I am buying a bike in Oregon and riding through to the East Coast where I want to ship it from either Boston or New York to Auckland, New Zealand. Has anybody got any tips for me. Do I need a crate, and if so any ideas where I can get one. What's best, shipping or air freight? Would appreciate any help you are able to give, thanks.

Robbie stevens ships out of LA for $700 uncrated.
PM me if you want details - I have all

Does Robbie Stevens also ship to SE asia? If so could i have his info to get a quote? Thanks

Hi, first of all, I´d advice you to first read this:
www.horizonsunlimited.com/get-ready/shipping-the-bike

The problem with freighting motorcycles (except on a few more frequently-used routes, which this is not), is that there are no services readily available. So each shipment is an individual case, and there are many, many variables at play, affecting transit time and total costs.

That is why people´s experiences (and costs) may vary a lot, even if they have sent bikes using the same method and on the exact same route, they´ve just done it at a different time, have a little bit different crate sizes, and possibly used a different shipper, for example.

But it can be done. And in this case it´ll happen by sea or by air. The distance from US east coast to NZ is very long, so I´d expect seafreight to be considerably cheaper (by air will probably cost you double, or triple). But it´ll take at least a month by sea, whereas by air it only takes a few days. To avoid confusion, note that “shipping” can refer to all shipping methods, not just seafreight.

The ratio is the same on possible delays: if airfreight cannot be loaded on a certain flight (the cargo hold is already full or something), there´s a good chance it will be put on the next one, and there may be several flights per day. But if your bike is in a container on a big freight ship, and the container is scheduled to change vessel at a certain port, and it misses this connection, the delay could easily be weeks. Happened to my bike in Singapore, when I shipped by sea from Australia to Europe, and it arrived 3 weeks later than scheduled. Luckily that was after the end of my trip!

Also note that seaports are built to handle very big units of cargo, and one motorcycle is very small. Getting the bike loaded on the container/ship, and unloaded at the other end can be painfully slow (and rest assured, they won´t change the way a seaport works in order to get your bike transported quicker!)

Also the fact, that seaport infrastructure is made to move huge volumes of cargo, does not fit you well, when you just want to transport 1 motorcycle: the “start cost” is high, even if you only need this big equipment for 5 minutes, and this is why costs at seaports, particularly at the receiving end, have been bitter surprises for many. (Corruption is another reason, and yet again seaports are often the worst places regarding this... but I think sending US to NZ this should not be such a big problem).

+1 to all of pecha72's comments above.

+ it's not clear from Janet's OP, whether you want to ride Oregon->East Coast for the primary purpose of air/seafreighting bike to NZ; or you just want to ride coast-to-coast first (more power to you).

It's probably obvious that, if direct shipment to NZ is your primary goal, it'll
be cheaper/ more cost effective to do that from the Left Coast, regardless
of which sea/ airfreight provider & method you wind up using.

From the East Coast, you might try SHIPMYBIKE.COM.
Although primarily an airfreight specialist ex-JFK, Berklay has long experience in sea & airfreight options worldwide.

Ironically/ paradoxically, don't be surprised if Berklay--or any knowledgeable
East Coast shipper--recommend that you have the bike trucked back to the
West Coast to begin a NZ shipment. It all depends on most cost-effective
combination of shipping methods and tariffs at a particular time, given your
own timeframe requirements and budget.

good luck

True, and it is possible that your shipment would anyway be transported by land thru the US to the west coast first.

Call Bruce at Expertise Worldwide Cargo in Christchurch, tell him Mike from Brisbane sent you and said he would look after you. He shipped our two bikes to and from NZ and looked after our crates while there no probs.

Great bloke and not one of the big guys who make it all too hard, he will find a way. Might not be the cheapest, but he will make sure things happen as expected and IMO peace of mind more important than saving every last cent.

LINK HERE FOR CONTACT