Hi all

First time traveller, interested to know if anyone has shipped a Bike from the UK to the States?, i am going to use Roll on/roll off....any think i should worry about?, so far costs have be around £450, anyone know of a good shipping company, who could take my bike....looking at Florida or L.A.
Hoping to spend a year traveling around....any advice would be very useful.

Thanks
Mike

Hi Mike

First, check out this page on the Air vs. Sea shipping question:
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tri...t/shippers.php

Although we have personally shipped our bike from UK to Canada by sea (also Canada to New Zealand to Australia, and Australia to USA), we generally don't recommend sea shipment due to the uncertainty about when the bike will arrive. Also, although the quoted costs are less, the total cost may not be much of a saving over air, as port charges can be quite high.

However, if you decide to ship by sea, suggest you use an international shipping company such as Wallenius Wilhelmsen http://www.2wglobal.com/Applications/Addresses/GlobalAddresses.jsp
or Panalpina http://www.panalpina.com/, who have received good reviews from travellers.

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tri...ing-europe.php

As to location, Norfolk, Virginia is a major port. Florida would also be okay, but wouldn't recommend Los Angeles - stick to the East Coast. We shipped from London to Vancouver last year and it took almost 10 weeks - don't know how they send it, but it usually has to go through the Panama Canal, and it adds quite a lot to the transit time.

Good luck and let us know how you go.


------------------
Susan Johnson

"It matters not what goal you seek
Its secret here reposes:
You've got to dig from week to week
To get Results or Roses."
Edgar Guest

'One world, two wheels'
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com


[This message has been edited by Susan (edited 18 July 2002).]

__________________
Susan Johnson

Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

Mike, if you have the time, it is far cheaper to ship from Paris to Canada (Toronto or Montreal) than it is to ship from London to America.

London is an expensive airport to ship out of, plus the Americans might require that the bike be steam cleaned due to F&M before embarkation (Cunard requires that for motorcycles shipped Southampton - New York, even as recently as July 2002).

There is a lot of belly capacity in aircraft on the Paris - Canada routes for carrying motorcycles, and the shipping prices reflect it.

Hey Mike,

I shipped in May 2002 from Newark to Southampton with Wallenus Willheilm (spelling?) and found them very efficient and cheap - roll-on-roll off worked fine for me. Shipping cost was $650 (about 450 pounds). Cheapest I could find.

Good luck,
Andy