Guys, I think you need to more carefully investigate air freight charges. My experience has been that if you crate the bike, you pay either cubic weight (volumetric charges) or mass weight, whichever is higher, but if you ship the bike uncrated, you only pay mass weight.
The IATA DG regulations for shipping motor vehicles have been relaxed a bit in the last few years, meaning you only need to have 1/4 tank or less of fuel in the uncrated motorcycle, and if it has a sealed battery, it can remain in place. If you disassemble and crate the bike, it may be evaluated under a different packing instruction, which requires all fuel be drained.
Check with both airlines and with freight forwarders, see if they will quote you two different prices, one for crated and one for uncrated. The price per pound for uncrated will normally be higher, but if you consider that you don't need to buy a crate and you won't be exposed to volumetric charges, it might be a heck of a lot cheaper overall.
PanEuropean
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