Shipping motorcycle from NY to London
 

I'm heading to the UK for work for 3-5 months and wanted to bring my R1200GS along with me... I've contacted one air freight spot, shipmybike, and was quoted $1,995 one way which sounded pretty high. I've searched around here a bit but was hoping someone would have experience going from any of the NY airports over to London. I'm supposed to leave next week so it is definitely a last minute thing..

Motorcycle Express
 

I would contact Gail Goodman at Motorcycle Express - Ship Your Bike . I think that their one-way price is the same as above, but if you are coming back with your bike, there is a bit of a discount for round-trip. They can also make arrangements to have you on the same flight. Tell her that you heard about Motorcycle Express on the Horizons Unlimited site, and there is even a small discount there as well.

I used them for going to London and back from Vancouver, BC and will be using them again in April. She's good to deal with. Recommended.

MotorcycleExpress is good, but they arrange airfreight only from Canadian gateways, e.g. Toronto, not USA airports like JFK.
Unless (OP laukkenen) can arrange his schedule to ride the bike to TOR, and fly TOR-->London, I suspect ShipMyBike.com is the best solution on such short notice from either JFK or EWR.

Don't forget to get short term Euro Green Card vehicle insurance for your US-reg 12GS for whatever period you expect to ride in the UK/ EU, and to "declare" the bike on arrival to UK Customs as a temporary import.
Green Card insurance from
MotorcycleExpress, or
http://www.mototouring.com/index.php?id=24,
or
http://knopftours.com/Web-Site/Green%20Card.html

Are you sure about that? ME is based in the US and does list NY-London as one of their routes. I've seen many times on the HUBB that shipping from the US is more difficult than shipping from Canada which is perhaps why there seems to be a $300 premium for shipping from New York over shipping from Toronto or even Vancouver... but I've never heard that there were no US departure points.

It may be true that flying along with the motorcycle on the same flight might only be available from the Canadian departure points. That could be.

You're correct. I mis-spoke/ wrote.
ME's website does show airfreight services from US gateways, including JFK & EWR. It's been so long that ME has been pushing/ emphasizing Canadian departures. It would be interesting/useful to chat with ME re which aircargo
carriers they actually use ex-US, because (as you say) flying bike on same passenger flight is no longer an option from US.
ME's current online quotes ex-JFK or EWR are higher than what ShipMyBike quoted below to OP.
Thanks for pointing that out.

You could try these people Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics and ship over the pond.
I used them from Southampton (uk) to Baltimore (usa) took 17 days and was easy , just drove to the docks left them with the keys and collected the other end , no draining or crating. Cost around $1000 with port fee's etc in April 2011

when your over here give us a shout and we can go on some rides around the place, if you have or can get a Schengen Visa aswell we could even take a trip under the channel beer

Hello,

Not sure if still need shipping ? We can arrange shipping from the USA to the UK in a shared container.

Please let me know if you need a price.

Thanks
Jamie
jamie@hillshipping.com