From Panama City, Panama to Miami, United States - December, 2003

I shipped my KLR 650 from Panama to Miami in December 2003 with Girag, at the international airport in Tocumen, Panama (near Panama City). I arrived at the freight terminal, they weighed the bike, and quoted me a price of ~$530, plus $75 dangerous goods surcharge, plus $100 to crate it. I had them crate the bike, they then measured the crate and said because of its' size they had to charge, I don't remember exactly, but say $900 plus crating , plus dangerous goods. Of course the bike was already partially disassembled and crated, so I just didn't want to walk away. I haggled them down to where the total for everything was $879. Maybe I could have bargained harder, but that's what I paid. The guy I was travelling with paid roughly half that to fly his bike to Quito. Part of that savings is that the FAA requires bikes to be crated to fly to the USA, while Ecuador does not. At least that's the story I got. I was told to disconnect the battery, which I did not do, and let the air out of the tires, which I did lower them by 10 psi or so, leaving enough air that I could ride to a gas station in Miami. The fuel was on reserve, so there was little in the tank, but nobody checked. The bike arrived in Miami 1 day later than I was told in Panama, which didn't surprise me. It then took me 2 days to get it out of US customs in Miami, which did surprise me a little. All told it could have been worse. If I spoke better Spanish I'm sure I could have bargained better on the Panama end. Hope this helps.