Hey ,
Not too long ago I received a neat , fun , and interesting ( but not too valuable and not much sought-after ) bicycle , from a list-member . It's a Gazelle "TOUR DE L'AVENIR" . It answers the question - When is a Raleigh Grand Prix NOT a Raleigh Grand Prix ?
Anyway , the seller wrote to me ahead of time , and warned me about "non-traditional packing materials" . After this experience , I say , if you are not afraid of terms like "non-traditional" , or "alternative" , this variation on the idea of packing materials seems fairly brilliant !
In the area of modern packing materials , we've probably all seen those little inflated plastic bags , or maybe we should call them clear plastic balloons ? They are a fantastic idea in packing materials ! But for what we ship , heavy objects , often with sharp "pokey" parts , those little plastic bags are too delicate .
Use empty soft-drink bottles !
Three-liter , 2-liter , 1-liter , single-serving , whatever , they really work well ! Make sure they are honestly empty . Screw the caps back on , tightly . Toss them right in !
After the warning from the seller about the "non-traditional" packing material , I was very curious . When the box arrived , I just had to burst out laughing ! Cool ! Looks bad - works great !
And for those of us who are aware that many folks think we're crazy for liking old bicycles . . . "what? a dirty old bicycle? and it probably has flat tires?" . . . opening a box and seeing a couple of dozen empty used plastic bottles , just seems to add more fun ! They give the whole "just-got-a-new-bicycle" experience that "fresh-from-the-dumpster" feeling !!
( for our friends in the U.K. , I believe that might be termed "skip-fresh" :^)
And best of all , They Really WORK !!
If you had all the time in the world , you could do things perfectly by taking off the labels , rinsing them out , etc . Or you could just grab up the empties , make sure the caps are screwed on tightly , and toss them right in ! Warning ! The screw-caps , and the areas around them , have somewhat sharp edges . You must still do something to protect the paint and decals from the plastic bottles ! However , when the people on the loading dock begin to play "catch" or "keep-away" with your large parcel . . . Those empty bottles do a SUPERB job of cushioning the larger and heavier items !
And if you're really into fine-tuning the performance of your packing materials , you can easily vary the amount of air in the bottles , to change the stiffness or the softness of those bottles ! Obviously if you squeeze out some air , before tightening the cap , the bottle will be soft . But for a harder bottle , how do you get more than the normal amount of air into it ? Just leave the cap only partly tightened , so that it's not actually sealed . Then put the bottle somewhere cool , or somewhere cold . Leave it there for a while . Then tighten the cap . When the air inside the bottle warms up , and expands , that bottle will be inflated quite tightly !
( if we leave the bottles in a seriously cold freezer , say perhaps overnight , then tighten the caps , then put them out in the hot sunshine on a summer's day - will they actually explode ?? )
( and yes , if you enjoy model airplanes , you can buy or build airplanes powered by compressed air - and using empty soft-drink bottles as air reservoirs ! they use bicycle pumps to pump in quite a load of compressed air - I can't recall the generally accepted limits , but higher than you might think ! )
Cheers ,
Raoul Delmare
Marysville Kansas U.S.A.