Advice on crating bikes for sea freight

[MikeS]

We will be sending three bikes to Buenos Aires by sea freight from London later this year and may build our own crates to save costs.

Materials- thickness of ply for the sides/top, 50x50mm timbers etc?
Use of brick pallets for the base- two fixed together and cut to size if necessary?
Nail or screw fixings etc, etc.
I understand the wood does not require to be treated.

Can you just ride to the shippers warehouse and start building the crates there?


As we have not built crates for our bikes before, any useful info / top tips from your experience would be very helpful.

[mattmbishop]

We got our crates from a bike shop, all their new bikes come in on crates and we got hold of ours relatively easily. So, no tips on building crates sorry.

One thing that we did end up doing, which I thought was a pretty good idea, was to get a big bag of those water absorbent crystals and put them under the bikes to stop things getting too rusty.

[MikeS]

Originally Posted by mattmbishop

We got our crates from a bike shop, all their new bikes come in on crates and we got hold of ours relatively easily. So, no tips on building crates sorry.

One thing that we did end up doing, which I thought was a pretty good idea, was to get a big bag of those water absorbent crystals and put them under the bikes to stop things getting too rusty.

Unfortunately I already tried a bike dealer (BMW) who told me that their crates were not re-usable. I wasn't too convinced though so might be worth trying a few more places.

Good idea about the absorbant crystals (unfortunately my bike already comes pre-equiped with plenty rusty bits- It's Scottish!)

[Big Red]

Try another BMW dealer! I sent my R1150GS from Australia to USA in a used wooden crate, and the San Diego BMW dealer has just given me a used metal crate (from an LT) for the seafreight trip home.

Grant F

[MikeS]

Originally Posted by Big Red

Try another BMW dealer! I sent my R1150GS from Australia to USA in a used wooden crate, and the San Diego BMW dealer has just given me a used metal crate (from an LT) for the seafreight trip home.

Grant F

Aparently just getting a crate from a (motorbike) dealer isn't that easy. We got the following info after ringing round a few places:

"One bike shop uses metal crates that bolt the bikes in and they're unbolted at time of delivery and the crates are sent back with transport company there and then. Another use very flimsy one-time-use only crates. Aprilia still do timber crates but the shop said that they literally destroy the crates to get the bikes out...everyone is now bound by the same European Standards which state that all crates must be returned the manufacture for re-use, or broken down for recycling."

Any suggestions??

[scdan3]

Harley crates are meant to be good.
Any german company (BMW) will be awkward due to germanys recycling rules.

looked into the cost of building crates, and after pricing up the materials the cost was so similar to paying someone else to do it, (someone who knew what they were doing as well!) it didn't seem worth the hassle...

dan