ISO recent international (UK) shipping experience

[rfk757]

Hello

I cannot locate any recent threads on international shipping experience/advice etc.

I am putting together a riding plan, starting and ending in the UK, to Europe for spring/summer 2017, and am interested to get any kind of leads and tips for how to ship my bike (R1200RT)

I am more interested in air freighting if not ridiculously expensive, than by sea. I say that because A) I want to not lose the week for possibly several weeks on end, and B) I expect it to be cared for if using air freight. Obviously I will use sea if air is not doable.

Any advice or experience of shipping either way most welcome!

Thanks!

Rory - Warrenton VA

[Chiba]

Try over at the Horizons Unlimited website. I know Air Canada is doing their summer shipping deal again this year, don't know if they'll do it again in 2017. https://www.aircanada.com/cargo/

[vsansal]

Hello

I cannot locate any recent threads on international shipping experience/advice etc.

I am putting together a riding plan, starting and ending in the UK, to Europe for spring/summer 2017, and am interested to get any kind of leads and tips for how to ship my bike (R1200RT)

I am more interested in air freighting if not ridiculously expensive, than by sea. I say that because A) I want to not lose the week for possibly several weeks on end, and B) I expect it to be cared for if using air freight. Obviously I will use sea if air is not doable.

Any advice or experience of shipping either way most welcome!

Thanks!

Rory - Warrenton VA

I am in the same boat as you are. Also planing for next year shipping my RT. I have looked at several options and the two that seems reasonable is either use Air Canada assuming they extend the current program they have right now to next year as well or use a shipper which seems like one of the best options is https://www.motorcycleexpress.com/. I have talked to the owner and he was very helpful and gave me all sorts of information.

here is his info :Mike Mandell 1800 2458726 ext 1101 mikem@motorcycleexpress.com
https://www.facebook.com/Motorcycleexpress/

So looks like whatever you do, the best, and perhaps the only, option is to ship your bike from either Toronto or Montreal. Doesn't matter which one you chose. So you will need to ride there first and then ride back home. Seems like some ports only allow shipping from and not to, so one good option is to ship it to Frankfurt then ship back from London or France Or the other option, which i like better is, to ship it to Lisbon and then ship it back from either London or France. The price he quoted me was $2790. this doesn't include any shipping insurance or the insurance you need overseas. The price from Air Canada is around $1700 or so round trip but looks like this is not including some fees. With those fees added, this also goes over $2K from what I understand. The main difference I have been told is, with Air Canada you are basically on your own. If there are any issues at all, you have to deal with it. I was looking into some forums and some people had problems which delayed picking up their bikes from customs and they ended up getting charged a storage fee and at the end ended up paying pretty much the same amount of money they would pay shipping it with a shipper. So it depends on if you want to take that risk or ease your mind knowing someone will take care of this for you. He told me they strap the bikes to a pallet then cover them with a metal create and this cargo gets loaded the last and unloaded first. (they have some pics on their Facebook page) So if everything goes as planned, you are riding away with your bike in an hour from the airport after you land. I only looked at this for couple of days so I still need to do some more research on it but I thought I would share what I know so far. He also told me to give him a call before March of next year if I chose so to ship it with them. He seems like a very knowledgeable person. I would highly recommend to just give him a call and get some basic info.

hope this helps.

[rfk757]

Very helpful indeed! Many thanks. I will share what I learn here as I develop a plan