After looking at various options on this forum and others out there in internet land, I'm pretty well convinced that BikeFlight is the way to go for shipping our tandem cross-country next month. I was wondering if there is anyone amongst the forum that has used a CrateWorks shipping box. Rather expensive, however I wondered if my percieved ease of packing (looks like everything you need is there, no stuffing the bike /equipment in via the narrow top ) and the added protection of it's design is worth the protection. Any further recomendations/comments in addition to ideas posted above?
Tom
My custom IF is sitting at home packed inside a CrateWorks box (the poly one) at this very moment. Going to Cycle Oregon on Friday.
I first used one to fly to Spain in '00. Not only did it hold my 63 cm Cannondale T-700, but also my tent, sleeping bag and helmet. For reasosns I won't bore you with, I ended up abandoning it there.
Bought a second one back in '02. This will be it's fifth flight. It has also been used twice to ship my 60cm Surly LHT to Montana via UPS. Still holding up strong. They are roomy boxes but sitll "legal." Easy to load. The internal tie downs can be positioned to best secure your particular frame size/geometry. Mine came with a diagram affixed to the inside showing you how to position the bike and tie it doen. And you can replace certain parts of they get damaged.
While I like the internal compression straps, I am less than enthusiastic about the outer h-strap system. TSA at my airport doesn't have a large scanning machine, so they open bike boxes. Some employees have had trouble figuring out how to re-secure the straps. One time, I got the box back with two of the straps tied in a knot.
