air frieghting your bike uncrated?

[merlin]

Hi,
will any airlines air freight bikes uncrated?
why?
less cubic volume ,so cheaper price.
less hassle re crating,just ride up and sterap the bike to a standard ali pallet
i know usa doesn't allow uncrated bikes but is this know world wide?
thanks

[Werner]

Hi Merlin,
It all depends. From Ottawa, Canada, you can still ship your bike uncrated to London, England, on Air Canada. It goes into a container which fits into the local Boeing 767. You can do this via Kuehne&Nagel, a local air freight specialist.
I shipped my bike uncrated from Dhaka, Bangladesh to Bangkok. I tried to ship it uncrated from Kuala Lumpur to Perth, but was refused. Kuehne&Nagel, Sydney, told me that they had a better chance getting bike on a flight to Los Angeles if it were crated. I had it crated for Aus$300, and it went on a Air New Zealand flight. So, shop around. There are still deals to be had, crated or uncrated.

[Cameron]

Hi Merlin, most airlines outside the USA will fly your bike uncrated.I have used Air New Zealand,Cathay Pacific,and Lufthansa to fly my bike. You must be aware of the greater possibility of damage though, by dropping, loading, unloading and forklifts running aroud the wharehouses...some airlines like lufthansa supply ali. pallets while others just wheel the bike onto the plane and strap it to the fuselage.
I usually tried to deal with the airlines directly and preferred not to use an agent, but sometimes you must. There are advantages to doing it either way. Sometimes agents get better rates per kilo on bulk shipping, but I always checked the rates on both. If the airlines will only deal with an agent ask them to recommend their best one to you. The advantage of doing it yourself is that you know where your bike is at all times, as you deliver it to their wharehouse personally, prep it, and do the dangerous goods form yourself. The disadvantage is that if anything goes wrong,like the dangerous goods form not accepted by a connecting airline, or the bike being bumped from its intended flight,there is no-one to help you except the airline...
I always talked to the wharehouse guys personally because then they seemed to take better care of the old bike that way.
And lastly,IF you fly the bike YOURSELF, try not to leave until AFTER it has gone... that way if there are problems you can deal with them easier than if you were halfway around the world...you usually get three days free storage at the destination, and you can easily clear it through customs in that time.
Cheers and good luck, Cameron
P.S. A good rule of thumb for price to fly a bike is the price of one ticket to your destination purchased at the counter that day...
[This message has been edited by Cameron (edited 02 November 2003).]

[This message has been edited by Cameron (edited 02 November 2003).]

[PanEuropean]

I've sent my Honda ST1100 from Canada (Toronto) to Europe and back twice, on every trip it went uncrated. The air carrier will just put the bike in a large container and tie it down within the container, then the container goes into the aircraft like any other container. The only need is to disconnect the battery, and show up with less than a gallon of fuel in the tank.

The cubic volume occupied by the motorcycle when shipped this way is far greater than what would normally be occupied by a shipment of similar weight (my moto weighs about 350 kg). So, unless you want to pay a crazy price for all that cubic space, you need to find an air carrier who has an excess of cubic space on the aircraft, but not much spare weight capacity. Charter carriers who use L-1011's on the North Atlantic often fit this profile - there's enough room to play tennis in the belly of the aircraft, but the plane is within 1,000 kg of max weight.

I have used Motorcycle Express to handle all of my shipments, and I have been very satisfied with them. I kind of doubt that you will be able to beat their price by much if you arrange it independently, and they really take the grief out of the paperwork at both ends.

If you want to see a picture of the bike in the container, go here: http://www.micapeak.com/tmp/mmoore/C...rXinXParis.jpg

PanEuropean