Now that we have a plan. Let's go shopping!!!!! RD04? RD07? RD07A? What Colour? White, Black, Green/Purple, Red/White/Blue? Gold rims? Oh, what a fun problem to have!

There seemed to be about 50 bikes for sale in Germany. I started to track the asking prices, KM, and options to see if there were some trends. The far end of the spectrum was a garage queen going for $13,000 Canadian. WOW, that was a lot of money for a bike over 20yrs old, though it did have all the bits a person would want. Ohlins Suspension on the rear, Sachs Fork, Exhaust, panniers yada yada. A well-equipped bike with low KM and pristine condition. The other end (other than parts bikes) is in the $5,000 mark for a fairly stock model with 50,000km on the clock. This is a fair price range for what I was looking for.

The Unforeseen problem:
The German Ebay requires verification with a German phone number... Well, that's a problem. I spent a few days trying to find a way around this to no avail. Other places where the bikes were posted resulted in virtually no replies from sellers. They just would not deal with someone trying to communicate in English or with google translated messages. Likely they thought I was a Scammer or they just could not be bothered. After weeks of trying to start conversations, I was getting pretty down on the whole process. All this research and it turned out the biggest issue was just finding a BIKE! Dealers would not respond either.

The chosen one:
Enter Hero #1 found on this very HUB! TodoTerreno offered to help me with translating and aid in finding a seller. Not only was he more than generous with his time and patience with me, he helped avoid some scam "sellers". It's really sad how the scum have turned us all into skeptics and suspicious of everyone on the internet. With his help, we found a bike in Northern Germany from a Lady looking for a good home for her bike. Right mileage (<60k), Right price (very reasonable), effectively stock bike, real person and the desire for the bike to end up in the hands of someone that would continue its adventure. Suddenly this was all happening. I had a bike, the plan was in place.

Trip Planning
Now that I had the bike sourced, I needed to finalize the plans. The WestJet offer to fly out of Amsterdam had suddenly changed. Weeks after the official announcement of the destinations they were offering changed. No longer were they flying to Amsterdam... But they were now flying out of Paris. Oh and the date changed when the program would start. Change of plans. Fly to someplace close for as cheap as possible (Amsterdam) and take a train(s) and or bus to the bike location in Northern Germany. From there finalize the purchase and ride. 7 days of time allotted for a ride through Europe before dropping the bike off in Paris and flying home! Let's do this. Flights booked. Air Cargo arranged (more on this later), Trains booked, Bus booked, Hotel on day 1 and 7 booked.

Logistics
WestJet does not do the actual bike shipping logistics portion. They are just the carrier that hauls the bike. A company by the name of AMC (Air Marine Cargo) out of Calgary is the freight forwarder that handles all the paperwork. The intent is you contact them, set the dates of travel, send them your information and money, and they take care of the rest. Well, that's the intent. After many emails and relentless hounding by me to get all the details, things seemed to be in place. 5 days before I get on a plane I get an email saying (paraphrased) "Oh we don't really know what you need to do with French customs, you might need a stamp. Sorry we can't help". WHAT!? 5 days before the trip you tell me that the "simple" process of me rocking up to the freight company with the paperwork THEY prepare and everything is taken care of. They don't know the process in France as they are the Canadian portion. It's up to me to deal with the Europe side. To say I was furious was an understatement. They tell me that they have never done this before. They usually only deal with people shipping their bikes over and back. Not dealing with someone bringing a bike purchased overseas back with them. At this point, I have everything booked, flights paid for, and plans in motion. I did as much research as possible and from what I could tell, there were no issues, and the bike would be cleared to leave the country. Short answer, not true. I will detail those challenges later.