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Shipping Bikes Overseas


cota kid
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I've shipped a bike from Nepal to Thailand by air and from Malaysia Lumpar to Southampton by sea. By air is the way to go as sea is too slow and often they wait until the boat is full before it sails. By air is more expensive though.

If you go by air you'll need to make the bike as small as possible before crating (take off handle bars and front wheel) as the fare is calcluated by either weight or 'volume weight' whichever is the greater. Find yourself an agent who knows the score and who preferrably knows an agent in UAE to deal with clearing customs. If you're bringing the bike back to the UK check if the bike needs a Carnet de Passgae for UAE (a kind of passport for the bike which involves bonds or bank guarantees to cover the import duty if you don't take the bike back out of the country).

For advice try Horizons Unlimited - http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tripplan/transport/ This is the main website for overlanders. There are links to shippers and details of how to crate a bike.

Another option is to buy a copy of the Adventure Motorcycling Handbook by Chris Scott which has a fair bit of information.

Good luck

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Shipping mine from HK to UK was hassle free, but have no idea what it cost since I shipped other stuff at the same time.

I would do it by air too if it was me, but to be honest, if you're in a hurry I would think about buying a new one there??..SURELY it would be cheaper than here in UK. HK was always quite alot cheaper than UK, and it seems most other places are. Might also be good to support the local importer there? Good luck...lucky guy riding in the heat..thats one thing I always miss from HK...its so bloody cold riding in UK I always feel like my body wont loosen up...even in the SUMMER!..although, I think they ought to take that word out of the English dictionary.

Rant over! :rotfl:

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FanticMatze shiped her Scorpa from the States to Germany and I believe that it cost about 800 american through UPS. They would only take 150 lbs and after the crate that was just about the frame forks and a tire. All of the rest she had shipped in seperate lighter packages but i remember that it was not that bad.

We have another Rider here from poland and he found a company here locally that ships a container to Poland once a week. They charged him 200 bucks to ship a Honda XL 650 to poland. That was cheap and from what I heard it really didn't sit in customs for any length of time. If you can find a shipping company around they will probably throw you a bone and get it to you.

--Biff

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Went into one of the off road bike shops and the first thing I saw was a 2008 Scorpa for sale, virtually brand new and a very reasonable price, the guy in the shop is looking into bringing some RTL's (4RT) from Japan as its a lot cheaper than UK. I may look into the option of buying one rather than having mine shipped out.

Tim, I've spoken to your mate DR, We are arranging to meet up at some point so he can give me some advice on riding out here. A KTM Enduro bike sounds very tempting but riding a bike in 47 degrees doesn't.

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Went into one of the off road bike shops and the first thing I saw was a 2008 Scorpa for sale, virtually brand new and a very reasonable price, the guy in the shop is looking into bringing some RTL's (4RT) from Japan as its a lot cheaper than UK. I may look into the option of buying one rather than having mine shipped out.

Tim, I've spoken to your mate DR, We are arranging to meet up at some point so he can give me some advice on riding out here. A KTM Enduro bike sounds very tempting but riding a bike in 47 degrees doesn't.

I knew it would happen you've gone soft fella.

Surely anyone who can support the 'boro all these years a bit of heat is nothing compared to the pain you must have endured?

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Hi

I have shipped a bike from NZ to UK a few years back. If you take the tyres off you'll save a heap of space and weight. Further.... as i disassembled the majority of the bike (i couriered the carb separately) i could call it "Parts" avoiding some tax.

Ralphy

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