How to Pack & Ship Mountain Bikes in Bike Boxes

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, I am going to be telling you where you can get a bike box and also how to pick one out. The first place you are going to want to check for a bike box is at your local bike store. Many of them will just have empty boxes that they can just give you for free or you can also try a department store that sells bikes and just see if they have anything laying around. Other than that, you can make your own. It will be a little less unsturdy but if you get any type of big cardboard box you can just cut it up and make sure you put plenty of tape around it so it holds. Now the way you would want to pick out a bike box is first if you do go to your bike shop, let them know what kind of bike you have and make sure you know what size bike you have. So you can tell them if it's a kids bike or BMX bike you are going to need a lot smaller of a box than this Mountain Bike box down here but if you do have an adult size frame, make sure you let them know how big your frame is. You want to pick out a box that is at least as big as your bike frame. So if you have a 19 inch bike frame, you would want a box that is at least for an 19 inch bike or bigger. On most bikes, you can figure out how big your frame size is by the sticker they have on there. Most of the time it is on the seat. As you can see here, this one is a 17 inch so just try to locate the sticker on your bike and when you do contact your bike shop, just let them know whatever number is on that sticker. Always remember the bigger box you get, the easier it will be to put in there and if you do have other things like shoes and a helmet and a pump you want to throw in there, the more room you will have for that as well too. Another thing is if you are going to be traveling a lot with your bike and you are going to be needing it more than just one time, they do make more sturdier bike boxes. Like this one here is a plastic bike box and it has wheels on it. It is good for shipping on airlines or if you are shipping through UPS or Fed Ex, they will also take it too. It's just a lot sturdier than the cardboard will be and then you can reuse it multiple times so if you are traveling a lot, you get your money out of something like this and it keeps everything protected a little bit more than the cardboard box would. Other than that, the cardboard box is a little bit easier to get and a lot more inexpensive than the plastic one is. That is how you pick out a box to ship your bike in. "