First Luggage

dyrlac

Has anyone used First Luggage for shipping their bike to Europe? Given the utter faff involved in getting mine on the Eurostar for Flanders 2015 (get bike from wimbers to St. Panc, check it in, collect in Brux, get bike to Aalst, repeat in reverse, and all with small kids in tow), the £200 seems a bargain. Reliability? Alternative recommendations? Thanks

dyrlac

Responding to my own thread:

I used First Luggage to send my bike from my house in London to my hotel in Belgium (and back) for the Ronde. Total price was c. £200, which, if you insist on taking your own bike and you're not driving, was well worth it. You need to have your own bike box.

Economy service (there is a much more expensive VIP service, but I could have *bought* a new bike in Belgium for the price) has some compromises though: (1) they pick your bike up 5 business days before the event, so N+1 is a requirement; (2) they don't deliver or pick up on bank holidays, so depending on your dates, you need to make sure your hotel is expecting your bike and that they are happy to sort out handoff to the delivery guys on return. They use DHL for the actual transport delivery. Could have done with a better (make that any) tracking system, but all's well that ends well.

Next time though I may just hire a bike on location. I'm not very fussy about position/fit (score one for pilates), and the hassle/stress of worrying about your bike and rebuilding it on arrival is a bit much (especially considering I had to acquire an emergency left crank shimano preload bolt at 1730 on the evening before the event: Van Eyck Sports in Aalst is *highly* recommended).