Baloo:

$2,300 sounds reasonable, based on prior shipments that I have made from Montreal or Toronto, Canada to Paris. There will be another $100 (more or less) of charges imposed by the warehouse in Paris when you pick the bike up, keep that in mind for budget purposes.

Getting the bike to Montreal (the city with the most frequent flights to Paris, when compared to Toronto) is easy. Just ride it up there. When you ride across the border, tell Canada Customs that you intend to ship the bike to Paris via Montreal, they won't have any problems with that at all and will wave you through same as if you were just on a short tourist visit to Canada.

Plan to arrive at the freight terminal at Montreal airport with 1/4 of a tank of fuel or less. You don't have to have an 'almost dry' tank, just 1/4 of a tank or less. There is no need at all to disassemble or crate the motorcycle. The windshield can usually stay in place (see my bike, a ST 1100, in the pictures below to get an idea of the size of the container used).

If you are shipping via Motorcycle Express, all the paperwork will be ready for you and a pallet will be ready for you. The freight shed guys will put the motorcycle on the wooden pallet, then strap it down. The pallet is then loaded into a container (called a Uniform Load Device, or ULD) that is placed in the bottom of the aircraft.

The whole process is simple and trouble-free. If your bike has saddlebags on it, you can get away with putting clothing in them, maybe even your helmet, but don't put anything else such as camping equipment in them.

There are usually no fees associated with dropping the bike off at the departure airport a day or two early, but there are fees associated with storing the bike at the destination airport beyond the day of arrival. So plan to pick the bike up promptly in Paris.

It's a simple process to clear the bike out of customs in Paris. Pick up the waybills from the freight shed in Paris, take them to the customs office (a short walk away), show the customs guy your ownership and European insurance (green card), he stamps the papers (no fees), you then go back to the freight shed, pay the $100 or so in destination freight shed fees, then ride away.

Below are some pictures taken in both Montreal and Paris that might help you understand the process.

Enjoy your European trip.

Michael

PS: When it comes time to bring it back to the USA, Knopf in Germany organizes sea shipments (in big sea containers) from Germany to southern Florida each winter. There are only one or two dates available each winter, but it is a bit cheaper than air freighting the thing back.

Moto on pallet, prior to loading in ULD


Moto on a pallet, inside a ULD


Details of pallet tie-down (the freight shed guys do this for you)


A different shipment than above, not using a pallet


You likely won't have to remove the windshield.
(I only put my fleece over it to avoid having to carry the fleece with me in the plane... my excuse was 'to protect the windshield').


Coming out the other end in Paris, 10 hours later
FYI, I was on the road 2 hours after taking this picture.