Australia to Uk/Europe
 

Hi All, my wife and I want to travel next year, tour 2 up, camping and b&b's.
We would like information about whats best, here we have a BMW RT, is it better ship our bike over, or buy a second hand bike when we arrive?
Wondering about the costs involved in shipping a bike and local taxes and do we need a carnet de passage for the EU/UK. We plan to spend 7-12 months at least on this trip, we have some family in Germany that we may be able to use as a base address. Wondering on the average spend per day-week for touring this way.
Many thanks Michael&Elaine

Hi there
We are planning the same trip at the moment, we hope to be leaving from the Central Coast NSW at the end of next year on a BMW 1150 GS.
Our destination is switzerland due to our families living there. Our plan is to ride to Darwin ship across to Malysia then up to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam,China if possible, Nepal ,India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece, ship to south Italy and up to Switzerland.
What is your plan ? maybe we could in touch to talk about the trip.
:scooter:
Mark & Maggie

Hi,
Looks like there are a few of us planning the same trip. I plan on leaving sometime next year and finishing up somewhere in Europe. I have just upgraded to a GS1200A and have started with my pre-trip preps. Bouncing ideas off each other might be a good thing.

Shipping Bike Australia to Europe
 

Hi Mark, Maggie and Kenny,
How are you all going with your plans to Europe next year? I am in the process at the moment of arranging shipping for the bike to Hamburg next April. Received a recommendation from a member of the BMW club here in Melbourne and have spoken to him briefly. He has given an approximate price to ship it over, are now waiting for an email from him with more detailed info. Need to weigh up the cost saving with the hassle of crating it up myself.
Michael and Elaine

Me too ..
 

Although I'm a Brit and live in the UK, I nevertheless have a Honda XL650V TransAlp in temporary storage in South Island, New Zealand.

My aim is to get back down to NZ in early (Jan/Feb) 2009 and ship the T/A across the Ditch to Australia and take a good ride around and through the centre; then ride back to my home country of England via: Asia, the sub-Continent, the Middle East and Europe.

So we do indeed have some common ground going on here, and KeenyE's idea of "Bouncing ideas off each other might be a good thing" .. er .. might be a good thing. :thumbup1:

I can certainly provide help for anyone who wants it from this end -England/Western Europe.

I hope we can indeed exchange ideas and info.

KEITH

Maybe you guys should meet, travel together, camp etc to see that you'll get on ...
I'd suggest the HU meeting in Tintaldra eastern Vic/NSW - see teh 'meetings' on the left and go to Australia - Feb 2008.. their you'll be able to ask in person ... and look at setups .. and be questioned in turn..

Could be a problem
 

Good idea Frank, but at second view your idea has its challenges. Because, if I’ve got this right:

1. Michael & Elaine appear to be starting their tour in Europe, probably from Hamburg, next April [‘08]

2. (a) Mark & Maggie - and (b) Kenny, appear to be riding overland towards Europe next year. M&M’s destination is Switzerland. Kenny hasn’t disclosed or perhaps decided upon his preferred European destination yet, and therefore might end up anywhere within this continent.

Note that, IMHO, Europe isn’t a big continent or that difficult a place to navigate around, comparatively quickly and easily in any case. E.g. both Switzerland and Hamburg (Germany) are only a day or two’s ride from anywhere in England.

3. I am unable to get back to the southern hemisphere until the beginning of 2009, so I’ll be leaving for Europe/UK maybe a whole year behind M&E, M&M, and Kenny.

Nevertheless, I sure would like to keep in touch and exchange info with these guys. At the very least I shall follow their progress with much interest. Who knows? … maybe up to a year later I could easily end-up following along in some of their footsteps.

Shipping from Australia
 

G'day Aussies,
Just reading all your plans and thought I'd let you know about another shipping company -

Ship My Bike

I used this company to fly my bike from Melbourne to Narita, Japan in August. Josh is the contact and is excellent to deal with, he really made everything easy and answered all my stupid questions without any drama's and no he doesn't sponser me! Good luck with all the planning!

I might be rushing it !!!
 

Hi all

Well I booked a one way ticket today to the UK.
Now i am looking to get my bike shipped there by,
around January more than likely Febuary next year.
Then if that is successful see where 2 wheels
will take me to.
Have already emailed a few freight fowarders
to see what costings i might get.
do any of you have any ideas of cost.?????
Getrouted quoted approx. $2600 AUD
delivery in May to UK or April in Athens Greece.

Ugo

Hi Ugo,
Not sure where you are, but I am in Brisbane. I did a lot of legwork on local freight forwarders (early 2007) and the end result was NOT ONE got back to me with a quote!

I did a lot of homework first, ensuring I knew how to talk turkey on weight, dimensions, timing, requirements, then on recommendations contacted the following:

1. Hellmann (Karen Hirst) at Brisbane Airport
2. Schenker (Willie Guertler) at Banyo
3. Express Logistics (Graham) at Eagle Farm
4. Vision (Paresh Patel) at Eagle Farm.

I rang each and arranged to meet personally. I took along photos and details of the bike and discussed arrangements. All 4 said they'd do a quote. When I got home after each meeting, I followed up with an email confirming what we'd discussed (I recall 2 sent replies confirming receipt of my email). However I waited... and waited...and waited. Not one quote! I also investigated airfreight with Qantas - these guys were most helpful but cost was prohibitive.

It is now obvious the above 4 firms didn't want my business. I will never recommend any of them.

I had also received a rough quote from Dave Milligan of Get Routed. I decided in the end to use his services and have been very happy with the resulting 2 trips the bike has done with Dave.
Cheers
John

hi John

Im in Sydney

Yeah i just sent out a heap of emails to different companies
Qantas says its a dangerous good and gave me a no. to get paper
work but on the info i gave if was cool with paper work $2700AUD
also spoke to getrouted they wont be doing a load till May and want $2600
but got a reply from a frieght forwarder
for $350 landed in London plus $95 shipping fee
to good to belive really

ugo

Ugo you know the old saying: "If its sounds too good to be true, it probably is!"

You need to do a search of these Forums (and under "Planning" in the sidebar) for all the great info here on what you'll be up for. One thing I quickly learnt was that there are quite a few costs associated with the transport at each end (and the other end seems to be more expensive for arranging the return trip), as well as some costs some agents seem to invent out of the blue! ("handling" charges). Some include: dangerous goods clearance surcharge and packing charge, fuel surcharge, terminal security fee, import fee, storage fees, uncrating hadover fee, crate disposal fee, empty crate storage fee, document fee, port clearance fee or port service charge, customs clearance fee, quarantine barrier fee, moving fees. Not only that, there seems to be different terminology in use between agents and between countries. Need to compare any insurance cover involved too.

In other words, when comparing quotes, I found it was difficult to compare apples with apples.
Cheers & good luck

Wrong order of doing things ...

Orgainise the bike shipping FIRST..

You NEED to read the stuff on the left sidebar as John-DownUnder said above. There is a lot in there including getting the bike shipped ... with Quantas they will ship the bike uncrated ..

For DRG see http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...cles-air-21880

well i am blonde
 

Hey Frank

yeah thanks for that
but i am blonde
and things seem to happen at time like this
its coming together though
see where it ends up

Ugo