i always ship fedex ground (closest station to me). used to be able to ship complete 58cm bike for about 35-40 dollars. now it's about 45-55 bucks insured and there is a size limit you have to get under. went in there one time and they said the cost was going to be about $90, i had the guy remeasure and managed to get him to drop an inch off the lenght of the package and the price went down to about $45.
shipping the air method will give the package less opportunity to be damaged as it's handled less, but cost to ship a bike that way is probably three to four times as much. never had to deal with an insurance claim and hopefully i never will.
Jeff Piwonka
Austin, texas usa
> From: karl swanson <karlcycle@gmail.com>
\r?\n> Subject: Re: [CR] UPS Insurance (Karl)
\r?\n> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
\r?\n> Date: Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 3:30 PM
\r?\n> My experience today was that the UPS
\r?\n> Store (franchise) wanted $123 to ship a
\r?\n> bike, and another independent UPS shipper charged me $73
\r?\n> for the same
\r?\n> package to the same destination...I, too, was taken to
\r?\n> school on the fact
\r?\n> that they all set there own pricing, so shop around. I am
\r?\n> not sure how the
\r?\n> online price estimates are supposed to help with it being
\r?\n> anyone's guess in
\r?\n> the end. I also insured the box for $600, my packaging and
\r?\n> padding, no
\r?\n> questions asked.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Karl Swanson
\r?\n> Santa Barbara, California