Headed out to the Bay area for work next month, and am thinking about bringing my bike with me. The last time I went, the logistics of picking up/returning a bike and finding time to ride after work were pretty challenging. Not to mention it's ~$100/day and shops don't want you taking demo bikes to Soquel.

American Airlines is $150 each way. Does anybody have experience with bikeflights? Are they better than shipping a bike yourself? Other options I haven't considered?

bikeflights is good, its a little annoying planning around delivery/drop off, but much cheaper.

if you didnt book your tickets yet, Southwest is a much better deal traveling with sporting equipment.

keep poking around for rentals, if you factor in the price for shipping your own stuff, plus the time of putting it together and repacking, it may be worth finding a rental...

i traveled to SoCal for work and was able to rent a road bike for pretty cheap. good luck!

Ok here's the math on a Portland round trip in Sept on Delta for a 27 lb trail bike. FYI with gear, packing and the bag I'm estimating a 45 lb package for this analysis. 

Option1:  Buy bag and check the bike as baggage. Bag costs $370 + (2) checked bike fees @ $150 each. Tip for porter @ $20 each side. Figure you may get lucky as a free checked bag or worst case they at least treat it a bit more gently. Total = $710 but you have the bag for next time. Given that any incremental trips will only cost $340 for as long as the bag holds up. 

Option 2:  Bike flight for 3 business day delivery each way is $328. ($407 for 2 bus days each way). You will also need a box and shipping supplies. Bike flight will sell a better box for $179 but you can probabally recycle foam and bubble wrap and pick up pipe insulation from Lowes for $10. Total $845 but you have nothing to show for it once the trip is over. I have heard good things about bikeflights services; but think it's expensive and slow. One thing I will say is that they have a great tutorial on how to pack you bike on their web site. Highly recommend you follow their guidance regardless of how you decide to proceede. 

Option 3:  Rent a bike on location from Pine Mt Sports icosts $75/day for a carbon framed demo bike.  At 7 days that's $525. It's a cheaper solution and bike quality is pretty good from this source. Of course it's not your bike and that can effect your experience on the trail. However the positive is that you could reduce that total quite a bit by only renting for the portion of the trip you will actually have time to ride. My problem is that on most of my business trips I can't project free time that effectively and getting the bike set up will add time to that.  Accordingly I'd most likely just rent it for the full period so I can ride when the opportunity comes up. The other concern I have is that not all rental locations will have damage insurance and if you lay the bike down it could get expensive pretty quickly. At least if you break your bike you get to keep the replacement parts...

Ultimately I think the deciding factor is how often you think you will be traveling with the bike. If more than once or twice I would buy the bag and have my own equipment with me on my adventure. If it's going to be a one timer I'd most likely rent on location if you have a decent shop to work with. Wish you all the best on your trip!
Cheers 
Jeff

If you are planning on riding in Santa Cruz you can rent a bike from Epicenter Cycles in Aptos for $70-$100 for 24 hrs and take a shuttle to the top of Nisene Marks with Shuttle smith Adventures. It really doesnt make sense to ship your bike unless you are going to ride at least 5 full days. Have fun!

Oskie wrote on 07/21/17 at 2:10am:


I agree.  Circa 2012, I carefully packed mine in a bike box from a shop and put it on a SWA flight from Raleigh to TX with a plane change in Denver. Bike went to San Diego due to a gate change in Denver. When it showed up in TX a couple days later it was sort of retaped with TSA tape and a form note stating that stuff had been seized. I had a couple CO 2 cartridges in my camelbak I'd packed with the bike. The camelbak had been opened and the cartridges removed, The pocket they were in was not zipped back and the contents spilled into the box. The  bike box was torn and items exposed and rattled around on the frame. I suspect some spare cleats fell out the hole in the box. SWA was not responsible for the damage since they did not do the search. I did not pursue the matter with TSA. Figured it was a lost cause.
Have shipped a couple times to TX w/ FedeX ground and not had the same issue.
BTW: SWA gave me a voucher for the next time for shipping. It expired in a year. No compensation for the two days riding I lost.
Whoopee! 
I'd use Bike Flights and ground delivery if needed again. Heard favorable about the service.