Vladivostok around 7-10th July.
If everything goes as planned I will arrive Vladivostok around 9th of July in a BMW F800GS and plans to get to Anchorage as my first choice, but Seattle and Vancouver will be OK as well. I had a plan of doing a flight to save som time (and accomodation). I have not got any flights out of there yet and are interesting in planning with others so we can find easy and maybe cheaper solutions.

I am a solo rider and would like to join fellow bikers on parts of the route if anyone is interested. Route will be like this:
- Norway-Europe-Turkey (10.may) -Iran-Turmenistan-Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan 1th.June)-Russia-Mongolia 14.june-Russia (Ulan Ude 27.th june)-Vladivostok 7th July) --> shipping over to US/Canada and we take things from there. Preferably Alaska Give me a hint if you are in the area or along the same route in the period.
The dates and final route are not closed yet and I can be flexible

Hi Stemic01
Leigh and I will be looking at getting our bike to Alaska / Canada this summer. As yet were not sure when we will arrive in Vladivostok but it should be around mid to late July. we will keep a watch on this thread and see if we can join up with other's for the shipping .

Dazzer and Leigh

If two bikes ,, and no time restrain ,,
Go with Wallenius car carrier (They load Hyundai, Kia,, then Toyota , Nissan ,, to US west coast then to Europe) from Masan to Seattle for USD 800 per bike ,, no packing needed,, takes 12 days for bike to arrive.
This,,, Wendy Choi knows how to ,, my 2011 trip ,, showed her how to contact and load. A Yank used this method to ship one bike last year as well, after I showed him how.
2,800 Euro per bike by air freight sounds about right and if it include box fee (I've paid 500 Euro to DHL for the box. Korean forwarder in Frankfurt had to hire Germans to build a wooden box and wanted 800 Euro) . In fact DHL Korea should have a metal box, I've used from Frankfurt to Incheon.
1 x 20ft ocean container will load about 8 bikes ,, ocean freight is around USD 2,200 per container,, Busan to Vancouver or Seattle. Domestic trucking in USA or Canada to Alaska ,, should not cost more than 600 USD per bike.
My bike shipment from Incheon - Long Beach, New Jersey - Bremerhaven by Wallenius and air freight via DHL from Frankfurt - Incheon ,, all together was around USD 6,500
In fact ,,DHL Frankfurt Flughafen has a motorcycle department run by Esther Hartmann ,, they also carry boxes.

Another possibility ,, use what they call feeder service ,, Han Jin Container Lines, Maersk Lines et al all have feeder service from Korea or Japan vis a vis to Vladivostok,, the freight is around USD 800 per 20ft box ,, in other words they use a smaller vessel to transfer the loads,,, that is how Eastern Russia gets their electronics ,, Ramens from Korea etc. Load the container in Vladivostok ,, bring it to Busan ,, gets transferred to Asia -US West coast service then ,, again feederd up to Alaska,, under same flag carrier. I bet ,, it will come to something like USD 6,000 for the 20ft box. If so ,, Bushman UK's Yuri can handle this for you ,, you guys just need to get enough bikes organised in Vladivostok, to economise. Flying out you can either fly to Korea or Japan then to Alaska direct and wait for container to arrive ,, tranasit ,, however will be long ,, 20+ days. Lots of bears to count,,,many titty bars in Anchorage and Fairbanks.

Wallenius and other shipping lines ,, after leaving Korea ,, always stops by Japan ,, like Kobe or Yokohama,, so you could try those ports ,, i.e, cross Sakhalin to Hokkaido ,, then drive south,, some 1,400KM
, then you've have to have the carnet ,,, typhoon season in July, in Japan and Monsoon in Korea.
Korea once you arrive on the ferry from Vlad,, you drive max , 300KM to get to Busan from Dong Ha, on highway 7. No carnet,, best looking women in the Far East , great food, cheap booze,,, and Seoul Joe is here.

Lastly ,, talk to the professionals ,, give them the bike dimensions and weight. You can also make it freight collect, where you pay at the destination. Documentation fee is nominal.
You can all mention my name , in fact do ,, so we can get more clout with these people. Say Seoul Joe aka Yun-Soo PARK sent you.

They suck ,, DO NOT USE... no idea what they are doing.
For air cargo Eunsung
Ms. Cindy.Kim
Co-ordinator
Seoul / Korea
Tel.
Fax.+
Mobile.
Email :

This guy is OK ,, but he gets confused for the inbound. For outbound ocean,, OK.
For ocean freight
Mr. YEONG-SEOK, OK
KOREA EXPRESS
BUSAN BRANCH, FORWARDING TEAM
#207, 1211-1, Korea Express Bldg
Choryang-dong, Dong-Gu, Busan, Korea
E-mail : ian-ok@cj.net
Tel. 82-51-719-5053 Fax. 82-51-442-3598

DHL Frankfurt Motorcycle Team
Esther Hartmann (She rides a Harley)
Esther.Hartmann@dhl.com
She will quote you rates fto and from any location in the world.

