Rsd, I can really recommand using Motorcycle Express. I had an excellent service from them and they were quick to get everything together to ship the bike.

One advantage of Motorcycle Express is that you can ship your bike any time during the year for a reasonable price (Montreal to Paris in mid-december = 1135$US, Air Canada at that time = 4400$CAN).

One disadvantage is that panniers have to be empty.

Patrick

I was also surprised, but answer is no they don't need to see the bike. Just turn in colour copies (4) of the competed form that they Email you when you tender the bike. Give dangerousgoods a call or Email to confirm...

Tendered the bike yesterday afternoon. 580 lbs 'soaking wet' after a rainy 1 hour ride. Process was pretty much as described by EvilE, go directly to the mandoor adjacent to Door 50 at the end of the warehouse building and the pretty/pleasant girl there will take your DG Cert and your $$. The ramp by door 46 was closed so I had to ride the bike to another ramp about 100 m away and then walk it through the warehouse to the weigh scales where I was able to re-organize my gear, disconnect the battery and tape up the leads, etc. Everyone was very friendly and helpful, they went through the saddlebag and topcase contents carefully, not concerned with anything I had. I think they were just looking for flammables, etc. Nobody compared my list of contents with what was actually there (there were a few discrepancies). Total cost was $1000 even.

I fly out today, will report on pick-up procedures in Frankfurt when I get a chance.

I'm looking forward to your pickup report. I'm flying my bike to Frankfurt in early June. I'd like to know how long it takes to get the bike on the road, and how the procedures are handled.

Frankfurt pickup was a breeze....you need to get to 'Tor (Gate) 26' where the ACC office is located. Just take the AirportRing Shuttlebus (Free) which stops at stop #12 outside the arrival level (C). It's free and runs about every 15 minutes or so. You want the "West" shuttlebus. It's about 4 km to Tor26 where you will get off. Bear left and you will see the ACC office. They give you a to carry to the customs 'import' office about 100 m west of the ACC office. The customs guy stamps the form there, you fill out another one, and then take them back to ACC. Walk back into the warehouse with the ACC person (Nice Guy from Pakistan) and find your bike. connect the battery and reorganize your crap and you're ready to roll. Procedure with ACC and customs maybe 1/2 hour or so. Beware that on weekends I'm told the the Customs office close to ACC is closed and you need to go to Luftthansa customs which is further away. Stefan at Knopff Tours told me this. So best to arrive on a weekday.

I stayed at Knoff tours in Heidelburg first night. About 80 km ride south from Frankfurt. Met some cool people from Malasia, Conneticut, Vermont, and Kuwait there. A great first night stopover if you don't want to ride far in a state of Jetlag! Stefan is a good head.Be prepared to pay 'cash' for room there (I was surprised).

Pic of Gherkin as received in Frankfurt...


I rode first day to Knopf, next day to friend in Switzerland (Lachen) and today over some beautiful passes to Tirana Italy. Photo at Bernina Pass Today....

Great, thanks for the info. I'm staying my first and last night at Stefan's. Booking my bike in with AC on Monday.

JFman,
Wondering if you have any update on this?
Looking to do the same thing, at almost the same time!

Another note- Do not ship your bike back to Canada on a weekend or holiday. The CBSA office that is open in the airport will not help you and will make you wait for the commercial office to open on the Monday (or Tuesday after the holiday).

Air Canada flies to Bogota 3 times a week with a 767-300 yes it big and not all the time full only, on Colombian Holidays you will see more passengers
AC is the best way to get your bike to SA and it is well known
but do you know WHY or do you care, Well i work in the air industry and i happen to know a few facts and why would AC use a 250 passenger jet to Bogota when there are only less than a hundred to 150 passengers it don't make sense

Well it just so happens that Colombia's biggest export is flowers not coffee and if you have ever landed in Bogota you will notice hundreds of green houses and not small ones these are huge that employ many hundreds of employees that produce flowers all year round, Huh beautiful flowers in the winter where do they come from, Bogota Colombia The lower deck of that workhorse 767 is full of this Colombian product and they will make space for other freight like bike its a on going buisness
Air Canada was not voted the best airline North America 2017 for hauling people there are other aspects to the industry
my take a Canadian working in Colombia
2014 G650gs

I posted this on ADVRider earlier

I arrived Friday afternoon at Stefan's. Put new battery in bike and packed it up for shipping home.

The Green Card on my bike expired last August.

I went to ICBC and changed my coverage from Class 919 to full road coverage the day before I left for Germany

I did this so that the bike would have both a valid plate and insurance so that I could ride it home from the airport

I arranged for Stefan to trailer my bike to Air Canada Cargo and help me with the paperwork.

It couldn't have been simpler with Stefan's help. He knows everyone it seems.

All the paperwork was in order (Stefan had it ready for me Friday evening) I packed the bike and left it at the front under the portico at Stephans' and three of us went out for dinner, when I came back Stefan had already loaded my bike into his van.

We left his place at 8:30, dropped off a bike at the BMW dealership and then dropped off my bike at AC. I was sitting in the Starbucks at my hotel at 10:45.

I did not need a new green card for insurance(some people have apparently needed this and everything was handled at the Air Canada Freight counter.

Total cost for shipping 1380 Euros ( I was not flying on a fare paid ticket but using Aeroplan points). I

Air Canada asked me when I would like my bike to arrive in Vancouver. They will only hold it at the destination for 24 hours before daily storage costs begin to accrue.

