[Duncan]

I'm thinking of having my 5 Spot shipped back to me in New Zealand from the UK. Alternatively, I might have the Spot sent to South Korea or Japan. I'm also thinking of having my Kona shipped to South Korea or Japan.

Has anyone else shipped their bikes from places like the UK to New Zealand or other places? How about shipping bikes from the US to elsewhere? What did you pay, how long did it take and which company did you use?

This might be a useful thread for all riders thinking of upping sticks and moving to new pastures. Any postings about experience or costs would be appreciated. Also, good links to good sites for comparing shipping costs would be great too.

Cheers,

Duncan

 

[mtbyker]

Shipping a whole bike to NZ or S. Korea will be costly, they are a 79" countries in the USPS book. 79" for length plus girth. The UK and Japan are 108" countries, so if you are careful you can put the frame in one box and the wheels in a second, pack the rest of the components in there and you would be good. My guess is that it will $120. to $150. totoal for Priority Mail and about $20. more for Express.

Global Express guaranteed goes by weight and dimension, and would be several hundred USD.

 

[Jerk_Chicken]

Duncan, I made a move to Germany about seven months ago from the US. All told, we brought 800 pounds of luggage and bikes with us on the flight.

We first tried to get estimates from everyone, from USPS to DHL to the bulk cargo services. The bulk cargo services were in the thousands, nearing five figures, meanwhile, furniture and other container worthy items were cheaper for the same weight. I didn't get it, so we went ahead with my idea to deal with the hassle of bringing everything on the plane with us. We picked an airline that had high weight regulations as follows:

-two suitcases per passenger, along with a reasonable size limit, 23kg
-overweight per suitcase, up to 32kg: $30/suitcase
-each extra bag, up to 32kg, $125/suitcase
-two bikes in Trico cases, $30/case
-one bike in a suitcase

All told, they charged us only $575 to move all this, plus our tickets. We reserved well in advance, and we bought several 40" duffel bags marketed under the brand name of "Amaro". They are bigger than anything else out there and allow more volume than any suitcase near them.

Your Spot should fit in one of those conventional suitcases that existed before the uprights took hold. Bubble wrap is cheap and don't be cheap on it, either. You will have to completely or partially disassemble the rear tri to fit, compress the fork, air down the tires, but it should work. I couldn't find these suitcases, but had some old ones, luckily, and also was recommended to find them at THRIFT STORES. We packed clothes around this bike, used the wheels to stiffen up the case up and down, and some other things to prevent compression. Came out fine, and in fact, I just took the frame out last night. It took me at least ten minutes to unwrap it and the individual parts.

Other options are the trico case or an S&S case, like Miles E (I think) ran his flux in.

This is provided you're willing to fly back with it. I would.

 

[Atomik Carbon]

You guys must not have much "Stuff"....

When I moved back to the US from Jamaica, I had to hire a 20ft shipping container to pack all my stuff. After clearing customs, trailer is driven to location and left for 48 hours so that we can unload.

 

[Duncan]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I've travelled loads with my bikes but only once had to send a bike seperately, which was the first time I went to Korea about 9 years ago.

I've been lucky a few times. The first time I left Korea with my bike I jsut smiled sweetly and flirted with the pretty Korean check-in girl and had no excess baggage charges despite being well over the limit. The second time I left the UK they had some kind of "sporting goods" basic charge of 30 quid for bikes and golf clubs etc and I was happy to just pay that. The last time I left the UK some kindly old baggage handling gentleman who was dealing with oversize baggage in the check-in queue picked up my bike box and sad "that's about 15kg isn't it Sir?" It was actually closer to 25 but I just croaked out a nervous little "yes" and had no extra charges to pay.

The only time I've ever had trouble was when leaving New Zealand about three years ago. I was a few kg over the limit and had to repack all my stuff in the airport lobby. Fortunately my brothers were there to see me off and were able to take my excess crap to post back to me later.

The Spot packs down fairly nicely. Just got to make sure not to bend the rotors.

Apparantly there's no need to let the air out of your tyres ifor fear of explosions in unpressureed aircraft holds. I just let the air out so I can squeeze the bike into the box better.

 

[Jerk_Chicken]

When I moved back to the US from Jamaica, I had to hire a 20ft shipping container to pack all my stuff. After clearing customs, trailer is driven to location and left for 48 hours so that we can unload.

I am still on the fence about making a "good for you" or a "that's special" response.

The OP is talking about a bicycle. I think it would be a misuse of resources to transport a bicycle in a 20ft container.

 

[Jerk_Chicken]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I've travelled loads with my bikes but only once had to send a bike seperately, which was the first time I went to Korea about 9 years ago.

I've been lucky a few times. The first time I left Korea with my bike I jsut smiled sweetly and flirted with the pretty Korean check-in girl and had no excess baggage charges despite being well over the limit. The second time I left the UK they had some kind of "sporting goods" basic charge of 30 quid for bikes and golf clubs etc and I was happy to just pay that. The last time I left the UK some kindly old baggage handling gentleman who was dealing with oversize baggage in the check-in queue picked up my bike box and sad "that's about 15kg isn't it Sir?" It was actually closer to 25 but I just croaked out a nervous little "yes" and had no extra charges to pay.

The only time I've ever had trouble was when leaving New Zealand about three years ago. I was a few kg over the limit and had to repack all my stuff in the airport lobby. Fortunately my brothers were there to see me off and were able to take my excess crap to post back to me later.

The Spot packs down fairly nicely. Just got to make sure not to bend the rotors.

Apparantly there's no need to let the air out of your tyres ifor fear of explosions in unpressureed aircraft holds. I just let the air out so I can squeeze the bike into the box better.

Yep, I took the rotors off and packed them. I even had half a dozen extra brakesets and rotors in one of the suitcases.

Air in tires only need to be let out for space. Same for shocks. No trouble with the shocks, although the forks were aired down in their lowest travel settings using TALAS and ETA as an assist. IN my case, I also had my Z1, compressed, ETA'd and Ziptied down.