How to Pack & Ship Mountain Bikes

Series Summary

It can be said that the bicycle holds a certain mystique as a simple machine that we can use to move our bodies faster than usually possible, pumping and pushing in sync with the gears and pedals. Cycling is an exciting hobby that allows you to travel a little further than an evening walk would afford, but much faster and usually in the same amount of time.

Bicycle motocross, or BMX, is a style of competitive cycling that is performed on earthen tracks. The sport centers around doing riding tricks or “freestyle.” Internationally, BMX freestyle has become increasingly popular, even more so than BMX racing. BMX biking became popular in the 1970s in California. Today riders compete against each other on a manmade track, where they can participate in various disciplines including street, park, vert, trails and flatland.

Whether you’re a BMX rider who needs to take their bike cross country in a matter of hours and not weeks, or just a cycling enthusiast who wants to go riding in a remote location, watch this free bicycle maintenance and travel video series and learn how to disassemble and pack mountain bikes for shipping. Also get tips on properly removing and protecting bike parts, as well as learn where to go to ship your mountain bike.

Video Transcript

"Hi! This is Mike on behalf of expertvillage.com. For more information about how to pack a bike, please visit Prairie Path Cycles in Winfield, Illinois or check us out on line at www.prairiepathcycles.com. In this clip, we are going to be going over the materials needed to pack your bike to ship and the first and foremost, is the bike box. Other than that, you are going to need a few more things. One is material to wrap around the bike to protect it. You can use an assortment of different things; like here you can use some old cut up towels or shirts or anything to wrap around the bike frame or you can get some styrofoam which you can get some circular stuff which goes around the tubes pretty good and just make sure you tape it on so it doesn't slide around too much. Other than that, you can just use plastic and a little bit of cardboard just to wrap around it. Pretty much anything to protect the frame will be good and you can use it on as little or as much as the frame as you would want. Other than that, you will need some zip ties. You can pick these up at your local bike shop or any hardware store and you can use these to tie the front wheel down to the bike and tie the handle bars down to the frame or pretty much anything that is going to be loose that you want secure so that it doesn't rattle around too much that ties real good. The two other things you are going to need is a front wheel block and this goes inside your fork so you when you are shipping it, it doesn't end up bending anything; it's real good to protect your fork. The other thing you will need to protect it is a rear derailure axel protector. This will go around by your rear axel and kind of stick out your frame so it helps your derailure not to get in the way or get bent or crushed or anything like that. "