November 15, 2009
More Photos at Bottom of Post
On my trip to Moab last year, I chose to ship my bike using a free cardboard bike box that I picked up from a local bike shop. I didn’t want to pay a lot of money for a hard case, and I couldn’t justify spending anything on a standard cardboard bike box. My cheapness (and lack of research) created the horrendous requirement of having to completely brake down my bike to get it to fit into the box. This took an inordinate amount of time, required the same amount of time on the receiving end to build the bike back up, and it didn’t keep my frame and parts safe. No matter how well I secured the parts, they all broke free during shipping and where flopping around against each other. Good thing AirCaddy produces a cost effective, re-usable solution that solves this mess.
Pricing: $99.95 (plus $20.00 shipping via 3 day ground)
Number of Uses: Six Shipments
Shell Replacement: $39.95 (outer card board)
Cost To Ship: $50.00 (Southwest Airlines flat rate for any bike in any form)
Availability: www.aircaddy.com
The AirCaddy is an airline friendly, re-usable bike shipping solution that allows your bike to stay largely intact and better protected than standard cardboard bike shipping solutions. It was created by the owner of Lickton’s Bike Supply – which is said to be one of the oldest catalog-based Internet sites for bikes (the site’s pretty outdated). From what I learned, the owner of Lickton was shipping a volume of bikes and they were all getting damaged. He invented the AirCaddy as a better solution to safely ship a bike. If you call the 800 number to order, do not be surprised if no one answers, or if someone does, and they sound too busy. This was my experience but I got what I needed just fine. It sounded like Lickton’s was very busy and getting AirCaddy’s out to clients is not their core business.
The AirCaddy is an airline friendly, re-usable bike shipping solution that allows your bike to stay largely intact and better protected than standard cardboard bike shipping solutions. It was created by the owner of Lickton’s Bike Supply.
I received the AirCaddy via UPS ground. The $20 shipping fee got the product to my door in 3 days. It was packed in a flat box roughly 2.5 feet by 2.5 feet and 3.5″ thick. As I unpacked it, I found a large zip lock bag that contained the directions and all the pieces I would need to secure my bike. The directions were clear and easy to follow using large illustrations and numbered step-by-step break downs. The box is also numbered using large circular stickers in areas where it folds into itself for assembly. The sticker way-finding system makes it that much easier to avoid goofing this up. The complete box assembled easily in under 15 minutes.
The directions were clear and easy to follow using large illustrations and numbered step-by-step break downs. The sticker way-finding system makes it that much easier to avoid goofing this up.
The cardboard itself is very thick and very strong. This is by no means standard cardboard. It is easily four times heavier than what you think of as everyday cardboard.
Once the box is unfolded, and the bottom assembled, it feels very sturdy. However it comes with reinforcement for the side walls and for each corner. This makes the entire structure twice as strong as you originally thought it would be. The corners are truly tough and very hard to dent. This box would have to be dropped smack on a corner from quite a height in order to crush the corner let alone damage your bike.
It comes with reinforcement for the side walls and for each corner. This makes the entire structure twice as strong as you originally thought it would be.
I liked this shipping solution because of the box’s triangular shape. It allowed my bike to stay 90% intact during shipment. The rear wheel stayed attached to the bike as normal and was wedged in the corner – which helped keep the bike rigid and standing upright. The biggest difference however, is the fact that you bolt the fork to a plate that is securely attached to the floor of the box – much like you would attach the fork to the roof rack of a car. The AirCaddy comes with a mounting plate that gets secured to the box floor by a second plate from the outside bottom. The second plate has screw posts that protrude through the floor of the box and the inner plate slides over them (secured with big wing nuts). This fork plate serves two purposes – holding your bike upright and also helping hold the bottom of the box together. Bottom box reliability is very high with this plate in place as it sandwiches the bottom flaps together tightly. The box has pre-made holes for the screw posts, but since I was shipping a larger bike, I had to make my own holes as the stock holes did not line up. It was no big deal at all.
Once my bike was packed, I had plenty of extra room for shoes and equipment. I just made sure to pack them in their own containers tightly so that they would not damage the bike. My bike was extremely secure in this packaging. I flipped the box over, laid it on its side, and stood it on end – my bike didn’t move or make a sound in anyway.
The biggest differance is the fact that you bolt the fork to a plate that is securely attached to the floor of the box – much like you would attach the fork to the roof rack of a car. I flipped the box over, laid it on its side, and stood it on end – my bike didn’t move or make a sound in anyway.
The box’s dimensions are 30.5″ high, 56″ long and 25″ at the widest part (for handle bars). I used the box to ship an Ellsworth Moment (size large, with 20mm through axle fork) and it handled the bike just fine although my stem did protrude passed the box’s 30.5″ height. This was compensated for by the over-sized flaps that make up the top of the box. The cardboard is very thick, and each flap overlapped and bent slightly to make up for the stem sticking up. As thick as the cardboard is, it was able to protect the top of my stem just fine. Upon inspection after shipping each way, there were no marks on the stem and neither of the card board flaps were dented in anyway from the stem resting directly against them.
For road bikes (and for smaller mountain bikes) you should have no probelm leaving the bars on (rotated backward for road bikes) as well as the derailleur, brake components, and possibly the pedals.
As for my through axle fork, the AirCaddy does not have a built in solution so I used my Hurricane Fork Up adapter and had no problem securing it to the mounting plate.
As for my through axle fork, the AirCaddy does not have a built in solution so I used my Hurricane Fork Up adapter and had no problem securing it to the mounting plate. I had to invert my fork (notice by my backwards stem in the photos) to get the bike to fit, but this was no problem at all. I also had to remove my bars, pedals, unbolt my rear derailleur and unbolt my front brake caliper from the mount in order to make this all work. Considering the expense of hard cases, and the alternative of standard boxes, these were small concessions to make. I made sure to wrap the parts I unbolted in bubble wrap, and then I taped them to the frame using clear packing tape so they would not rattle around. It was quick to reattach the caliper and derailleur as I did not remove the cables from either one.
The AirCaddy As It Is Shipped
AirCaddy Unfolded w/ Directions and Pieces
AirCaddy w/ Bottom Assembled
AirCaddy Flipped Over After Bottom Complete
AirCaddy Reinforment Panels Being Inserted
AirCaddy w/ Reinforcement Panels Inserted
AirCaddy Fork Plate Mounts
AirCaddy w/ Bike Inserted and Bars Secured
AirCaddy All Packed Up
Awesome. I’m moving and had been looking for a cheap solution to bring my bike. This helps a lot. Thanks for the review.
Right on, Matt. Glad it helped. Good luck with the move.
My wife ordered these bike shipping boxes in particular because removal of the derailer was not required for this container. We are shipping both our bikes to the El Tour De Tucson. We just finished placing my bike in the box and it was so simple and I was so impressed with the stability of this box that I decided this warrented a favorable review. This is a great container and it’s easy to put togather. Highly recommend it!
Thanks for the feedback Steve!
Thanks for the great review. I’ve been looking into using the AirCaddy for my first Seattle-Portland this year and from what I can find it seems that the vast majority of user experiences are positive.
Great job with Spoke Apparel and with the site BTW, keep it up!
Paul
Thanks Paul. Glad it helped. Thanks also for the kind words on the site. We certainly try, glad it shows. Have a safe trip with your bike!