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Shipping bikes to tokyo,

liljamie

Warming-Up
Sep 4, 2007
1
0
I"m sure this threat has probably come up before but....


I just moved to Tokyo (yotsuya) from up near Wakkanai Hokkaido (最北地方!!)and now that i live in a place where commuting by bike actually make sense, i was looking into sending my bianchi over from miami. Unfortunately, its rather steep (short of splitting the wheels, and dismantling the bike completely, over 300 dollars to ship) and so was wondering if there waas either a cheaper way to get it here, or if anyone knew anyplace where i could get a used fixie downtown for relatively cheap (up to 5 man)

anyhelp would be totally appreciated.


jamie
 
I bought my bike in the States last Februrary and then went and
fetched it myself. I had been planning to visit my parents anyway
so once my schedule was set I bought the bike on eBay and had
it shipped to my folks' house. (The seller wouldn't deal with anyone
outside the U.S. So I was "in Japan at the moment" and would
be "back in Los Angeles in a week or so" which was all technically
true but slightly misleading.)

Anyway, I brought my bike back as checked baggage. Depending
on the airline, and the size of the box you get it into, a bike *might*
count as ordinary luggage for no extra charge. My bike was in a
factory Trek corrugated cardboard box (the largest) and my airline
was American. The agent at the check-in counter tried to get me
through without a surcharge, but couldn't. She was quite helpful
but I had a suitcase, the bike, and a boxed set of extra wheels.

In the end the wheel box and my suitcase were counted as my
normal allowance and I paid for the bike. She said if I'd been
travelling domestic she could have let it slide, but American's
international policy was very strict due to security concerns.

It was $70.

Two of my friends have come over to ride and they travel
with their bikes fairly regularly. They have plastic cargo boxes
for their bikes and say the going rate is about $60~80 per
flight but that they only have to pay it somewhat less than
half the time.

So if you are planning a trip to Florida... or have family coming
to visit...?

Any local bike shop will have boxes left over from new bikes
that they will give you. Or for a few bucks ($25?) they'll put
your bike in one.

- jam
 
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