Product Review
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Take Your Bike Anywhere
As I write this, I am breathing a sigh of relief, having just learned that my bike (my $4000 baby which I carefully assembled by hand a year ago) has arrived safely on the other end of the continent - literally. The Serfas SBA Bike Armor Case is a durable, easy to handle protective case made for shipping your most valuable asset anywhere safely. It measures 45" x 28" x 10" and weighs about 30 pounds empty. Its hard, bullet-proof plastic outer shell is fitted with handles, wheels, cinch straps and two locks. Nothing bad is going to happen to anything inside this case.
 Why Do I Need a Bike Case? If you're going somewhere far to ride (such as the other side of the country) you can rent, borrow or ship your bike. Since I don't have any friends with extra rides in Oregon, it's down to renting or shipping. However, I'm going to ride the heck out of that state in the two weeks I visit, and not everywhere I plan to go has a shop nearby, and not all shops rent. Furthermore, the last time I rented (and there's nothing wrong with renting a ride), I got stuck with V-brakes on a 1,000+ foot descent in just under a mile which proved a little gnarly. Finally, at roughly $35 per day to rent and at least 7-10 days of riding, I figure shipping is the cheaper option for any trip with more than about three or four rides planned.
How The Bike Packs: Shipping charges are calculated by size and weight. The objective is to pack as much into a reasonable amount of space as possible. Mountain Bikes are a little bigger and bulkier than their feminine  cousins, Road Bikes. Furthermore, their head angles are more slack, so fitting the whole bike (wheels off) into the diagonal dimension of the case is only possible by removing the fork. Fortunately, just loosening the handlebars and stem cap allows the stem and spacers to slide right off and the fork to drop out. Keeping all the shifter cables and hydraulic brake lines in tact, just lay the fork and bars alongside the frame on the foam padding and pack a towel in between to keep from scratching. Remove the seat and pedals, then deflate the tires (no need to remove tires from rims) and place on top of foam over the frame. Close the box, tighten the straps and lock it. You're good to go. Admittedly, this took 30 minutes of puzzle putting the first time, but it's a 10 or 15-minute job once you get the hang of it.
Shipping It: Ship it via ground ahead of time and forget the airlines. Extra and oversized baggage charges as of Summer 2009 have become so outrageous that you'd be better off buying an extra ticket for your bike and sitting next to it on the plane. Airlines use a total dimension metric whereby you add up length + width + height of a piece of luggage to get the size. The Serfas case by their formula is 45 + 28 + 10 = 83 inches. Southwest Airlines only accepts a maximum checked baggage size of 62 inches before they start charging. Although it's  $50 one-way for anything between 63 and 80 inches, they don't even accept anything over 80 inches. So, at our 83 inches in size, checking baggage on Southwest is not an option. One must instead use their Air Cargo service, which requires a commercial account and does not fly with passengers as checked baggage. American Airlines does allow up to 115 inch luggage size as checked baggage, but they charge $150 one-way for anything over 62 inches and/or 50 pounds. This comes to $300 round trip for our 83 inch, 60 pound bag. Shipping on the other hand will cost you about $63 each way using UPS Ground or Fed Ex. I chose to insure my precious cargo for an additional $10 each way and paid $73 via Fed Ex Ground for a one-way ride to the Willamette Valley. I was able to set the shipment up online and print the label at home. The package was picked up at my front door by 8AM the next day. Six days later the bike arrived at Full Cycles in Corvallis, OR, almost 3,000 miles away. The cool folks at Full Cycles said they would put my ride together for me because "they're a bike shop and that's what they do." That's service! Now I can't wait to join my bike on the other side and ride those Oregon Trails.
Update: The Oregon Trails were great, and when it was time to leave the easy-going guys at Web Cyclery in Bend, Oregon were totally cool. I walked into their shop with the case all packed on a Saturday morning and they let me use their computer to arrange the Fed Ex pickup from their shop for the coming Monday (Fed Ex Ground only operates on weekdays). They babysat the package all weekend until pickup and it arrived at my home promptly the following Monday before 8AM. Exploring new trails on your own bike is the only way to go. |