It would be nice to meet you. I am also a solo rider on F800GS. My original plan was also Iran and Turkmenistan. But right now it is too hot for me because of the political situation. My route will be from Germany, to Ukraine, Kasachstan, Mongolia, Russia to Vlad. I will be mid of July in Vlad. Plan is to be in June in Mongolia.

This is the contact I have. It works pretty well, no problems right know. I get response within hours on my mails.

Update:
I made a reservation for the ferry from Vlad to Danghae with a german travel agency (Fähre: Wladiwostok – Korea – Japan | Gleisnost). I will take the ferry on July 18th.
DHL will do the transport from Seoul to Anchorage.
If there is anybody else in the same time period we can do things together.

Drive2 & the rest of you following the thread
Have you done some good comparison of the alternatives (Cost/Time/hazzle) between Korea and Vladivostok? Are there any good options from Vlad?

1. How is it to take the bikes into South Korea? Do you need a visa / Carnet?
2. What is the cost of this ferry from Vlad to S.Korea?
3. South Korea alternative w/ship: Total cost incl. ferry from Vlad, bike crate (if needed), shipping, paperwork etc. (+Total time from Vlad to Alaska/USA/Canada)
4. South Korea alternative Flight: Total cost incl. ferry from Vlad, bike crate, shipping, paperwork etc. (+Total time from Vlad to Alaska/USA/Canada)
5. Vladivostok option total cost and time as 3 & 4?

I saw that Yuri is the man in Vlad. I am very curius about the options available and which gives the lowest cost / time / troubles.

Thanks for sharing guys

We've heard that its not allowed for germans to ride their own motorbike in South Korea because of a missing agreement between Germany and South Korea.
Who has more informations about getting there and be able to ride the own bike?

Technically yes ,,, but do not worry ,, make sure you bring an international license.
All my Deutche freund drives here kein problem,,
Worst case you can have your bike shipped on an one ton truck for 200 euro to any schiffshafen or flughafen.
And you travel the Korea on the bullet train.

Stemic ,, all your answers are two post above you ,, also if you go to the North Asia thread ,, abundance of answers ,

Hei guys.

Cost/time/hassle factor is my reason to rule out South Korea.
Yuri has been really helpful providing information/quotes on shipping from Vladivostok.
In my opinion the only reason to see the trouble of taking a ferry to South Korea would be to share a container. (or interest to visit S-Korea) If one can't find anyone to share a container from Vladivostok...then it might be financially big enough of a reason to spend the extra time/hassle to take the ferry to Korea.
Just my personal opinion.

A 20" container from Vladi to Seattle is at the moment about 5500$ + 200$/bike. Really dear price alone to pay but not bad if there's more bikes in Vladi at the same time. No crating hassle, just tie down the bikes.

Having said that...anyone interested in shipping/sharing from Vladi to Seattle at the end of June/early July?
OR anyone interested in shipping bikes to Helsinki, Finland at that time?
There's two of us planning to arrive in Vladivostok around June 28th (+/- Mr. Murphy) and one bike is heading to Finland for sure. The other bike may go either way depending on possible other bikes sharing a container one way or the other.

-m

Seouljoe, would you have contact info for a recommended agent with FedEx at Seoul? (email)

-m

This is all I have..
FedEx - Korea

I should be in Vlad around Mid Aug.. looking to ship to the states

I am happy to ship from South Korea too

Not sure if this will help anyone out

Cheers
Geordie

Hi and thank you all for answers. I am working on the different options listen now to see what is possible - I will post the outcome of those later.

CONTAINER SHARING:
Are there anyone in the Vladivostok/South Korea area who wants to share a container to North America early August? I will arrive on a BMW F800GS. I am flexible on Vladivostok / South Korea as long as it is quick, easy and a reasonable price. In North America am I flexible regarding ship to harbour from Anchorage to Tijuana. Price and time are more important. Don't want to stay 60 days at hotel waiting for the bike to arrive.
geordie_e: PM me if you are still in the loop for sharing. Would be intersting to see your travelroute and dates and we might ride along for parts of the journey.

..Thanks Seouljoe.

I got a hold of someone at FedEx Seoul.
First they were reluctant to give me a quote, just told me that it's quite expensive..
Second request provided a price estimate of about 10000 US$/bike.

They really don't want to have anything to do with shipping motorbikes?

-m