The topic of flying v shipping bikes has come up several times. I have been an advocate of shipping just to avoid the hassles with security and getting from airport to hotel. But…
I specifically bought UPS shipable boxes for my bike and my son’s. The packing is a little more technical, but I wanted to be able to ship them. I packed our bikes and took them to the UPS site for shipping to St. Anthony’s. The clerk measured and weighed them and they were in my hotel in two days. Pretty impressive so far-and beat the hell out of flying.
For return, a buddy of mine had already arranged pickup through the efforts of our LBS and since I was running tight with time after the race he offered to haul ours back to his bother-in-laws for pick up. Unfortunately they would not pick up until Friday or this coming Monday, which we thought was too much delay. He took them to the UPS site, which is where things got bad. UPS said they were oversized (my buddy’s probably is) and would not ship them back, despite the fact that they shipped them down there (and keep in mind that the local clerk measured the boxes in front of me and had no complaints). My buddy is no wallflower and am sure he did all he could to get them to take them (actually I am surprise the cops were not eventually involved). He even showed them the labels that got the bikes down there. They would not ship them. We decided to try the pick up to see if that would work, but UPS did not show up on Friday. Can only hope that they do on Monday since I have a race this weekend. For now, my bike is stuck in Florida and I am not sure if or when I will get it back.