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Shipping a bike from Canada to Mexico Shipping a bike from Canada to Mexico
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  #1  
Old 17 May 2010
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Shipping a bike from Canada to Mexico
Anyone know a good and cheep way to ship a bike from anywhere in Canada to Mexico. Boat, air, or land? I would love to just ride it down from here but the US border is not the easiest nor friendliest border to cross. I love the country and the people but your border is brutal!!!
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Old 17 May 2010
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I found the border not to bad, and I live on it, but yeah, you can get some really anal and grumpy US border guys. I would consider sending it by train. Might be cheapest IMO and most direct. Give it a shot, cant hurt to make a phone call to a few railways. Via, CP CN etc etc not sure what ones run that way but one of them must, anbd I am sure any one that you will call will point you in the right direction. if you are going down you can coordinate it with the Baja if you like June and nov for the 500 and 1000 I believe this year.
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Old 17 May 2010
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Thanks Gary. Maybe I'll give it a shot first first and hope for the best. The last couple times I tried didn't go very well (holding cell) but that was about 10 years ago. If that don't work then I'll look into the train.
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Old 17 May 2010
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Truth is , the simplest cheapest way to get a bike to Mexico still is to just ride it there.If you have a " history" then that can indeed make entry and transit of the USA difficult or impossible. If your case does not preclude you from admission to the US it is best to bite your tongue and suffer through the border transits. Just be nice and polite and answer their questions without getting upset or volunteering information and unwanted opinions.
There are any number of trucking companies here in southern Ontario which regularly send shipments custom- sealed across the US to Mexico for the free trade business . Perhaps some of them can include your documented bike in a shipment so that you can pick it up at some point designated in Mexico. Also international moving companies can be an avenue to investigate. If all else fails you could airfreight from Torono straight into Mexico
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Old 17 May 2010
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Quote:
Originally Posted by planethopper View Post
Anyone know a good and cheep way to ship a bike from anywhere in Canada to Mexico. Boat, air, or land? I would love to just ride it down from here but the US border is not the easiest nor friendliest border to cross. I love the country and the people but your border is brutal!!!
Not to sure what problems you have had in the past; but we cross the border at least once every two months and in the past 8 yrs, haven't had a single problem and that would be on a South African passport and later on a Canadian passport. As long as you friendly, honest and have nothing to hide, you shouldn't have a problem.
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Old 17 May 2010
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I've always been honest and nice to them. I guess I've just had some bad luck or the wrong guards because I've had nothing but problems there. Even when they treat me like a piece of s__t I still maintained a calm demeanor. I've been to around 50 other countries and had no problems at all but I have trouble just trying to visit our neighbors to the south.
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Old 17 May 2010
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Sorry to hear about your problems visiting the US, really sucks that it is so difficult crossing our border. My experience is that they are pretty capricious, so maybe this time it will be OK, unless you've been flagged as some sort of undesirable...but not sure that they will have maintained records over the last ten years...
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Old 18 May 2010
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Shipping your bike into Mexico may not be that simple. Depending on where you ship it to you will have to then get it through customs. Even though you can get a temporary permit the cutoms agents may be very confused by this and want to charge you import duty. I witnessed all of this first hand when a Swiss friend shipped his bike into MexCity. It took 3 days to get the bike out of customs with storage charges for each day.
Good luck

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  #9  
Old 18 May 2010
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I once talked to my congressman about US customs and he agreed that they could be a real pain in the A**. His statement was "Customs thinks that if they treat everyone very rudely the terrorists will not come in"

On behalf of my country my apologies. Give it another try, much cheaper and more fun.

Bob
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  #10  
Old 21 May 2010
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Your country is missing out on lots of tourist dollars. I know tons of People that will not go to the States because of the way they get treated at your border. It's a shame really. There's a small minority that just ruins it for everyone.
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