incorrigible
Senior Retro Guru
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I posted about this on RB a few years back, but I cannot find my original post. It contained enough pics to show the damage that can occur when shipping a full bike (specifically an e-stay) if it's packed carelessly. Perhaps someone here can find it?
Bottom line: the abrasive end of the axle of the loose front wheel will scrape against the e-stay frame for the entire time in transit.
The result: a couple of square inches of paint (and even a bit of metal) gouged away from an otherwise pristine bike.
I generated the attached pics (OK, so I won't win any image manipulation awards
). Imagine the red boxes are the shipping boxes. In one box goes a conventionally-designed 2-triangle MTB, while in the other box goes an e-stay MTB. Imagine further that the front wheel was removed and packed alongside the frame, while the skewer went into a separate baggie. - a typical packing job. The danger now is that the 1/4-inch hollow steel tube (the front axle) is exposed and ready to scrape against anything it touches for the entire duration of its "safe" trip to its caring new owner.
When viewing the pics. note that the vicious, abrasive end of the axle of the loose front wheel comes nowhere near the conventional 2-triangle frame, whereas in the case of the e-stay, that ruthless, savage, sharp-toothed end of the loose front wheel's axle is poised and ready to hungrily chomp down on the very part of the bike that makes it unique: the elevated chainstay.
Now imagine that your unicorn - that pristine MTB that you've lusted after since forever - FINALLY shows up at your door, and instead of "Love at first sight", you experience bitter heartache and regret for assuming that the employees of the seller's LBS actually cared enough to pack a bike sufficiently safely to prevent damage while en route to its new owner, the formerly lovestruck, and now devastatingly heartbroken YOU. It's like a knife in the heart. A few years ago, it happened to me 3 times in a row!
SIDE RANT: In my experience, the 2 words that get bandied about without a shred of consideration are "Care" and "Guarantee". Some salespeople will swear up and down about how much they "care" for you, for your business as one of their "valued" customers, for your purchase, for your property, for your "relationship" , etc., but it becomes a meaningless, empty statement when your purchase of something dear to you is handled cavalierly. Similarly, some folks toss the word "guarantee" around. "Oh, we've been shipping bikes for years without any problems! I GUARANTEE it will be packed well enough to arrive safely!", yet when your unicorn is irreversibly hobbled by damage that's directly attributable to their incompetence and utter lack of care, there's no recourse for you because a verbal guarantee is not worth the paper that it's not printed on. In other words, you're screwed, and the guarantor's response is a shoulder shrug to accompany the profoundly significant and well-thought out statement, "Oh well", followed by silence and their blank stare.............at which point I guess I'm supposed to say "thank you"? I think not.
OK, back to the task at hand: Before that front wheel goes into the box, a couple of those 5-inch black plastic discs (I'm not sure of their proper name, but I'm sure there was much cursing involved when inventing them) should be installed on BOTH ends of the bare axle, and even taped to one another multiple times thru the spokes using some tape with significant strength and durability. THEN, a piece of cardboard (preferably of significant thickness and perhaps a couple of square feet in area) should be inserted between the loose front wheel and the frame so that the black plastic disc slides/rubs easily against the cardboard, not the frame.
Without the black plastic discs, it's just the ends of the metal axles rubbing against cardboard, and the cardboard won't last long against a piece of 1/4-inch metal tubing rubbing back and forth against it for hours). Removing the axles completely would also help, and in that case you probably wouldn't need the black plastic discs, but I'd still err on the side of caution and recommend placing a good-sized piece of cardboard between the wheel and the frame so they don't rub against one another.
Ir's actually an exasperatingly simple concept: Just pretend you're a soldier in a special operations force, squatting in the jungle, bullets flying over head, crawling thru the mud to move forward, eating snakes and the heads of bats to stay alive (RIP Ozzy
), so when packing a bike, consider all the forces that could potentially act against that bike and HOPE FOR THE BEST but PREPARE FOR THE WORST, and after you pack a bike securely, you can feel like you just earned a medal of honor (the Distinguished Shield of the High Holy Grand Poo-bah of Bicycle Packing), put a notch in the stock of your AK-47 (or the handle of your crank-removal tool) and throw yourself a ticker-tape parade complete with trumpets blaring, horses with tassles, and a marching band with baton-twirlers to escort you to the pub to the sound of cheers to have a pint. Of course, be prepared to be honored by local dignitaries, accept a bouquet of roses, be showered with accolades and gifts, have a national holiday declared in your name, and be given the key to the city. WELL DONE, sir! The nation, in fact the entire bicycle-riding WORLD salutes you! ALL HAIL THE BICYCLE PACKING GUY!
...or just pretend you're a person who cares enough about bikes to ensure a bike's safety when being shipped. That's what I do. It's not rocket science.
If anyone can create some better graphics to explain the situation, please do it for me, do it for the RB community, and do it for the entire bike-riding world, but do it especially for those people who ship bicycles who seemingly couldn't pour water out of a boot with the instructions printed on the heel.
