Hello from the Northwest!

[D. Lindner]

Hello from the Northwest, I’m Don from just north of Seattle, Washington. I recently purchased a Stromer eBike to help with rehabbing a knee replacement, all the hills we have in my area and have some of fun in the process. I have had several bikes over the years both road and mountain but none have been electrified. I read and watched numerous reviews on EBR, which helped with my decision to take the plunge and buy a eBike. Thank you Court for your detailed reviews, information and interviews. You have created a great resource.

So, I joined the forum to get some advice about transporting or shipping an eBike from Southern California to my home. I have contacted UPS, FedEx, Amtrak and a few others, all running into roadblocks due to their policy with transporting an eBike with a large battery. I look forward to your advice and recommendations so I can be a happy eBike rider.

 

[CodyDog]

Perhaps you can have a LBS that sells ebikes in Southern Cal ship it for you at a reasonable price.

 

[DaveMatthews]

Perhaps you can have a LBS that sells ebikes in Southern Cal ship it for you at a reasonable price.

Agreed. Ebike sellers are and/or should be well versed in shipping.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

bikeflights.com will ship class 1 e-bikes from approved shippers, if you check on their website you should be able to find one in your area. Prices are reasonable.

If you box your bike and remove the battery you should be able to ship the bike via amtrak. If you find a hazmat-certified bike shop (by checking on bikeflights.com you can have them package and fedex the battery for you. For me I'd go with bikeflights if you can.

 

[ebikemom]

I hope the bike works out to be terrific therapy for your new knee! Mine works great for my old (well, middle-aged) ones!

 

[D. Lindner]

Thank you for the feedback. Since my bike is a class 3 this limits who and where I can use to ship (bikeflights won't do it). Amtrak was my go to until they told me that they have a 50lb weight limit on bikes, box and all. Even without the battery the Stromer, packing and box exceed 50 lbs. Frustrated and stuck!

 

[DaveMatthews]

Thank you for the feedback. Since my bike is a class 3 this limits who and where I can use to ship (bikeflights won't do it). Amtrak was my go to until they told me that they have a 50lb weight limit on bikes, box and all. Even without the battery the Stromer, packing and box exceed 50 lbs. Frustrated and stuck!

Hmmm...
Looks like Greyhound restricts batteries too.
What about shipping it in two boxes? Say frame in one box and wheels/battery in another?

 

[Briansc7]

its been a few weeks.... any luck with shiping the bike. I like the suggestion from CodyDog. I've had LBS ship bikes for me, though not ebike. However an eLBS (ha, cool) should have all that sorted out I'd imagine.

 

[Over50]

Thank you for the feedback. Since my bike is a class 3 this limits who and where I can use to ship (bikeflights won't do it). Amtrak was my go to until they told me that they have a 50lb weight limit on bikes, box and all. Even without the battery the Stromer, packing and box exceed 50 lbs. Frustrated and stuck!

Propel Bikes shipped both of my class 3 bikes with batteries via freight companies. Arrived on my residential street in a semi. Seems like an e-bike shop that sells a lot of bikes to distant customers could help with this ...

 

[D. Lindner]

Thank you for the feedback. Since my bike is a class 3 this limits who and where I can use to ship (bikeflights won't do it). Amtrak was my go to until they told me that they have a 50lb weight limit on bikes, box and all. Even without the battery the Stromer, packing and box exceed 50 lbs. Frustrated and stuck!

After talking to several LBS's in So. Cal. none of them would ship my eBike unless I had bought it from them. So, I ended up shipping my class 3 eBike with ShipBikes.com, battery included and it was a door to door success! They are really great people and very helpful! Details... I called around to find a bike box from a LBS and all that most had were pretty small, requiring both front and rear wheel removal. I didn't want to disassemble my bike other than the front wheel removal due to the complexities of the motor and brake assembly on the rear wheel. So I ended up buying a box from ShipBikes.com. The large box arrived and took a quite a bit of assembly (metal floor brackets to hold the rear wheel and front fork down to the box along with straps to the sides of the box to keep the bike vertical) along with some foam padding (of my own) to protect the bike and front wheel. They have a very well thought out system to protect the bike! I would highly recommend them to anyone who needs to ship an electric bike!