# Bicycle Packing Tutorial



## decotriumph (Jan 3, 2021)

For what it's worth, a few people have suggested I do a bicycle packing tutorial. Today I packed a bike, and remembered to shoot some pictures, so here we go. Choose for yourself if it's worthwhile to you. I have a lot of respect for old machinery of any kind. For instance, this one is 100 years old, and I would feel terrible if something happened to it in shipping that I could have prevented with a few more minutes of care or a couple more dollars worth of packing materials.

I make sure I have a good sturdy bicycle box to ship the bike in before I ever start taking the bike apart. I like Specialized and Trek boxes. They are very sturdy and I have a good source for them a few miles away. This one even has reinforced end handle holes. When I got this box, I grabbed a second for a spare and put it up in the garage rafters for next time. This one was broken down flat, so I re-glued the bottom with Loctite Professional Spray Adhesive. I'll do the same with the top when it's all packed and ready to ship.




I put the bike on a stand and slowly start taking it apart - pedals, saddle and post, front wheel and front fender, drop stand on older bikes (because it's wider than the box). I usually have some kind of small box laying around that I can put the pedals, handlebar stem, front axle (I always remove it from the wheel to keep it from scratching painted parts), grips, and other little things in. I wrap them all individually inside that box.



I rotated the bike upside down to take off the stand and front fender, because I'm old and I like to stand up straight if I can.



I use cheap foam pipe insulation from Lowe's or Home Depot on any frame tube I can get to. It's cheap insurance (avg. $2 per 6' section). The space between the tubes is wasted in the shipping box, so I usually wrap up the saddle real well and zip-tie it in that space. I've put other things in that space, too, depending on the bike's accessories.




When I took off the fork, I put the bearings, nuts, and washers in a baggy and put those in the box of little parts, too. Then I wrapped the fork in bubble wrap and pipe insulation.



I roll/fold up bubble wrap and squeeze it between the back tire and the fender to keep the fender from moving if it gets bumped. And I wrap bubble wrap around the dropstand clip.






I bring the crank arm parallel to a frame tub and zip-tie it in place, never putting a zip-tie on a painted surface. It's always over bubble wrap or pipe insulation.



I happened to have a pizza box from last night' s supper, so I wrapped the dropstand in bubble wrap and taped it inside the pizza box!



I also pad the rear fender with several layers of bubble wrap, zip-tied in place over more bubble wrap to protect the rim.



I keep leftover packing materials around for just such occasions and put a piece of dense Styrofoam in the bottom of the box to set the sprocket and bottom bracket on.



After I set the main section of the bike in the box, then I pack the other wrapped/padded pieces around it. I put an extra thickness of cardboard or a corrugated plastic sheet between the sides and anything that might rub through. Handlebar is covered in pipe wrap, too.






After all the pieces are in, I fill the voids to keep things from shifting. Empty plastic jugs make great space fillers, and you can adjust them by partially collapsing them and molding them around uneven shapes. With the cap tightened, they don't collapse any further and they hold whatever shape you've put them in! Then I fill in with plastic air packets, old bubble wrap, and anything else light and padded I have lying around.






I put a copy of the shipping label inside, just in case the outside one gets torn off by FedEx or UPS, then I seal it up with the spray adhesive and it's ready to go.


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## catfish (Jan 4, 2021)

You need to put you address on every single part in that box. You never know when fedex will decide to inspect your shipment...

Happened to me a few years ago.  Picked up a bike and shipped it for someone on the west cost. (not even one of my sales, just helping someone out).

Took the bike apart. Wrapped everything in bubble wrap. Put my address on every part that went in the bike box.

Sealed it up and dropped it off at fedex.

A week later The new owned gets the bike., but the whole front end is missing......

We go back and forth for a few days about this....

A few days later, a fedex truck pulls up to my house. Runs up and throws something on my porch. Before I can get of there, the driver runs back to his truck and takes off.....

It was the front half of the bike.

I was not happy. I called fedex, and they tell me the box was randomly pulled for inspection...... WTF !!! It fedex policy.

So I as why didn't all the parts make it back into the box???? No one can answer.

So I explain I want a full refund on the shipping and the ins. But they can't do that... Realy? Even though you did not deliver my package....

