Packing bikes to send overseas I just bought two bikes in Australia and I'm wondering the best way to pack them and ship them to my country. They're sitting at a relatives house right now.

I'll probably send by ship due to cost so volume is important. Unfortunately my relative is not great with tools and doesn't know anything about bikes and has never even ridden one, so I'm trying to work out something simple and easy.

My idea at the moment is to remove the front wheels and lower and turn the handle bars. Lower the seat as far as it will go, remove the outside facing pedal, and put the bikes side by side facing different ways.

Is there a better way? How should I go about protecting the wheels/spokes during the packing?

Cost, volume, and ease are my main concerns, these are cheap mountain bikes and my guy isn't mechanically inclined to the extent he'd probably have to borrow a spanner rather than own one. Already shipping will probably cost more than the bikes did.
I'd suggest using a bike box (there are reusable ones sold and cardboard ones similar to the type of cardboard box that a new bike comes in). A bike shop should be willing to part with a box that a bike they're selling came in (and maybe pack it themselves) for some small fee.

This video shows how to pack a bike in a cardboard bike box: 
                
            

Essentially, the steps  are some variation of the follwoing:


Take off the pedals
Take off the wheels
Take off the handlebars (this can be done by pulling out a quill stem or removing the face of the stem) and put them parallel to the top tube; Do not disconnect the cables
Take out the seat post
Put a spacer in the dropouts for the fork 
Put the bike in the box with some padding


The bike sans wheels will fit in the box, and the wheels will fit on the sides. The seat post and pedals can be shimmed around the bike. 

When you get out, all you should need to reassemble the bike is a small crescent wrench and a few hex keys (take everything out of the box, put the wheels back on, put the handlebar back on, put the pedals back on -- no faffing with derailleurs or brakes if they were properly set before packing).