Shipping from Australia to UK, anyone got recent experience?
 

Gidday,
I'm looking at shipping my bike from the East coast of Aussie to the UK in November of this year, does anyone have any recent information regarding this? I'm interested in recommended companies and required p/w mostly.

I've had a look at the shipping database, there doesn't seem to be anything more recent than 2003 though, and things change pretty fast.

Any help appreciated,

Matt

Why? England in November is a horrible place to ride a motorcycle, it will be Dark (7/8 hours daylight max) with wet roads probably raining, windy and bitterly cold. I have ridden through the last fifteen years of English winters and would not recommend them to anyone (95% of bikers store their machines for the winter) Also petrol is now one pound stirling per litre (rip-off)

Unless you REALLY have to be in the UK I would give it a miss until summertime (when it is only raining!!!) Sorry to be a killjoy!

I concur, riding in winter isn't exactly fun.

But there's more to the story, I've just shipped my bike from NZ to Aussie (we'll be meeting the bikes in two weeks) to ride across that country and after that I was going to ship my bike back to NZ and fly over to the UK to work for a while.

Then, a couple of days ago I realised it's probably not much dearer to ship my bike to the UK than it is to ship it back to NZ. And surely you'd have to agree, even in winter one bike is better than none!

Shipping Brisbane to London
 

Try this blog for info, John and Alanna Skillington have only recently started their trip shipping a VStrom from Brisbane to London http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/skillington/
You can send him a PM by clicking on his name at the very bottom of the page for more detail.
Good luck
Glen

Why indeed! By and large bikes are cheaper in the UK. Then you have the added hassle of registering and insuring a foreign bike in the UK. Depending on your length of stay of course. Think carefully before doing it I say.
Cheers,
Graeme.

Thanks for the lead, Loxsmith.

And yeah, I'm still looking to ship to the UK. Thanks for your advice Graham, but shipping to the UK is still looking feasible to me.

After I get across Aussie I have to ship my bike out of the country, to ship to NZ will be around $1000NZ. I'm guessing that to ship to the UK won't be too much more, maybe an extra grand at most. Bikes may be cheap in the UK, but I very much doubt that I can buy a bike for 300 pounds (not to mention the fact that I can't sell my bike in Aussie and therefore loose the effective value of the bike I have).

And I like my XR too.

Matt

ship oz to uk...try this site
 

g'day

i found this iste and wondered if it might help. they quote shipping from oz to uk !$1300 approx

www.luggageline.com.au

good luck :)

Cheers h'badger, that looks like a pretty solid lead.

Matt

I shıpped my bıke from Melbourne to London ın June. I decıded on aır freıght and went wıth Schenker. Absolutely trouble free and great servıce. AUD3K They even gave me part of theır Heathrow warehouse for a day to reassemble the bıke

Let me know ıf you need any more ınfo or contact detaıls.

Cheers

Drew

Matt

I shıpped my bıke from Melbourne to London ın June. I decıded on aır freıght and went wıth Schenker. Absolutely trouble free and great servıce. AUD3K They even gave me part of theır Heathrow warehouse for a day to reassemble the bıke

Let me know ıf you need any more ınfo or contact detaıls.

Cheers

Drew

Matt , try A mob called ,Get Routed, I know that they do ship bikes to NZ and they also send bike to the Uk for the Isle of Mann.
steve

If you are interested in air shipping from Australia, I would go directly to Qantas. This is one of the few airlines which will deal directly with you without having to go through an agent. Don't rely on what they tell you over the phone, you may have to go directly to the cargo terminal at the airport and talk to the folks actually shipping your bike.

I shipped my Transalp with gear totalling 300 kg from Sydney to Los Angeles on Qantas for just under $1800AUD. They shipped my bike on the basis of weight and not volumetric weight, which saved me 100kg of charges. I would guess that rates to the UK would be similar. And the bike was shipped on the plane uncrated the day after I dropped it off.

Almost too easy...