Eric,
Both Lou Deeter and myself receive a lot of bicycles. We have both found
that the most common damage, especially for new packers, is damage to the
top of the seat lugs and the top of the headset area. We now ask folks to
put some significant extra padding at those two points and to not only tie
the bike together, as Jim Langley suggests, but to use cable ties to
immobilize the bike within the box. While you can do this through the box,
I think it even better to insert large bits of cardboard inside the box on
the sides (doesn't hurt to put it other places, too) and using an awl and
carefully pointing away from the already packed bike to make your holes and
cable tie the bike to this cardboard which is unlikely to move. This stops
the bike from moving around inside the box, where both Lou and I feel this
damage occurs. By tying to this extra bit of cardboard instead of the box
the likelihood of the twist tie portion on the outside of the box is
minamalized.
Hey! Send some pics of that special bike when it arrives...and happy
holidays!
Tom Sanders
Lansing, Mi