: TriBike Transport [Trigirl357] [ In reply to ]
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Trigirl357 wrote:
Yeooowch. Tribike Transport costs $540 from Houston to/from Santa Rosa 70.3? Since when did the prices explode? I understand the logistics of this race are a little more complicated but ...Jeezuz. These kind of prices just makes me angry to the point where I just will refuse to pay - especially after my issues with TBT last year. Sort of like refusing to pay for cable because of the price gouging. Yeah I cut the cable 2 years ago and never been happier. I'll fly with my bike thank you. You can keep your $25 discount. Just wow.

Hi, I'm sorry for taking so long to respond to this. I've been out of the country and just couldn't get to it until now. I'm not sure where the rate of $540 came from but it would appear to include more than just our basic shipping fee, which is $305 for transporting from any partner shop in TX to Santa Rosa. The $540 appears to also include fees for additional (optional) services: gear bag ($40), Finish & Fly ($75), $11,000 declared value ($88). Incidentally, FedEx or UPS would charge about $140 for the same declared value ($0.70/$100 x $11,000 x 2 for the round trip.) Also, such coverage is not available on the airlines.


Marc Lauzon, President
TriBike Transport
http://www.tribiketransport.com
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Re: TriBike Transport [Trigirl357] [ In reply to ]
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Hi, I'll try to explain, clarify or respond to each point below (in Bold).


Trigirl357 wrote:
I think what really bothers me about them is the complete lack of communication of where your bike/bag is. In today's age of shipment/gps tracking. We should know when our very expensive bikes are picked up out of transition, scheduled to be returned and where they are in the process. It's not rocket science. Put a flipping bar code on those stem stickers and scan it. Have a website/app that allows you to track it. Then you avoid hundreds of angry phone calls - of which the local bike shops also endure and can't stand.


Although, it's not done by bar code/scanner due to the prohibitive cost of implementing such a system, we do track each bike in our system. Each bike is marked off in our database as it's loaded from the event site. This triggers an email to the bike's owner to tell her that her bike is on its way back to her local shop and that it's expected to arrive in the approximately the same time it took to get from there to the event site. Our customer service agents will be able to tell you the last point where it was handled, much like UPS/FedEx would. If we need to know EXACTLY where a particular bike is, our Ops team can contact the driver or follow him by GPS tracking to know where the truck is.

Every single time I have used them, I become upset when they can't tell me where my bike is after we pass the 5 day mark. At what point do you contact the police/insurance on a stolen bike and feel foolish saying I have no idea what day it was stolen because the company would never tell me where it was. It also doesn't help that they didn't drop off my bag in Oceanside one time last year until past midnight the day of the race. This started a chain reaction of problems. To make it up TBT made good by sending my stuff to Santa Rosa 70.3 for free. They treated me very well on the front end. When I got my stuff back, no communication for 6+ days. Then my stuff was placed in two separate bags for some reason and not linked/connected together. The bike shop gave me one bag. Luckily I noticed it was light, opened it up and realized my wetsuit + other stuff was missing. I walked around the bike shop myself and located the other bag. Still no communication, complete discard for organization and having their sh*t together.

When a customer purchases our optional Finish & Fly service, we will retrieve her bike and transition bags from transition and put them in one of our complimentary duffel bags to be returned to her partner shop. As we try to explain on our site, the customer does not need to go back to get her stuff after she finishes. If the customer has also sent a gear bag TO the event, there will be the bags going back to the shop: the original gear bag and the F&F duffel bag. Our apologies if this was not clear in our explanation. We will review these to see if they need clarification.

I bought a Tririg Omni last year for the main purpose that it was easy to break down (3 screws) and rebuild myself. I took it to Santa Cruz 70.3 last year. Zero issues flying with it. No down time without the bike. Awesome bike btw. I also purchased a bike-specific GPS device that I can use to know where my bike is (i.e. did it make it off the plane?, Is it still in transition?). I am flying with it to Greece 70.3 in a month. I would still use TBT for places like Santa Rosa 70.3 because of the logistics of the two different transitions and the bike dropoff location. But definitely not at a $300+ difference. And you guys are correct, I used TBT in IM Arizona in 2012 - they were barely $300. Big difference. I can't justify $500+ for something I can do myself and not lose the bike for over 2 weeks with an unknown return delivery.

As I indicated in the previous post, the $500+ cited above, includes $305 for transport, plus additional fees for additional, optional services.



Marc Lauzon, President
TriBike Transport
http://www.tribiketransport.com
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Re: TriBike Transport [Marc L] [ In reply to ]
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So I was going to use TBT for Traverse City...and then saw it was $450 from anywhere as it didn't list a partner shop for $365 in Arizona. Sorry...but damn. You can get a good bike bag for just a little bit more and then you've got a bag for 5-10 years.

Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.
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Re: TriBike Transport [TheStroBro] [ In reply to ]
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Hi,

Yes, you're right, that one is a bit more expensive. Unfortunately, based on projections from Ironman, we don't expect that enough athletes will be traveling from AZ to make it feasible to offer fully-assembled service with our own trucks. That's why we can only offer our Pack & Ship service, which is more expensive. (It does include assembly and re-packing at the event, so the onsite service is about what you'd expect from the our fully-assembled service.) Keep checking our site. It's always possible that the service could be added if enough people ask for it.

Best of luck!


Marc Lauzon, President
TriBike Transport
http://www.tribiketransport.com
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Re: TriBike Transport [Dr_Cupcake] [ In reply to ]
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Did they acknowledge or try to compensate for the scratches or why the seat and post were messed up ? I’m currently trying to deal with them on a issue and I cannot get a response.
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Re: TriBike Transport [Dcd712] [ In reply to ]
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I lost around £600 to TriBikeTransport UK. Paid to ship my bike to Kona. It apparently stopped trading a few months ago with no communication. Website down. No reply to email or telephone. Absolute joke. It was still taking bookings until the bitter end.
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Re: TriBike Transport [hollywood2] [ In reply to ]
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That stinks ..sorry
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Re: TriBike Transport [Marc L] [ In reply to ]
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General question regarding TriBike Transport... How much interest is necessary for you to add a partner shop in a particular area? The closest partner shop to me is 3+ hours away. Also, is there anything in it for the LBS for becoming a partner shop?
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Re: TriBike Transport [mkb] [ In reply to ]
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Hi,

Thanks for reaching out. Without knowing exactly where you are, it's a bit difficult to answer your question. That said, it's all about how much distance/time/cost the new stop would add to our network vs how much additional business/revenue the new stop is likely to generate. It's the classic 'traveling salesman problem". Please contact us at info@tribiketransport.com. Even if adding a new permanent stop isn't feasible, we may be able to make it a one-time or "as-needed" stop, especially if we're talking about a group of athletes traveling to an event. If that isn't an option, we do have our 'Pack and Ship' service, where we'll send you a label, you pack the bike, ship it to us, and we build so it's ready for you when you get to your race venue. And the process is reversed for the return. Your on site experience is the same as it would be with our fully-assembled service.

As far as what's in it for the shop, it's the opportunity to acquire new customers. Most bike shops do some marketing to bring new customers into their stores. There's a cost to generating traffic for any store. TBT will bring new potential customers into a shop and if handled right by the shop, these can be converted into immediate sales or service, or even acquiring a long-term customer.

All the best,

Marc


Marc Lauzon, President
TriBike Transport
http://www.tribiketransport.com
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