About one-third of the solar wind contains twisted bundles of magnetic field lines called “small magnetic flux ropes”. In this study, we use a self-consistent computer simulation code named “ANGIE3D” to explore what happens to these structures when they encounter Earth’s magnetic boundary, known as the bow shock. We find that the flux ropes get compressed in the direction the solar wind is flowing but stay mostly the same in other directions. As they cross the shock, some ions bounce back into the solar wind, mainly from the back side of the flux rope. After entering the region behind the shock (the magnetosheath), ions appear more energetic along the magnetic field, but this change happens only near the surface of the flux rope. We suggest ways to tell apart solar wind flux ropes from other structures. These results help us better understand how these structures behave near the Earth and possibly at planets.