Best courier to post bike?

Paisley freight have always been good for me.

As above. Paisley have never let me down.

Ask at your local bike shop if they have shipping options. I always use mine as it's way cheaper.

Package is 130cm x 22cm x 64cm which calculates to length + girth (!) 302cm so 2cm over the max on the ebay shipping option (although that was coming out at £19odd for presumably the same parcel force service.

Paisley freight again.

But....in that circumstance I might just forget to wear my glasses when measuring the box and lose a couple of cm. No one will ever measure it or reject it for such a small infringement.

Paisley Freight unless you can chop the box down enough to get it in to the sub £15 category.

Paisley freight were a right pain in the backside for me,cumulated in me starting court proceedings before they backed down.
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Try Tufnells

But….in that circumstance I might just forget to wear my glasses when measuring the box and lose a couple of cm. No one will ever measure it or reject it for such a small infringement.

Don't be so sure! I've had Packlink harassing me for the past 2 years* for an oversized parcel that they accepted the provided dimensions for. It was UPS that took it and they obviously checked.

Paisley freight again.

But….in that circumstance I might just forget to wear my glasses when measuring the box and lose a couple of cm. No one will ever measure it or reject it for such a small infringement.

Think again, it seems they measure and weigh parcels and anything oversize or overweight gets stopped until you pay the addition fee. This additional fee is near enough the same as sending the bike box so an expensive few cm's.

Don't ask me how I know this...

Another for Paisley Freight - I've sent many bikes and sets of car/van wheels via them over the past decade or so, only issue was most recent one last week took 4 working days to be delivered to opposite end of the UK compared to the usual 1 or 2 days, but was updated on the tracking throughout so not really a concern.

And echo the comments re being precise with dimensions. You'll only make that mistake once...

Don’t ask me how I know this…

I know how you know this 😉 and I have suffered the same, which for 1.7cm over on one measurement was infuriating to say the least. More frustrating as I'd used and recommended Paisley Freight a number of times.

I've cut boxes down in the past to get them within the parcelforce limits.
It's a pain, but you can get it down to <£10 for a 48hr service if you drop it off at the PF depot and a few extra £ for collection or drop off at PO.

EDIT - if you can get the length down to 128 cm you are within limits.
Personally, I'd follow @Convert's advice

I used paisley once, they lost the bike and wont respond to emails.

Sorry I can't be any more help

I've used Paisley a few times and they're generally ok in as much as the bike has always got to where it should have been going, it's the initial box delivery that seems flakey AF because they use APC to deliver them round here.

We sold our tandem a few weeks ago and it was actually easier to hire a SWB van for the day (£63) and deliver it ourselves.

Just used Paisley - turned up when they said they would (APC did). That was only yesterday so not deilvered yet.
Funny thing was, the proper bike box had handles and I'd drawed big arrows on it to show the way up, bloke says "Is it heavy?!" I say, no, very light (just frame and forks) and tell him there are handles. So he tips the box on it's end, grabs it in a bear hug and trots off. Weirdo. :'-)
£33 isn't too bad anyway.

Cheers all. I went for Paisley Freight...

...and they have just emailed to say there was a problem with collection. They say I didn't answer the door or my phone - no missed calls on my phone, my office is right next to my front door, the dog goes mad if anyone comes near the house and there is no card/etc through the letterbox.

I tried calling them but 'due to Covid' they can't answer the phone, and if I want to re-book the collection it will cost me another £10.

they can get ****ed. I'll not use this bunch of ****ers again. ****ing clowns.

Ah, that's poor.

I wonder if Paisley Freight experiences are similar to Hermes/Evri, i.e. it very much depends on how good or bad your local courier person is. Thankfully my local APC person is a good 'un - she commented a few times back that when she sees my address on her schedule she knows it'll be car wheels or a bike. That's some reputation I have.

I dunno, they all can be a bit hit & miss. I had DPD say they had nothing to collect from me when I'd been sat at home waiting with a parcel all day. Then, when they deliver they're always within the hour timeslot.
Evri have never missed a delivery for me (or to me.) The ol fella can hardly walk, but doesn't shirk 🙂

ooh, just got delivery confirmation from Paisley... that's less than 24 hours. Nice!

Another positive for Paisley freight here - I echo comments above though - our local APC guys are very good and same experience - they know full well what they are going to be dropping off/picking up when they see my address!!!