Just back from a UK 2 Cape Town (CT) adventure (wow..but that's another story).

Decided to ship bikes back from CT as similar to Jo'burg. Spoke to Martin Upton (+27219362253) at SAA Cargo in CT and learned the following:

1) Bike can be on pallet OR crated. Battery IN place. Fuel at <=25% of the bike's capacity (incl. aftermarket tanks). Panniers OK but not tents on racks.
2) A company called MMA (contact:Bradley 0842092586) will pallet your bike outside the SAAc office for 500rand (£35) once you give them the dimensions. Pallets weigh approx.40-50Kgs usually and are added to bike weight later in this list. Get quote in advance.
3) SAAc will allow you to put two bike pallets onto one of their airwaypallets and charge you only once for both bikes (read on..).
4) Get SAAc to agree to ship bikes based on weight NOT volume in advance - speak to the guy Minnie (yes) on the shop floor as his decision is final.
5) Book a slot for the bikes say a week in advance (it may be fruit shipping season). They fly usually on a weds or sun night but will allow you to drop off anytime in the week before and not charge you.
5.1) Once confirmed BOOK YOUR AIRFARE as storage is charged at Heathrow every 24hrs so you want to turn up at the same time as the bikes.
6) Walk over to customs and book an inspection appointment (free) for the day when you drop off the bike. Just in case they're busy.
7) You do NOT need any other forms than a carnet and they will sign off your bike for free in the customs office past the tunnel from SAAc.
8) Customs may not even need to inspect the bike as it's your fault if the VIN doesn't match when you get the bike home!
9) On the day you drop the bikes off, get the bikes palleted, start the SAAc guys on creating your airwaybill and then they will get a forklift to collect both bikes and weigh them.
10) Pay at the window for the airwaybill and take that with your carnet to customs (office to the left of the corridor of the customs building).
11) After they stamp your carnet, get your airwaybill stamped at the middle window of the customs counters.Take it back to SAAc and you're all done!

I just shipped a '81 BMW R80 and a '98 Africa Twin home for £630 each at the CT end. Cheap as they together were over 600kg incl.pallets and we didn't even have to disassemble any part of the bikes to ship them.

On arrival at Heathrow we went to Menzies in the Cargo Village near Terminal4. It costs £75 to move the airpallet off the plane and then £150 to clear customs. OUR CARNET DIDN'T WORK IN THE UK (not a valid customs document here). Two bikes on the crate mean you only pay one set of fees here and they even let you write both bike VINs on the C101 form (I think) they make you fill in.

Overall - excellent experience.
Any questions - pm me.

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Find out details of my 2011 trip to Siberia on a lightweight dirtbike:
www.brighton2expeditions.co.uk