Flights - how much for a motorcycle?
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Alun
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Flights - how much for a motorcycle?
Has anyone ever flown their motorcycle overseas? I'd be interested to know how much it cost, what the experience was like and how quickly it was all set up.
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Mark Manley
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Re:Flights - how much for a motorcycle?
It has been a while, 10 years ago I flew my R80GS from Montevideo to Heathrow. It cost about £800 then, probably more now, that included crating.
The cost is worked out by both weighing and volume, you pay for the greater, I know I can get the GS down to 2 cubic metres in a crate with panniers and about 320kg which is about the cross over point so the same price either way.
It is well worth looking into the price of flying as well as shipping which can take about 3 weeks to far off destinations such as South America, Australia or South Africa. It is usually possible to fly the same day and pick the bike up the next and seems to incure less handling charges than shipping.
It is also possible to get away without using a clearing agent at some airports, I cleared my own at Bangkok for nothing, I met others who had paid $100 to an agent.
The rules about what you can take seem to have eased up a little, once upon a time you had to get rid of the battery and drain all fluids but I think there is no requirement to do this now, just remove most of the petrol from the tank.
The cost is worked out by both weighing and volume, you pay for the greater, I know I can get the GS down to 2 cubic metres in a crate with panniers and about 320kg which is about the cross over point so the same price either way.
It is well worth looking into the price of flying as well as shipping which can take about 3 weeks to far off destinations such as South America, Australia or South Africa. It is usually possible to fly the same day and pick the bike up the next and seems to incure less handling charges than shipping.
It is also possible to get away without using a clearing agent at some airports, I cleared my own at Bangkok for nothing, I met others who had paid $100 to an agent.
The rules about what you can take seem to have eased up a little, once upon a time you had to get rid of the battery and drain all fluids but I think there is no requirement to do this now, just remove most of the petrol from the tank.
A wise man is one who doesn't make the same mistake once.
Re:Flights - how much for a motorcycle?
I has been a while for me too, but not that long: 3 years. To my shame I have forgotten a lot of the details!!
I did a lot of research to find the cheapest way to fly our GS from Heathrow to Buenos Aires.
Finally, I opted for finding my own craters (it needs to be fumigated wood). I took the bike down there (they were in Hayes, near Heathrow). I then also found a freight company in Heathrow that would fly the bike, via Amsterdam (I'm almost certain it was KLM cargo) as they had the cheapest rates.
It flew on the same day as us and arrived likewise. All in it was £1200, which was pretty cheap compaired to some quotes of £1800-2200.
Freight is charged at either the cost of the weight or the cost of the volume, whichever is higher (as already stated above). The trick is to try and get the cost of both as close to another as possible to pay the least that is possible for your bike (as also already stated above
).
The basic formula, IIRR, is the width (mm) x height (mm) x depth (mm)/6000. That gives you your volumetric weight of the crate and they will charge a certain sum per cubic metre.
So now, if you can dismantle the bike so that it and any luggage that goes in there takes as little space as possible and that the cuboid area of the crate has as little empty space as possible you're on the right track.
Sea freight is cheaper, but you run the risk of the ship either arriving too early (host port storage charges) or too late (hotel fees and lost travel time) given that the bike has to leave some time ahead of you (in the case of South America 6 weeks). We opted for this on the return leg as there was no time pressure regarding the bike's arrival back in the UK. That worked out at about £800
HTH
I did a lot of research to find the cheapest way to fly our GS from Heathrow to Buenos Aires.
Finally, I opted for finding my own craters (it needs to be fumigated wood). I took the bike down there (they were in Hayes, near Heathrow). I then also found a freight company in Heathrow that would fly the bike, via Amsterdam (I'm almost certain it was KLM cargo) as they had the cheapest rates.
It flew on the same day as us and arrived likewise. All in it was £1200, which was pretty cheap compaired to some quotes of £1800-2200.
Freight is charged at either the cost of the weight or the cost of the volume, whichever is higher (as already stated above). The trick is to try and get the cost of both as close to another as possible to pay the least that is possible for your bike (as also already stated above
).The basic formula, IIRR, is the width (mm) x height (mm) x depth (mm)/6000. That gives you your volumetric weight of the crate and they will charge a certain sum per cubic metre.
So now, if you can dismantle the bike so that it and any luggage that goes in there takes as little space as possible and that the cuboid area of the crate has as little empty space as possible you're on the right track.
Sea freight is cheaper, but you run the risk of the ship either arriving too early (host port storage charges) or too late (hotel fees and lost travel time) given that the bike has to leave some time ahead of you (in the case of South America 6 weeks). We opted for this on the return leg as there was no time pressure regarding the bike's arrival back in the UK. That worked out at about £800
HTH
