bike crates...
 

hi folks, im about to ship my bike from sydney to london and have aquired a nice crate from a honda bike dealer.
however its a steel framed contraption that bolts together and normally has a large cardboard cover over the top. i was going to bolt thin ply wood sheet onto this frame but im still not sure whether i would be better off with a standard wooden one...
has anyone else used these steel framed crates,...phil

Phil,

Neva Williams shipped her bike (also from Sydney) in a steel framed crate with ply wood panels and it worked a treat. I think the crate was originally for a japanese bike, so she had it modified slightly to take her BMW, but it was very secure and there was no damage when we uncrated here in Delhi.

Harvey

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no pipe, no slippers
www.chasingthesun.org

ok, i will answer my own qustion...
a wooden crate would have cost 450 aussie dollars, my crate worked fine..i sheeted it with six mil ply wood and used rachet straps (4) to restrain the bike..all up it cost about 180 aussie dollars to do it myself.

I've also used the metal crates, but with original cardboard. Works fine. More hassle to adapt when needed, but weighs much less than the wooden crates, therefore cheaper to airship.

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Grant Johnson

Seek, and ye shall find.
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One world, Two wheels.
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

We have just got one of the above mentioned crates and are waiting to get the other 2 ready to freight three bikes to India. Is ply the answer or would shrink wrapping work? We have only ever used wooden crates before but Honda dealers are happy to give these metal crates away for free as it saves them getting rid of them.
Did Neva have any hassles getting her bike freighted and do you know who she used?

David, try to use the orginal cardboard, works just fine. Use lots of plastic wrapping tape to put the cardboard back into original condition, and then use tie straps or rope or whatever around the lot to seal it up. You could even shrink wrap the whole works when done.

Shrink wrapping alone without the cardboard exposes the bikes to damage, and means they can't load anything at all on top of them - and they might charge you more as a result.

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Grant Johnson

Seek, and ye shall find.
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One world, Two wheels.
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

I'll back Grant up on that, I shipped my bike from South Africa to the UK as he described and it arrived with no damage.

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