Unpacking, or repacking, a Crateworks box

So you’ve arrived somewhere, and you’ve unpacked your bicycle(s) from the Crateworks box(es), and now you want to send the boxes to your destination? Sounds great. But what if you’ve forgotten how they fold up?

It seems straightforward enough. A Crateworks box only has four plastic pieces and three cardboard pieces – the tandem box slightly more – plus some straps and padding. But if you’re paranoid about fitting things together the “intended” way for shipping (as I am), some photo documentation is helpful.

This is what it looks like to unpack a shipped Crateworks box. To re-pack one, just follow the photos in reverse.

It arrives like this, in a cardboard box 54 x 32 x 6 inches. Interestingly, the box for the tandem/recumbent version is exactly the same size as the single version.

And here’s what it looks like to unpack:

And, just to round things out, here’s what a bunch of Crateworks boxes look like on an airport terminal scale:

And here’s what those same three boxes look like, folded up for shipping and taped thoroughly shut:

It’s possible to ship the Crateworks boxes without using an enclosing box, if you use enough tape – (we did this very thing in New Zealand) – but the above photos show a serious problem with this. The top and bottom ends of the compressed box are open. Unless you cover them thoroughly, with tape or some other material, all the panels inside will slide easily out.

I really think Crateworks should include an extra rectangle of foldable plastic on the long sides of the bottom piece, so we could fold it to cover the ends of the compressed version, holding all the other parts inside. Then we wouldn’t need to go through an entire roll of packing tape just to seal the ends.