This is the second time that I have used Cyclesent.
I needed to ship a non-Thorn bike (M**lt*n) back to the supplier, AARC Innovations, as there was an intermittent problem with the electrics. They will ship any bike that will fit within the maximum box dimensions of 1.6m x 0.8m x 0.4m.
Bear in mind that my shipping was from a remote Scottish island, Shetland, to the UK Mainland. The service that I received will not be as good as you will receive, especially if you are shipping within the UK mainland, that is a fact of geography as much as anything.
I didn't have a box so I asked Cyclesent to send me one, ans also send me some bubblewrap. They can send parcel tape too, but that is easily enough bought here. The box, bubblewrap and the shipping, with the premium for remote island collection and insurance (for £2,000) came to about £57. A couple of days later I got an email to say that as the driver had to travel further to drop the box off, then come back again a few days later, there would be a further charge of £8. Seemed reasonable, so I paid without quibble.
The agreement was that the box would be dropped off at my place, then I would package the bike up, seal and address the box, then contact Cyclesent to tell them that the bike would be ready. They would then give me a collection date and a delivery would be between 8am and 5pm, a huge time window for someone to sit around waiting. So the Moulton was wrapped in the bubblewrap, of which there is just enough for absolutely minimal wrapping, but sadly the bike was too long for the box. People imagine Moultons are small bikes, but the wheelbase, the distance between front and rear hubs, is about the same as my eXp. The wheels are 20" on the Moulton and 26" on the eXp, so the eXp is longer, but not by much. I took the front wheel off, and wrapped that separately, found 15 yards of bubblewrap in the shed, stuffed that in the box, taped and addressed the box, then emailed Cyclesent to say the box was ready for collection. I also told them that someone would be in between 09:30 and 15:00.
I soon received an email back advising me of the day that it would be collected and drawing my attention to the agreement being a collection window of )8:00 - 17:00. The small print went onto say that there would be an extra £10 fee if you missed the collection.
As it happened, someone was in all day, but the courier never turned up to collect the box. Bear in mind that the local leg of the journey, Shetland to Aberdeen was subcontracted to a local courier, so I couldn't blame Cyclesent as such, but it was their rules that said we had to be in for collection between 08:00 and 17:00 on the day of collection, so I was determined that what was sauce for the goose would be sauce for the gander. I insisted that they gave me a £10 refund for failing to collect the box on the day that they had instructed me to be in. They tried to get out of this by saying that the courier who would be collecting from Aberdeen to take the box to Cambridge, or thereabouts, only collected every other day, and they didn't collect on the day that they had arranged collection from me.
The problem is that the further you live from London, the less people understand how things work. Here, the local courier would collect my bike, take it back to the depot, where it and many other items would be loaded into the back of an artic trailer. When ful this would be driven to the ferry and dropped off. A tug (truck) would then load it onto the ferry. The ferry would sail overnight to Aberdeen. A tug (truck) would pull the trailer off the ferry, where an articulated truck would drag it along to the Shetland courier's warehouse in Aberdeen. The trailer would be unloaded, and my box would end up getting picked up by the second courier for it's trip to Cambridge, presumably via other depots on the way. For £65 I think it is actually rather cheap, (although recently I had a large motorcycle delivered to Aberdeen from Hereford for £90, but I wasn't putting up with the messing about with days. With a certain amount of squealing the £10 was refunded.
I didn't care when the bike arrived, more concerned that it arrived intact so AARC could get to work on it. It arrived in perfect order, so I was happy.
Would I use Cyclesent again? From Shetland I would have to give that a maybe. Within the UK mainland I would have to say yes. They even do same day collection if you ring them by 11:00. If the potential 08:00 - 17:00 window is not too egregious, and if you can bear the financial penalty of living in either remote areas of Scotland, or higher penalties for living on Scottish Islands. You can have a box delivered, and then collected on the same day, so if you are in a hurry then it seems a good service.
I would imagine the Thorn would fit in one of their boxes with the back wheel still on, but the forks would need to be reversed I would imagine, or perhaps even removed. Getting the tape measure out might be an idea, but a better idea would be to just get a box from your local bike shop.
As for the return journey, TNT brought it back in two days in perfect condition. All is well that ends well.
Cyclesent are at
www.cyclesent.co.uk. I have no relation to them except for being a customer.