Bike arrived late Tuesday night in Vancouver

I zipped out at 8:15 Wednesday Morning from downtown, went to AC Cargo, over to Canada Customs for a few stamps and proof I had owned bike for some time. I provided original Bill of Sale and had copies of a few years expired insurance.

Back to AC paid $70.00 fee for port of entry cost , they brought out bike, helped me unwrap it, then I fired it up and rode around to their staff MC parking, left bike there for the day, and was back downtown at my desk by 9:50

The only piece of misinformation was from Canada Customs. I was told over the phone by a very pert and sassy Officer that they could process my bike 24 hours a day. That is incorrect.

Processing for people and perishable items is 24/7. A MC is Commercial Cargo.

Commercial Cargo is located at

113-5000 Miller Road
Richmond BC V7B 1K6

Office Hours: *Except Holidays
Monday: 08:00 to 16:30
Tuesday: 08:00 to 16:30
Wednesday: 08:00 to 16:30
Thursday: 08:00 to 16:30
Friday: 08:00 to 16:30
Saturday: Closed
Sunday: Closed


I hope this helps.

We plan to head back for 4-6 weeks next year and will fly our bike over and back rather than store it in Germany.

Hi Bill,

Many thanks for providing detailed info for the community, appreciate it.

Can you provide more detail why you won't store the bike in Germany, and you will fly back every time?

Cheers
Dooby

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Bike purchase, storage, expedition tours / insurance, health & repatriation, transport, rally training
www.lobagola-mototours.com/ www.lobagola-insurance.com/

Still shipping the bike but it will be in early october. I called AC yesterday and the 1700$ quote still stands as pf now. I need a few more days before I can make the official reservation.

Interesting perspective. Maybe those planes are more loaded when the planes are headed North. I was told over the phone that round trip shipping was not possible and I can only purchase shipping one way. I dont know of there is a link between your post and AC not offering me shipping BOG to Canada. I dont really care as long as my bike gets shipped to BOG I am happy.

As the date approaches, I am very nervous to see how this will all go down.

I will update once this is done with.(in early october)

JF

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Alaska 2014: Hotel Budget ZeroXmas in Death Valley, New Year in Urique

Does anyone have the name of an agent who can issue a dangerous goods certificate in London? I plan to fly myself and my bike to Vancouver, does anyone have recent experience of doing this?

I have just noticed on the air Canada website says in relation to a dangerous goods certificate.

"Obtain Dangerous Goods consultant name and contact number to schedule an appointment (exceptions: UK, DUB, and CDG)" I will phone them tomorrow and find out what this means.

Hi Dooby,

Sorry for the late reply.

I have 2 reasons the first and most important is my age .I will be 63 next year and were Inot to be able to go back for some unforeseen reason and get the bike I don't want to leave that burden on my wife or our executor.

The second reason is dealing with maintenance

The KTM 990 was in Germany for 6 years. The issue was that my work sometimes put us in the situation where we couldn't get over every year.

That meant that each time when we arrived the bike had an increased level of storage wear and the first part of our trip was getting the bike serviced. Getting parts was surprising difficult and even a simple thing like a new battery was often a monumental issue.

After our last trip where we had a service appointment at Mannheim KTM proved to be a disaster both mechanically and cost wise.

Expensive after market parts were taken off my MC and discarded , the some of services we paid for were not done and we had to pay to have all the work, and more, done again in Greece. we lost 6 days on a 4 week trip and our costs were well over 3000 Euros.

Manheim refused to let me see the bike when it was being worked on , and I was not allowed to talk to the mechanic and had made us pay a deposit up for the estimated service cost and tires

The MC needed a new clutch and water pump i got into an argument with the service manager who recommended that they split the motor and replace the main gasket because the clutch was fine and the water pump checked out.

We limped to Greece ( Ferry from Venice) and the KTM Dealer in Patras was very good. I watched them take my bike apart and saw that the CJ Design guick drain oil kit had been removed, the Scotts oil filter had been replaced , the new tubes and rim bands I had paid for had not been installed ,the exhaust valves were way out of spec (we paid to have them checked), the coolant hadn't been changed and the list went on.

Next year we are going over for a month. We will take a bike with us and it will arrive with new tires, a fresh battery and full service.I will have also ridden the bike before it is shipped.

We will be able to get on the bike and go, knowing that it is well prepared for the trip and not have to spend days getting the bike serviced.

If we had a BMW I would be comfortable having Stefan take it to his dealer and get the bike serviced before we arrived but no one I knew had confidence in the local KTM shop which is why we went to Mannheim.

I hope this helped you understand my rational

Update:

I am currently posting from Bogota Colombia.

I dropped the bike off in Montreal on October 5th, handed them my waybill. The workers and the dangerous goods guys went thru the bike. The only hickup with bike inspection was that the jerry can I carry could not fly even empty and cleaned.

A big problem was that the billable price was 3000$ Cad and not 1700 like it was supposed. The people at Air Canada cargo were super nice and contacted the sales rep. After anhour or so, my sales rep corrected the billing back to 1700$ And I paid.

For dangerous goods form, I used the company Air Canada Cargo recommended. The cost was 160$.

My bike was du to fly to Toronto on Oct 6th but for some reason it did not make the plane. They instead trucked it to Toronto and it missed todays (oct 7) flight to BOgota.

Boke is supposed to arrrive in Bogota tomorrow (a day late)

My passenger and I flew in to BOG yesterday so we are just waiting on the bike as of now.

Will let you know how things go when we pick the bike up.

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Alaska 2014: Hotel Budget ZeroXmas in Death Valley, New Year in Urique