Uh...best way to get bike from SD to IMOO?

Triathlon Forum
1

i have to book my flight very soon for IMOO. I have a hard case from triall3sports which i used to get my bike to sydney and it works great. I see sometimes you can get lucky with check-in and not get charged, or sometimes its 80-100 bucks. Does anyone have any other methods of getting their bikes cross-country, FedEx ground UPS freight?thanks

2

I just got a quote from UPS online to ship a bike box UPS Ground from the midwest to N. Cal. and it was about $45 with insurance each way. Do not get your quote from a UPS store it will be marked up considerably from the online quoted price.

3

If I fly to a race I will ONLY UPS the bike. Costs me about $100 to ship it next day on the company account and insure it for $10,000. I send it to the hotel and every time it has been in my room waiting for me to arrive. Not sure if where you work has the volume to get the discount I get on the next day freight…but I never fly a bike if I can help it.

4

I’ve done it all- shipped my bike via UPS (that was over a year ago, before they jacked up the oversize package rates!) in my TriAll3 Custom Road case for $100 each way Calif. to Florida.
I’ve taken it on the plane twice- $80 each way.
I’m using TriBikeTransport for IMC which seems to be the safest, easiest way, but you’ll pay a bit more. Seems worth it in my opinion!

5

If you go to the Ironman Wiscosin website under Information>Air/Car Discounts, there’s a link to US Airways for a free bike shipping certificate. Be careful though, because my wife travels frequently using US Airways and it seems like 75% of their flights have signficant delays. One at least 2 occasions this summer her luggage didn’t arrive w/ her either. They did deliver later that evening though.

Peace,
Rob

6

You have three main options:

  1. Take the bike with you on the plane.

  2. Ship the bike ahead of time with one of the big courier companies - FedEx or UPS

  3. Make use of one of the companies that specifically ship bikes to IM events - TriBike Transport.

Each option has it’s advantages and disadvantages and there is no clear-cut one that is better then the other. In terms of lowest hassle, I would go with #3. If you want ultimate flexibility and control( to a certain degree) go with #1. I have little experience with #2, but it seems to be a reasonable and popular, if pricy, option.