mailing a frameset

[Fastpedaller]

How does anyone send a frameset through the mail at a reasonable cost? I've looked all over the 'net and can't see a way to get the price below about £40. It looks like shops have special deals as their carriage appears to be below £20. Long and the short of it (pun intended) is that the weight (or lack of it) isn't an issue, but the size of course. I have a sturdy cardboard bike box, which provides good protection, but it measures 133cm x 76cm x 17cm. With the usual dropout width and card thickness, there's no reduction to be achieved there, and although the height and length could be reduced a little, the box strength would be compromised enormously. The 'rules' seem to be 245cm total for girth of box plus length, so even taking the length down to 120cm just gives 245 -120 = 125 for the girth.....with 17cm width that gives 125-34 = 91cm so divide that by 2 and it would have to be a very small frame. I'm reduced to trying to sell locally via gumtree of adding £40 postage which may well put off buyers.

 

[DCLane]

I managed it a couple of weeks ago via Parcelforce. The width / height wasn't the issue, it was the length and I ended up cutting the box in two, sliding one section into the other in order to achieve the maximum 110cm length.

 

[Fastpedaller]

With the total girth + length I can't get it within PF's requirements. I guess there are smaller bike boxes, but even they a 22 inch frame would appear to be challenging. Anyway, (having search the forum), when I posted my first post, the similar threads came up and I found a mention of Paisley Freight - they do indeed look good, and I reckon I can get it sent for £30 by them.
A strange thing is when I do a search online various 'parcel monkey' and other sights come up with varying prices for Parcelforce - I even tried Parcelforce directly and got a price below £20, but when I searched again it wouldn't come up with the same price. It's a bit of a minefield and a case of going down the 'wormholes' for the restrictions - not at all easy IMHO.

 

[biggs682]

It's not as cheap as it used to be

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Are you removing the fork when trying to pack? Then packing it alongside the frame.

 

[biggs682]

Always use to use Senditnow.com who used parcel force

 

[Fastpedaller]

Are you removing the fork when trying to pack? Then packing it alongside the frame.

I considered removing the fork, however, even with the resulting reduction in length, the girth of the box still means the total exceeds parcelforce dimensions

 

[Fastpedaller]

Thanks for the help......... I'm not in a position to post the bike as it was sold to a local (ish) cyclist a few minutes ago.