How to Ship a Bike by Courier: Cost, Packing and E-Bikes

Shipping a bike by courier is perfectly doable. The catch is just not where you expect it. Taking the bike apart and boxing it is an afternoon’s work, and then you discover that a bike box does not fit the size limits of ordinary parcel services, so you still have to find a carrier that will take it. With an e-bike, the battery adds a second problem.

Which carriers take a bike box and which do not

A bike box usually measures around 140 × 30 × 80 cm and weighs 15 to 25 kg with the bike inside, so weight is not the problem. Size is. Parcel carriers measure what they call girth: twice the width plus twice the height plus the length. For a 140 × 30 × 80 cm box that comes to 360 cm.

The limits were verified on carrier websites on 9 October 2026. Only a very compact pack fits inside a 300 cm girth, something like 130 × 20 × 65 cm, and that means taking off both wheels and, on most frames, the fork as well. A road bike or a child’s bike will go. A full-suspension mountain bike in size L probably will not.

Pickup points and parcel lockers are out of the question: DPD caps them at 20 kg and a 100 cm longest side. National postal services tend to push large items into a separate bulky-goods product, if they take them at all. So when the box does not fit the limits, what is left is a broker that also handles oversized parcels. Eurosender has a dedicated bike service: you enter the box dimensions, pick one of the offers and a courier collects it from your home. The general booking flow is covered in the guide on how to ship with Eurosender.

How to pack a bike in a box

A bike is shipped dismantled in a rigid cardboard box, not in a soft bag. Eurosender explicitly does not accept a bike bag as outer packaging and warns that the courier may refuse a badly packed bike. You can get a box from a bike shop, usually for nothing. New bikes arrive in them and the shop throws them away otherwise, so they are happy to hand one over (phone ahead, though, because there is not always one left).

1. Remove the front wheel, pedals, saddle and handlebars. Undo the pedals in the right direction: the left one has a reverse thread. The handlebars only need to come off the stem and be tied to the frame.
2. Let some air out of the tyres. They do not have to be flat, just soft.
3. Wrap the frame and anything that sticks out. Bubble wrap or foam tubes on the frame, cardboard between the wheel and the frame. Protect the axles and the rear derailleur separately, because they take the first hit.
4. Put bolts and small parts in a bag and tape the bag to the frame.
5. Fill the empty space so nothing moves inside the box, then reinforce the corners and edges with tape.

It is worth fitting a spacer into the fork and the rear dropouts, either the plastic one that comes with a new bike or an old axle. Without it, one push from the side is enough to bend the fork. What to pack with and where to buy it is covered in the overview of parcel packaging supplies.

How much it costs to ship a bike by courier

The price of shipping a bike depends mainly on the volume of the box, not on the weight of the bike. Carriers compare actual weight with volumetric weight and charge whichever is higher. Volumetric weight is length × width × height in centimetres divided by 5,000.

• A 140 × 30 × 80 cm box: volumetric weight 67.2 kg, even if the bike weighs 14 kg.
• A 130 × 20 × 65 cm box: volumetric weight 33.8 kg.

Ten centimetres of width does more to the price than five extra kilos. With bikes, almost everyone forgets this. You can run your own dimensions through the volumetric weight calculator. There is no fixed tariff for bikes, and the price only appears once you enter a route and dimensions. The examples Eurosender publishes for specific European routes range from roughly €70 to €250 per bike. Where you land in that range is mostly down to the box. Hence the obsession with centimetres.

For comparison, airlines charge roughly €50–150 per bike each way, and you still have to dismantle and pack it. A courier makes sense in two situations above all: you do not want to drag the box to the airport, or you are sending the bike to someone else, typically after selling it second-hand. Other sports equipment is covered in the article on shipping luggage and sports gear in summer.

E-bikes: the battery is the problem

An e-bike differs from an ordinary bike in its lithium battery, which counts as Class 9 dangerous goods in transport. E-bike batteries typically hold 400 to 700 Wh, many times more than the small phone batteries carriers make exceptions for. Standard parcel services exclude dangerous goods in their terms, and Eurosender says that e-bike batteries fall under most couriers’ restricted items and asks customers to contact support before booking.

That leaves three routes, and none of them is comfortable.

• Send the bike without the battery. To a courier, an e-bike without its battery is an ordinary bike that happens to be heavier. It can easily weigh 20 to 25 kg, so with the box you are close to the 30 kg mark and a service with a 70 kg limit is the safer choice.
• Move the battery another way. Take it by car, or ship it as dangerous goods with a carrier that handles them and issues the paperwork. But that is no longer a cheap parcel. It is a job for a specialist.
• Ask first. Send the carrier or broker the battery capacity in Wh and get written confirmation that the shipment will be accepted. Hiding the battery does not pay: the shipment can be stopped and the insurance will not cover it.

A damaged or swollen battery should not be shipped at all. What else couriers refuse is listed in the overview of prohibited items in parcels.

Insurance and handing the bike to the courier

Basic insurance is normally included in the shipping price, but its limit will not cover the value of a more expensive bike. Eurosender includes basic cover with every shipment and lets you book extra cover when you order. For a bike worth serious money I would not think twice about it. And photograph the bike and the packing before you tape the box shut, because photos are the first thing a claims team asks for. How cover works is explained in the guide to parcel insurance and compensation.

Enter the real dimensions and weight of the packed box in the booking. If the depot measures more, you get a surcharge. In the worse case the courier does not take the box at all. Is the bike travelling with the rest of your things because you are relocating? Then read about moving abroad with courier boxes. And if you have several bikes, or a tandem that will not fit in a box, the next step is an oversized shipment or a pallet.