We ended up shipping with Stefan Knopf of Knopf Tours (knopftours.com). He has a shipment of bikes going by sea/truck from Orlando to Heidelberg every Spring for about $1000, all included. I was lucky in that a friend of Stefan's was passing through taking his own bike down to Orlando and agreed to take mine down for a very reasonable fee. By the way, before I knew this was an option I had tried soliciting US ground shipping service quotes using uShip.com and had quite a good response. Anyway, this Spring's shipment has already sailed so that's not an option for you this year.

Knopf also offers air shipping to Frankfurt, which isn't as date dependent, for about $1800 from east coast cities. I think the cheapest quote I got for air shipping was from Berklay. I think it was about $1500 via Lufthansa. I tried contacting Lufthansa and Virgin Cargo directly to see if I could save some money by dealing directly with the carrier. Lufthansa told me that I would need to be "dangerous goods certified" and be able to "prepare the documents for this shipment" then referred me to Berklay. Virgin told me that I would be classified as an "unknown shipper", a designation that the TSA prohibits on passenger aircraft.

These are one way prices from US to Europe by the way. It seems that generally shipping from Europe to US is more expensive so you may consider storing with someone like Knopf even after your Spring 2010 ride. The one place I found that was cheaper from EU to US (~$1000 air) had super expensive prices from US to EU (~$2500 air, ~$1300 sea) -- jamescargo.com.

Now that I think of it, you may want to ask Stefan Knopf about his Spring shipments from Heidelberg to Orlando for Daytona bike week.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.

- Jeff

This is all excellent info. I've read the whole thread and concluded that I can ship my bike to Europe/return for about $2500, all inclusive. That would equate to between 2-1/2 months to 5 months rental rates, so if a person is wanting to spend anywhere from 6 months to a year touring, that would be a great way to get your bike to Europe.
The all inclusive....does that include customs clearance, etc? What about insurance for bike and liability? Is a Carnet needed anywhere in EU?

Custom charges are probably NOT included. They are paid at the customs office when you claim your bike. We paid about 65 Euros in 2006 in Frankfurt, Germany for a GoldWing. We got our insurance at the ADAC office in Frankfurt before claiming the bike. Customs will want to see it.

We paid 22 Euros/month for liability only that covered almost all of civilized Europe. We had a German address that we used for the insurance although we were seldom there. Knopf Tours can arrange insurance too, but for more money. We had our bike in Europe for three years. When we came home we left it with members of one of the GoldWing clubs in Europe. We bought the next year's license tab and took it back with us for our next tour. The bike was continually registered in the USA. Although you are allowed only 6 months, we moved around too much for any police authority to realize we had overstayed the limit.

We had a fantastic time. The scenery is fantastic, the food delicious, the people friendy, the roads awesome. Ride Safe!

__________________

Our Favorite Roads, until the next trip!
Bob & Kathy
The adventures of Lemonade

This from the post above mine.

We ended up shipping with Stefan Knopf of Knopf Tours (knopftours.com). He has a shipment of bikes going by sea/truck from Orlando to Heidelberg every Spring for about $1000, all included.

I presume the words "all included" means that the charges cover everything from departure to being able to roll the bike out and ride it away?
But I may be wrong.
Can you clarify this for us Jeff?

Jeff's post is 18 months old.
Sometimes current detailed info is best found at the source:
MotorbikeTransport
If that's not sufficient detail, call or email Stefan directly; he's usually very responsive.