Flying 05 R1200GS from Brisbane to LA in early May.
 

Does anyone have any up to date info about bringing an Aust. registered bike in to the States.

The plan is to fly my 05 R1200GS with Qantas from Brisbane to LA in early May.

I have spoken to one lady from the freight office in Brisbane and she told me it would be cheaper for me to use a freight forwarding agent (she recommended DHL) as they transport large amounts of cargo - which translated into savings for me.

My experience with middle-men is that they always add on their little/big bit to the bill.

So has anyone had any experience with shipping costs - re: single one off opposed to chucking in with a large company? From the shipping posts and my conversation with Qantas lady - it is possible to handle most by myself.

I realise so far this screams for further phone calls to all concerned to sort out, but I'm ready to start booking / paying and I wanted to throw this out there before I went barging in to DHL / Qantas making all kinds of money mistakes.

Ok, question two.

How should I time the transfer of myself against the bike?

I realise it is more difficult to organise the bike than myself, but should we land at the same time? Me earlier / later?

And Lastly

Any info regarding what I need to do to collect the bike when I get there.

Yep, you guessed it - this is my first shipping.

Kind regards Ben.

Have you tried Get Routed? They do a few US shipments every year. The most hassle free way of shipping that I have come across. Certainly a lot easier than doing it yourself and there prices aren't too bad either.

GetRouted : Bike shipping and Tour Operator

And no, I don't work for them. They are shipping my bike to the UK at the moment

Yes - keep ringing. DHL would require crating - draining fuel tank .. dissconnect battery.
With Quantas you can ride in, less than a 1/3 tank of fule .. and they send it uncrated. You get it at the other end and ride away. So much easier than geting rid of the crate at the other end .. Think you'll find DHL is not as cheap as uncrated with Qnatas. Get prices .. that is what you need rather than my guess!

And get a price off dave at get routed too. He saves a lot of trouble .. and ask about insurance too with him .. he gets good deals for his customers. Cost nothing to talk to him!

You and the bike? .. bike ALLWAYS goes before you leave.. if the bike has not left .. don't leave. Generally you are quicker than the bike to transport.. you walk yourself the bike does not.

Get Routed.
 

KennyE,

Thanks for the tip - I went to their site, but the dates and their landing in Portland in July doesn't suit my plans. I would like to get to the HU meeting in BC in mid June with a cruise up the west coast before hand. Also It means that I will miss a fair amount of the summer season for a Prudhoe bay run.

So timing is out, but they do sound like the people to use for shipping.

I bit the bullet and spoke at length with DGM (Dangerous Goods Management Brisbane 07 3260 2366) regarding the DG side of it. They want me to have the bike inspected there, fuel out, battery disconected etc. Steve quoted me AUD$121.00 to have the DG side all sorted.

Then on to Qantas with the completed form

(1300 373 444 - when the bird says "menu has changed" etc, press 1 1 1. It will get you straight through)

where it can be freighted un-crated. I have been quoted AUD$1675.00 all inclusive for 300kg to LA. Un-crated translates into "All care - no responsibility", so unless the plane crashes, why not.

This is similar to Get Routed's one way price to Portland. So I will go with Qantas for the speed.

Of course this is all theoretical - all it has been is phone calls and such at the moment.

Regards Ben.

Frank Warner
 

Frank,
I spoke with Dave from Get Routed about insurance. He put me onto Bernie Ryan who is an Australian broker dealing with Motorcycle Express in the States. Bernie is within the hour off on holidays and won't be back until mid April. So it was only a quick call with him. I'm going to check Motorcycle Express to see what prices etc that they have. It will be cheaper to again cut out the middle man.

I'm going to take a punt and book my flight 2 days after I put the bike into Qantas. The fellow told me that it will be shipped on a "space available" basis, but that there was space available on all the flights for the next week. I'm gambling that this will be similar for the end of April - fingers crossed.

Regards Ben.

Sounds like you have it sorted Ben!!:mchappy:

Rtw
 

Holy cow - it's finally happening.......:punk:

Seee past posts on this .. http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...cles-air-21880

You don't have to drain the tank. Teh DRG people will kown this if you say 'uncrated'. But take a print out of the post above with you.

On the 'when space avalible' .. if there is a lot of freight going through the planes can be full.. but they won't want your bike sitting under them either .. so i'd say a week max even if very full.
Go speek to them at the airport a week before you go .. they'll tell you what is happening tehn and you could thentry to change your personal flight time..

