Cheapest reliable shipper I've used was Stefan Knopf (http://www.knopftours.com/Web-Site/Welcome.html) in his regular containers. Dates and destinations are limited, but he does a good job with minimal (or no) preparation necessary for about US$1000 all told.

The answers you're getting are all over the map because some prefer roro, some like air freight, some containerized....with each having definite advantages and disadvantages. Also, most find Europe cheaper than UK, as indicated above. Plus: "easiest" and "cheapest" are not often properly located within the same sentence.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

In 2007-08 I used both shipping methods:-

Outbound: Southampton UK -to- Halifax NS Canada. RoRo with Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics. 8 days to cross the pond + a day at each end. An excellent service. Cost at the time was around GBP 600.

Return: Lester B Pearson Int'l Airport, Toronto ON Canada -to- London Gatwick UK. Air freight with Air Transat. I flew with bike on the same flight. More expensive, as you would expect - approx USD 1,800 for a 700 lb (320 kg) motorcycle - but obviously very quick.

The shipping handlers at YYZ Cargo Zone dropped and damaged the bike: smashed-up mirror and its housing - damaged pannier - scratched-up screen. It took nearly 12 months to get any compensation out of Air Transat.

The bike was a '05 Honda ST1300 Pan-European.

Happy New Year!

.

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Right Way Round ...

Thinking about it? Because shipping with Air Transat involved a straightforward 'open' palette, if I had my time again, especially with so much plastic (ST 1300), I would remove the mirrors/housings and safely stow these away. Also protect vulnerable exposed areas with some sort of wrapping. My bad for not thinking about and taking these basic precautions beforehand, if I'm really fair to Air Transat.
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Right Way Round ...

Hi Keith:

Very sorry to hear that the Air Transat folks damaged your moto.

I've shipped trans-Atlantic by Air Transat quite a few times (both directions), and I have always asked permission from the guys in the freight shed to allow me to load my own moto onto the pallet and strap it down myself. The cargo shed guys at both the Canadian and the European ends have always been very co-operative about letting me secure my moto myself. When I am finished my work, the bike is either tied down on a pallet, ready to go into a container, or (less often) just rolled into the container and tied down within the container, with the side-stand deployed.

I don't think that the workers in the freight shed particularly want to have to maneuver the moto onto a pallet (or into a container, if a pallet is not being used) by themselves. My experience is that they are as concerned as I am about the risk of dropping the bike during the process. The guys are very familiar with handling palletized freight, and very familiar with handling containers (ULDs), but not at familiar with handling large motos.

To facilitate getting permission to load your moto onto the pallet yourself, or load it into the container yourself, it might help to arrive at the freight shed outside of daytime business hours (8-5), after all the bosses have gone home. If the staff bring up security as an issue (i.e. "We can't let you into the freight shed because it is a controlled area, etc."), you might want to offer to load the bike onto the pallet or into the container out in the parking lot. Generally, it won't be a problem for the freight shed guys to find a forklift out in the parking lot that they can use to lift the palletized (or containerized) moto up from the parking lot onto the loading dock. Once they have it on the loading dock, it's no different than any other palletized freight.

I've attached a few pictures below showing various shipments that I have made. In every case, I did the loading and the tie-down.

If you are putting it on a pallet, it might be helpful to pre-print some labels (in the local language) indicating that certain parts of the moto, such as the mirrors and the panniers, should not be used as hand-holds. Then stick the labels onto the appropriate parts of the bike.

Michael

Pallet Shipping










Container Shipping

Interesting thread. I'm thinking of doing the same this summer, so hopefully I can get the transportation done for a reasonable price.

Do keep in mind what Mark wrote above:

Air freight is not the cheapest, but my experience is that it sure is the easiest.

Drop the moto off at the freight shed, tie it up, take a taxi to the passenger terminal, fly on the same plane as your moto, land, take a taxi to the freight shed at the destination, visit the customs guys (they usually don't want to see the moto, but it is essential you bring the ownership and proof of insurance with you), pay the freight shed charges (typically $100 to $200 at the destination, this is in addition to the price you are quoted for transport), unpack the thing, be riding down the road between 2 and 4 hours after you landed.

In theory, you are not supposed to have anything in the panniers or any luggage attached to the bike. In theory. In practice, the freight shed guys are generally pretty permissive, as long as you show them what's inside your stuff (and make darn sure you don't have any Dangerous Goods packed in there), they typically cut you a lot of slack, as you can see in the photos above.

Michael

Try: Chris Merson

Tel: 01494535524
C.Merson@dynamic-intl.com

I just got a quote to ship my Tenere to Montreal from the UK for £1090.

Cheers

Mark