DIY Bike Box

redjeepǃ

I'm flying with my bike in a few days to do a multi day tour in Europe and wasn't sure how to pack the bike. The travel company I'm travelling with don't want people to use hard cases as they don't have enough space to transport them all in their van and I was nervous about committing my precious carbon bike to a soft case. I was also struggling to keep under the 23kg airline weight limit with a ~10 kg 'cross bike inside a 12.5kg case.

I did a lot of Googling and a lot of people seem to use the cardboard bike shipping boxes, but I felt that these were a bit small and lacking protection. I know bikes get shipped to the shops in them, but they're handled by shipping companies not airline baggage handlers.

I figured that I could use the shipping box but make up a custom box. My brief was to weigh less than 10 kg, be collapsible for transport during the event itself and offer adequate protection that I can sleep at night.

So here's my solution. I got two cardboard bike boxes, some correx (the plastic sheeting they use for sign making) and a load of strong waterproof plastic tape. An hour or so later, here's my box. Dimensions are 55 by 36 by 12 inches and all up weight is 10 kg.





It's not quite finished yet as I have enough cardboard and correx left to reinforce the corners and want to add some handles. I'm also thinking about adding wheels from some inline skates, but figure that may be pimping it too much.

It folds down easily when I split the tape holding the base of the box and seems very strong and stable.

SCR Pedro

Good job. I would also recommend some of that foam pipe protection, available from all crappy DIY stores. It's cheap enough and of course reusable.

redjeepǃ

Thanks Pedro. I have a load of the pipe lagging and also a roll of bubble wrap and a roll of the closed cell foam used for an underlay under wooden floors. I've also got some of the fork protectors that bikes ship with and reckon the bike will be well protected with minimal weight.

bernithebiker

Looks pretty good.

Is the base strong enough?

redjeepǃ

I'd say so. Its well taped up and the tape is very strong. I'm thinking of adding another layer of cardboard inside the base, but don't want to add more weight if I can help it.

More pictures next weekend.

MichaelW

Put some cross-members in to prevent crush damage. Rolled up corrugated card is good.

laurentian

MichaelW wrote:

Put some cross-members in to prevent crush damage. Rolled up corrugated card is good.

This is good advice - the other thing you can use is polystyrene block cut to fit between the frame, above and below the top tube, around the forks, in each corner etc.

slowbike

you need to consider how your handlebars sit too ..

In my Evoc bag the bars sit with the brake levers across the width of the bag and therefore susceptible to crushing (Ultegra so carbon) - I got around this by placing a shoe over each lever and fastening in place.

bernithebiker

Slowbike wrote:

you need to consider how your handlebars sit too ..

In my Evoc bag the bars sit with the brake levers across the width of the bag and therefore susceptible to crushing (Ultegra so carbon) - I got around this by placing a shoe over each lever and fastening in place.

Odd. How are you packing your EVOC? My brake levers sit along the height of the bag, at the front. (Which still makes them a bit vulnerable, IMO).

By the way, they brought out a new model with a wheel on the front. I'm thinking of cobbling a £10 wheel on mine.

redjeepǃ

MichaelW wrote:

Put some cross-members in to prevent crush damage. Rolled up corrugated card is good.

Sounds a good idea. I'll see what I can do this weekend. Thanks.

cougie

I think its all about the crushing.

And pack the bike well. Rear mech off as thats vulnerable. Pad it and secure it within the rear triangle
Chain on the big ring and zip tied on.
Turn the forks.
Put spindles in all of the dropouts to stop it being crushed.
Foam on anything you can see.

If you're happy enough to throw the bike down a flight of stairs - then you're ready to fly.

homers_double

I thought about this and just hired a box for £30 which is pretty local.

I have no constraints with size and storage though...

laurentian

Also, I my experience, if you have a quick link, you could save yourself a lot of fiddling and your chainstays getting a lot of oily crap on them by removing your chain for shipping. . .

Edited to say that you might want to pack a couple of those thin blue rubber glove thingys for putting the chain back on at the other end

slowbike

bernithebiker wrote:

Slowbike wrote:

you need to consider how your handlebars sit too ..

In my Evoc bag the bars sit with the brake levers across the width of the bag and therefore susceptible to crushing (Ultegra so carbon) - I got around this by placing a shoe over each lever and fastening in place.

Odd. How are you packing your EVOC? My brake levers sit along the height of the bag, at the front. (Which still makes them a bit vulnerable, IMO).

By the way, they brought out a new model with a wheel on the front. I'm thinking of cobbling a £10 wheel on mine.

I'm probably packing it incorrectly then I'll have a look next time we pack em up ...

cougie

If you take the chain off - watch out for the chainrings - they will cut through things if pressed against. I prefer to have the chain on.

redjeepǃ

Thanks everyone.

I'll be packing it this weekend and am planning to remove the handlebars and stem and disconnect the rear mech and tape it between the stays. I'll turn the forks sideways and fit fork protectors. I have loads of pipe insulation ready to cover as much as possible of the bike and also have rolls of bubblewrap and the thin closed cell foam used underneath wooden floors. I'll also use the foam to protect the wheels before I pack them.

I'll probably leave the chain on as I've heard that it help protect the cogs on the chainring.

I'm half thinking of packing a torque wrench to reassemble it, but am not sure if that's overkill. Maybe it's just another sign of my OCD nature. :? I'll see if I can find a way to secure it in the box and not likely to fly around and damage things.

desweller

Pretty nice.

Ref crush damage, one of the other forum members did a nice job with polystyrene.

redjeepǃ

DesWeller wrote:

Pretty nice.

Ref crush damage, one of the other forum members did a nice job with polystyrene.

That looks superb, the only problem for me would be that it'd take up the same space as a hardcase and so would be frowned upon by the tour organisers, otherwise I'd have definitely thought about it.