Rock and a hard place.
 

Frank,
I've had to book my flight and pay for it in advance. Long story short - I'm doing it on Qantas frequent flyer's points. There are only so many of these seats allocated to each flight. I was able to secure one basically for free (AUD$283.57 airport taxes). Downside - no choice when you go and you better book them a long way in advance. At that price it seems they're somewhat popular.

Anyway, the flight is on the 6th May: Brisbane - Sydney - LA. (No choice which way you get there either). I will take your advice and check before I plan to put the bike on for space available, which will be around two weeks before I fly out. I'm going to adjust the bikes book in date with regard to their freight commitments, but I'm estimating a minimum 5 day buffer prior to my flight will be ok. I will be up the proverbial without a paddle if my guess is wrong.

Do you know any more regarding collecting the bike in LA. I realise that I cannot get the bike released with out insurance, but can I buy insurance there on the day or do I have to get it before hand. In short what do I have to do?, where do I have to go? My flight arrives at 0640 LA time so I was thinking that I could have the bike the same day.

Kind regards Ben.

Not I.

Get on to the HU community in LA. They might offer accomodation .. and I'd anticipate a full day getting the bike .. Insurance .. well that could be state based (the min required that is) .. the more of it you can get organised the easier (quickeer) it will be. Take some photos of your travels in OZ and be prepared to talk about Oz to them 'mericans. Some yank said OZ was Utah x 10 ...

Have a good trip.

Thanks,
Just saw that you're in Sydney. Sorry, thought you were stateside. Shouldn't of hit you with that one.

Anyway thanks again for your help.

Cheers Ben.

Keith1954 posted this on another thread and sums up the USA Insurance Situation very well.

I soon need to arrange cover for my UK-registered Honda ST1300 Pan-European for 71 days from mid-March to the end of May this year. So I am currently carrying out some research in this area. As far as I can see, US insurance cover for foreign nationals falls into two distinct categories, i.e. touring North America whilst riding (a) a US-registered motorcycle; or (b) riding a temporarily imported overseas-registered motorcycle.

(a) I think insurance for a US-registered bike should be relatively straightforward. If you buy your ride in America - and so therefore it is highly likely to be a US-registered machine - AND you can supply a USA address, then you should be quoted fairly standard rates; although there might be a small additional premium because of your foreign status.

(b) However, it is not so straightforward for visiting foreign nationals who need to arrange temporary US insurance for a temporarily imported foreign-registered bike (a tourist vehicle). This class of cover is likely to be more expensive and not so widely available.

FYI, last summer (2007) when I needed to insure my UK-registered ST13-Pan for a 3-month long USA-Canadian tour, I discovered that there were very few insurers underwriting type (b) cover. In fact, at the end of the day, it boiled down to no more than one or two insurance companies who were prepared to underwrite the risk. I approached a few brokers/agents - Motorcycle Express was one of them - and they all were quoting premium rates, terms & conditions from just one underwriter, namely Commerce & Industry Insurance Co. I eventually arranged this CII-underwritten cover through Motorcycle Express, whose administrator with whom I dealt with there was very helpful indeed.

I understand that Commerce & Industry Insurance Co may have pulled out of underwriting class (b) type cover, and now both Motorcycle Express AND Fernet Insurance Brokers are arranging cover that is underwitten by Dairyland Insurance Co, one of the largest motorcycle insurance companies in America. Dairyland's policy for Overseas Visitors (riding their own foreign-registered bike) is called "The Safe Trip Motorcycle Insurance Program".

I am working out the cover options and calculating the associated premium rates right now. As both Motorcycle Express and Fernet Insurance Brokers appear to be offering identical retail rates of premium - and added service charges of a $60 policy fee, plus a 2.5% credit card fee - then I'll probably arrange the cover through Motorcycle Express, just because I already know them (I'm not suggesting that they're any better than Fernets though).

According to HU's paperwork/insurance section, there just might be some discount available from Motorcycle Express, or at least this is what's implied in the banner ad on the RH side of the page - so I'll give it a go then! Perhaps another reason to use ME instead of Fernets, eh?!



Back to me now:
I use Fernets for my bike here in the US but Motorcycle Express looks like a good deal for visitors.

+1 for contacting the LA Community. The people I know there maybe part of it and you should get as close as you can to the transport location. LA is spreadout and it can take you a long time getting somewhere during rush hour.

PM me if you need US contacts to where you are headed.

All the best.