Sweden to USA by air
 

HI,
In 2023 I'm planning to drive cross USA with my motorcycle.
Now I'm looking for a way to transport my bike.
Anyone know a way or perhaps alredy don it?

If you want to travel with bike Air Canada from/to Montreal and Toronto from selected EU cities was the best deal. Lufthansa has more locations but more expensive.

Air Canada did have a quite good deal for bike transport from 4-5 canadian cities to 5-6 different european cities (and opposite directions too of course). I flew my bike home from Calgary to Frankfurt in September 2019 at the end of my RTW trip using Air Canadas services and it was a relatively painfree experience.

Air Canada did have quite inflated airfare for your personal tickets at that time and the freitght fare for the motorbike did go up some hundred dollars if you didnt fly with Air Canada. But alltogether it was still a good deal imo considered the very limited options.

How it will be after these pandemic times nobody knows of course...

Consider flying to the USA, buying a bike there and selling on the other coast - you will almost certainly lose less money than two-way air freight.

Get in touch with Stefan Knopf in Heidelberg.

Transport

He has been shipping bikes for years, both by sea in a container and by air.
He knows all the ins and outs of bike shipping and is a very nice guy with lots of information.

I shipped with him, one way by ship and the other by air and was quite satisfied. I think I could have saved a few dollars doing it some other way but his service was well worth the extra to me.

............shu

OP, have you done a search on this site? Lots of threads about shipping between Europe and North America. Have you checked the shipping database at https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/get-ready/shipments

My experience: Canada is generally much easier than the US these days, but Stefan Knopf has a good system at a very fair price if you can use his bulk shipments to and from the US.

In practical terms during the warm season there is no real difference between shipping to Toronto, Halifax or Vancouver as opposed to New York or Seattle. In wintertime, only the southern parts of the US offer reliable riding weather, and even that can be spotty.

All of the above is subject to change whenever borders open up again. The OP is looking at 2023, and none of us knows what the situation will be by then.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

Thank you all for the information.

I have search the databas (I think) and found information about one guy from Sweden and he drove the bike to England.

Buying a bike and then sell it is not on option, I don't have time for that.

I will talk to Stefan Knopf in Heidelberg and check what he can offer.

Please give us feedback on your findings and your results. I would like to do this myself one day. I live in Norway.

Via England
 

Depending of time of year, and from where in Sweden.
Driving to England is a good alternative, when possible.

https://motorcycles.motofreight.com/get-in-touch/

Many years ago I used DHL to ship two bikes from Oslo to Cape Town (pickup at my doorstep, and delivery to DHL warehouse) and then from Nairobi and back to Oslo (left the bike at DHL warehouse and had the bike delivered to my doorstep). I had to drain the bike of all flamable fuels. Shipped the bike in crate, with all my gear. If I remember correctly, they used KLM. It was not prohibitively expensive.

It might be worth a try to call DHL...

Check: AIR Canada
London -->> Canada


Sometimes they have a good offer especially for motorbikes on this direction:


https://www.aircanada.com/cargo/en/s...otorcycle.html


https://www.aircanada.com/cargo/shar...rochure_en.pdf


bier

Are there no ways to ship a bike by plane to the USA? Is it an airline specific thing, or is it just the gov having paranoia for someone intentionally making their adv bike go ka-boom?

Both KLM and Air France fly from Stockholm to Montreal (as no one has mentioned this city). I've had luck with both airlines in the past for shipping motorbikes (never tried North America though). They also fly to Quebeck, Ottowa and the other major cities as well.

Montreal is an awesome city and close to the US border. A very ride to Vermont or Maine - both very beautiful.

We rode that route in 2017 - I really liked Montreal. One of the days we were there the police were out in force controlling a demonstration. Cars at every junction, roads shut, demonstrators shouting, banners waved, speeches from scaffolding platforms, the whole lot. And who were the demonstrators? No it wasn't save the planet or some faction or other's rights or even politics, it was the police themselves demonstrating. Everyone who was on duty was marshalling all the rest of the off duty cops who were demonstrating. It seems the mayor was dragging his heels sorting out their contract (and therefore their pay). Didn't see any pepper spray or rubber bullets in evidence ... :rofl:

DHL is not in the motorbike transports anymore and Air Canada offers the service during the summer season only - for 2021 it is still suspended.

What a shame