Posting a bike from Taipei to Taichung

Anyone have any thoughts on the best way to post a bike from Taipei to Taichung? It would be to sell it, so some sort of cash on delivery thing would be required too.

I’m thinking price, security, etc.

Any ideas?

I don’t know about posting it but you can take the wheels off and put the whole thing in a garbage bag and they won’t give you any problems taking it on the HSR. The discounted tickets are less than $500 so having the buyer meet you, or meeting in the middle, might be a good idea.

Thanks for that. That could be an option too.

Please don’t put the bike in the garbage can, unless it’s really absolutely worthless. And then it’s better to recycle (unless it’s carbon fibre). :wink:

I’ve sent a bike by train numerous times.
Install a stand and just wheel it into a train stn. Taipei main doesn’t have a cargo office, but I think Sungshan does.
Fill out the form with your name phone number and the recipients details.
They’re pretty good about taking care of your stuff, but you may want to cover the tubes with newspaper or cardboard just to be safe.
It usually arrives the following day.
To Taichung it should only be two or three hundred NT.

I’ve also sent a bike by bus cargo, but I wasn’t that impressed with their handling.

[quote=“Wookiee”]I’ve sent a bike by train numerous times.
Install a stand and just wheel it into a train stn. Taipei main doesn’t have a cargo office, but I think Sungshan (Songshan) does.
Fill out the form with your name phone number and the recipients details.
They’re pretty good about taking care of your stuff, but you may want to cover the tubes with newspaper or cardboard just to be safe.
It usually arrives the following day.
To Taichung it should only be two or three hundred NT.

I’ve also sent a bike by bus cargo, but I wasn’t that impressed with their handling.[/quote]

Nice. I didn’t know about this option.

[quote=“irishstu”][quote=“Wookiee”]I’ve sent a bike by train numerous times.
Install a stand and just wheel it into a train stn. Taipei main doesn’t have a cargo office, but I think Sungshan (Songshan) (Songshan) does.
Fill out the form with your name phone number and the recipients details.
They’re pretty good about taking care of your stuff, but you may want to cover the tubes with newspaper or cardboard just to be safe.
It usually arrives the following day.
To Taichung it should only be two or three hundred NT.

I’ve also sent a bike by bus cargo, but I wasn’t that impressed with their handling.[/quote]

Nice. I didn’t know about this option.[/quote]

Check the train website for cargo offices and hours.

It sucks one can’t travel with a bike on a train unless it’s in a bag, but using the train is not a bad way to tour. There are overnight sleepers to both Kaohsiung, Hualian and Taitung, so bike goes on the train on a Thursday, Wookiee catches the Friday night sleeper, wakes up, attaches gear and rides. Bike goes on the train on Sunday night and gets picked up on Monday. Fun weekend!–I’m off this Friday, incidentally. Woo-HOO!

[quote=“irishstu”]Anyone have any thoughts on the best way to post a bike from Taipei to Taichung? It would be to sell it, so some sort of cash on delivery thing would be required too.

I’m thinking price, security, etc.

Any ideas?[/quote]

bro taipei taichung is all downhill with the wind at your back…just ride it down there on the coast road :sunglasses:

[quote=“the bear”][quote=“irishstu”]Anyone have any thoughts on the best way to post a bike from Taipei to Taichung? It would be to sell it, so some sort of cash on delivery thing would be required too.

I’m thinking price, security, etc.

Any ideas?[/quote]

bro taipei Taichung is all downhill with the wind at your back…just ride it down there on the coast road :sunglasses:[/quote]

The prevailing winds are from the south this time of year, but yeah, it’s easily done in half a day.

[quote=“Wookiee”]I’ve sent a bike by train numerous times.
Install a stand and just wheel it into a train stn. Taipei main doesn’t have a cargo office, but I think Sungshan (Songshan) does.
Fill out the form with your name phone number and the recipients details.
They’re pretty good about taking care of your stuff, but you may want to cover the tubes with newspaper or cardboard just to be safe.
It usually arrives the following day.
To Taichung it should only be two or three hundred NT.
[/quote]
Can one do this without a strong command of Chinese? I can get most things done with my (intermediate at best) Chinese but after about a week of trying to figure out how to do this I gave up and bought a bike bag. Just curious… it could help a lot of people!

Also I got a hard time about taking my full-size bike, in a proper bike bag, on the regular train. They made me take a commuter train that stops at every stop. But the HSR people don’t care what you put it in.

Just :2cents: - any info that would help foreigners get a bike around is wonderful, as it’s not a straightforward thing.

7-11 has a delivery service. Drop off at your nearest location and the recipient picks up at the nearest 7-11 location the next day.

I’ve never heard of anyone sending a bike via 7-11 courier, I guess it could be done, but I wouldn’t trust them not to toss it around in their dinky little trucks.

Quite easy, even with no Chinese ability. Just bring some ID and the train station cargo workers will fill in the forms for you. You just tell them which station you want it sent to and the name of the recipient–you, if you’ll be the one to retieve it. Make sure you don’t lose the receipt. They aboslutely won’t let you take it out without one, and if you’ve lost it, you need to fill out umpteen more forms signed with your fingerprints and so on.
The service is quite good. I’ve never had a problem.

[quote=“Wookiee”]Quite easy, even with no Chinese ability. Just bring some ID and the train station cargo workers will fill in the forms for you. You just tell them which station you want it sent to and the name of the recipient–you, if you’ll be the one to retieve it. Make sure you don’t lose the receipt. They aboslutely won’t let you take it out without one, and if you’ve lost it, you need to fill out umpteen more forms signed with your fingerprints and so on.
The service is quite good. I’ve never had a problem.[/quote]

So what happens if someone else is picking it up at the other end? They won’t have the receipt.

That’s what I asked the guy at the booth in Taitung when I arrived sans receipt. Turns out, if it’s someone else, all they need is their ID.

Oh, haha. How ironic. Cool.

Of course I still have one problem here, which is that I’m actually SELLING the bike to the recipient. I need to find a secure way to get the money off him too.

7-11 the bike, I’m sure it’s not too fragile to be transported in a truck. Then have the guy put the cash into your bank account.

Sent my bike by train from Hualien to Taipei (and back again) this summer. Worked out fine. Only slight worry was when I went to pick it up at Hualien, it was just sitting there on platform 1, unattended. No pedals, but I reckon anyone could’ve walked off with it.

It was boxed on the way up, but unboxed on the journey back down, though I put cardboard around the front and rear mechs. And over the saddle.

I was originally going to send it by road straight to the airport, but no sooner had it left my house in a truck, then I got cold feet, and drove the 5km to the depot to recollect it :slight_smile: . Just didn’t like the way I saw it being handled. When I got there, they’d already managed to put a big hole in the side of the box. Jeeze. Glad to get it out of there. Never again by road.

Does anyone know if the rail system will handle recumbents or semi-recumbents the same way?

Don’t see why not. I just wheeled my bike into Taipei station, leant it against a desk and filled out the form. There’s prob some arcane rule about a bike must be a minimum height…

Giant also ships bikes to Giant stores around the nation.