Transporting 3 bikes from UK to South America
 

I am planning a 2 month trip to South America with my two sons in March 2016 and we need to get our bikes there and back. does anyone have any experience they could share? Any information on shipping / air freight would be greatly appreciated.

Lot's of companies out there who will do this for you.

It is VERY expensive though.

Probably about £1500 EACH to Buenos Aires.

I hear Surinaime is the cheapest destination to get to. If you can find a company to get you there.

Two months is a shortish trip for such an expense. Then it will be the same price to get them home.


Have you considered buying bikes over there or even renting ?

I am using James Cargo; they seem to be pretty much on the ball. Freighting with them from the UK to Bogota at the end of next month. I will post my experience with them if it will help.

We have bought our bikes already and had lots of fun getting them ready so we really would like to take them. Also, having looked at the cost of hiring it should still be cheaper to take our own.

Ourroborus2015:
I would love to hear how you get on with James Cargo

I just dropped my bike off at James Cargo a few hours ago. Due to pick it up in Bogota next week. All smooth and simple. So far. I will report back once I get to Colombia.

I hope all goes well and am waiting patiently for your next post!

Sorry for the late reply. Things went basically OK, except James Cargo sent my bike to Colombia so that it arrived before me (despite the agent in Bogota insisting that I had to arrive before the bike). The bike was therefore sort of impounded and it took a bit more time and an extra US$150 to get the bike released. As far as the crating went: they basically just built the crate around the bike. No wheels, handlebars, windscreen or even luggage were removed to reduce the volume of the crate. I believe it would have been cheaper if this had been done to reduce volumetric thing. It did make it easier in Bogota to drive away though as no rebuilding had to be done. Overall I would give James Cargo 5 out of 10.

Is it possible to let us know how much it cost with them in total? I'm looking into getting to South America myself from the UK, and would appreciate as much details as possible before I commit to anything.

Cheers

Great to hear some info about shipping bike to far destinations ...but people always forget to put down number of dollars that they haw to spend for it ? ? ?

Thanks anyway

Hi Ouroboros how much did you pay in total to ship from UK to Bogota? I am planning to do the same in a month or so.

Try this bit of the site:-

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/get...o_type=country

Hi there, I hope that your trip went really well!

I'm interested in your itinerary and also your experience with James Cargo.

Could you tell me if your grade of 50% for James Cargo is based on the two issues of the size of the crate and the fact that the crate arrived at your destination early? Were there any other issues or lessons I could learn from? What was your port of entry in South America and how much did it cost? Did you load all your luggage into the crate (less cabin luggage for the flight)?

What was your route once you arrived? I'm keen to get a sense of a realistic and sensible planning figure for miles per day.

Cheers - MotoSwazi