So after a lot of back and forth with fedex. They send a truck to my house pick up the rest of the bike, and ship it to the new owner. He had it the next day.


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## decotriumph (Jan 4, 2021)

Wow! That is ridiculous!


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## 1motime (Jan 4, 2021)

Great idea with the plastic bottles.


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## KingSized HD (Feb 7, 2021)

Thanks for the tutorial, very complete info. I appreciate you taking the time to take the pics and post it, this should help a lot of people.
I'm glad it's a pinned thread too.


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## ian (Apr 27, 2021)

Thanks for this.  I'm moving and need to pack 2 bikes up to put in a moving company truck. This should really help!


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## TieDye (Apr 27, 2021)

Awesome tutorial!!  I wish 2 guys that shipped bikes to me would have seen this, and did it.  One guy literally tore it apart, threw it loose in the box, never wrapped anything with pipe insulation or bubble wrap,  threw a few sheets of newspaper and a few small pieces of bubble wrap in there and taped it shut.  It sounded like big marbles rolling around in a box when it was delivered. When I opened the top of the box and looked in, I got physically sick. Fresh damage everywhere...
So, when a bike comes packed so awesome, I'm very grateful.  I think everyone needs to pack a bike how they'd like an $8,000.00 bike packed for them.


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## vincev (Aug 13, 2021)

Great info ! The word Fed Ex brings horror stories to my mind.


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## Gordon (Aug 13, 2021)

Great packing job. I do things similar, but I buy pool noodles for a dollar each at the Dollar General instead of pipe wrap.


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## rconerton (Dec 30, 2021)

This is a great tutorial on how to pack and ship bikes.  Love the ideas for foam tube, noodles and plastic jugs.  thank you.


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## New Mexico Brant (Jan 30, 2022)

Here is what not to do!  DO NOT USE PACKING TAPE On ORIGINAL PAINT PARTS!


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## oldfart36 (Mar 1, 2022)

Something I do when there is no master link and you don't want to use a chain breaker on chain (per customer). Before tubing and or "Industrial" bubble wrap. Is wrap lower leg well, then tightly zip tie chain to inside of leg on chain ring. It also locks the chain ring and crank in place before it sits in the styrofoam base in box. This helps in some situations.


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## Rob_STT🌴USVI (Sep 8, 2022)

THANK YOU!  A thorough and excellent post.  I’m just getting my feet wet on bike shipping. Have had a quick delivery on FedEx Expedited which was competitive in price. A second bike is a 1956 Corvette which has been an ongoing USPS, very slow delivery. They probably used a ship and we did have a tropical weather situation last weekend.  Most of the stuff that we buy in stores is brought in by boat. It was supposed to be here on the Tuesday. Fingers crossed.


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## queeniekozey (Sep 23, 2022)

decotriumph said:


> For what it's worth, a few people have suggested I do a bicycle packing tutorial. Today I packed a bike, and remembered to shoot some pictures, so here we go. Choose for yourself if it's worthwhile to you. I have a lot of respect for old machinery of any kind. For instance, this one is 100 years old, and I would feel terrible if something happened to it in shipping that I could have prevented with a few more minutes of care or a couple more dollars worth of packing materials.
> 
> I make sure I have a good sturdy bicycle box to ship the bike in before I ever start taking the bike apart. I like Specialized and Trek boxes. They are very sturdy and I have a good source for them a few miles away. This one even has reinforced end handle holes. When I got this box, I grabbed a second for a spare and put it up in the garage rafters for next time. This one was broken down flat, so I re-glued the bottom with Loctite Professional Spray Adhesive. I'll do the same with the top when it's all packed and ready to ship.
> View attachment 1332435
> ...



That's exactly what I needed. Thank you for such a great and detailed tutorial. For me, traveling by plane can sometimes be stressful because a bicycle is included in the luggage. So learning how to pack a bike for air travel is an essential skill to know if you want to cycle to other places or countries. And thank you for giving me a solution to my bike packing worries.


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## queeniekozey (Sep 28, 2022)

queeniekozey said:


> That's exactly what I needed. Thank you for such a great and detailed tutorial. For me, traveling by plane can sometimes be stressful because a bicycle is included in the luggage. So learning how to pack a bike for air travel is an essential skill to know if you want to cycle to other places or countries. And thank you for giving me a solution to my bike packing worries.


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