Cheers.
Bottom line: the abrasive end of the axle of the loose front wheel will scrape against the e-stay frame for the entire time in transit.
The result: a couple of square inches of paint (and even a bit of metal) gouged away from an otherwise pristine bike.
I generated the attached pics (OK, so I won't win any image manipulation awards
). Imagine the red boxes are the shipping boxes. In one box goes a conventionally-designed 2-triangle MTB, while in the other box goes an e-stay MTB. Imagine further that the front wheel was removed and packed alongside the frame, while the skewer went into a separate baggie. - a typical packing job. The danger now is that the 1/4-inch hollow steel tube (the front axle) is exposed and ready to scrape against anything it touches for the entire duration of its "safe" trip to its caring new owner.
When viewing the pics. note that the vicious, abrasive end of the axle of the loose front wheel comes nowhere near the conventional 2-triangle frame, whereas in the case of the e-stay, that ruthless, savage, sharp-toothed end of the loose front wheel's axle is poised and ready to hungrily chomp down on the very part of the bike that makes it unique: the elevated chainstay.
Now imagine that your unicorn - that pristine MTB that you've lusted after since forever - FINALLY shows up at your door, and instead of "Love at first sight", you experience bitter heartache and regret for assuming that the employees of the seller's LBS actually cared enough to pack a bike sufficiently safely to prevent damage while en route to its new owner, the formerly lovestruck, and now devastatingly heartbroken YOU. It's like a knife in the heart. A few years ago, it happened to me 3 times in a row!
SIDE RANT: In my experience, the 2 words that get bandied about without a shred of consideration are "Care" and "Guarantee". Some salespeople will swear up and down about how much they "care" for you, for your business as one of their "valued" customers, for your purchase, for your property, for your "relationship" , etc., but it becomes a meaningless, empty statement when your purchase of something dear to you is handled cavalierly. Similarly, some folks toss the word "guarantee" around. "Oh, we've been shipping bikes for years without any problems! I GUARANTEE it will be packed well enough to arrive safely!", yet when your unicorn is irreversibly hobbled by damage that's directly attributable to their incompetence and utter lack of care, there's no recourse for you because a verbal guarantee is not worth the paper that it's not printed on. In other words, you're screwed, and the guarantor's response is a shoulder shrug to accompany the profoundly significant and well-thought out statement, "Oh well", followed by silence and their blank stare.............at which point I guess I'm supposed to say "thank you"? I think not.
OK, back to the task at hand: Before that front wheel goes into the box, a couple of those 5-inch black plastic discs (I'm not sure of their proper name, but I'm sure there was much cursing involved when inventing them) should be installed on BOTH ends of the bare axle, and even taped to one another multiple times thru the spokes using some tape with significant strength and durability. THEN, a piece of cardboard (preferably of significant thickness and perhaps a couple of square feet in area) should be inserted between the loose front wheel and the frame so that the black plastic disc slides/rubs easily against the cardboard, not the frame.
Without the black plastic discs, it's just the ends of the metal axles rubbing against cardboard, and the cardboard won't last long against a piece of 1/4-inch metal tubing rubbing back and forth against it for hours). Removing the axles completely would also help, and in that case you probably wouldn't need the black plastic discs, but I'd still err on the side of caution and recommend placing a good-sized piece of cardboard between the wheel and the frame so they don't rub against one another.
Ir's actually an exasperatingly simple concept: Just pretend you're a soldier in a special operations force, squatting in the jungle, bullets flying over head, crawling thru the mud to move forward, eating snakes and the heads of bats to stay alive (RIP Ozzy
), so when packing a bike, consider all the forces that could potentially act against that bike and HOPE FOR THE BEST but PREPARE FOR THE WORST, and after you pack a bike securely, you can feel like you just earned a medal of honor (the Distinguished Shield of the High Holy Grand Poo-bah of Bicycle Packing), put a notch in the stock of your AK-47 (or the handle of your crank-removal tool) and throw yourself a ticker-tape parade complete with trumpets blaring, horses with tassles, and a marching band with baton-twirlers to escort you to the pub to the sound of cheers to have a pint. Of course, be prepared to be honored by local dignitaries, accept a bouquet of roses, be showered with accolades and gifts, have a national holiday declared in your name, and be given the key to the city. WELL DONE, sir! The nation, in fact the entire bicycle-riding WORLD salutes you! ALL HAIL THE BICYCLE PACKING GUY!...or just pretend you're a person who cares enough about bikes to ensure a bike's safety when being shipped. That's what I do. It's not rocket science.
If anyone can create some better graphics to explain the situation, please do it for me, do it for the RB community, and do it for the entire bike-riding world, but do it especially for those people who ship bicycles who seemingly couldn't pour water out of a boot with the instructions printed on the heel.
Cheers.
