first post
Has anyone had the experience of transporting their motorcycle from California, USA to Western Australia, Australia.
Looking for advise re: shipping, customs & cost's for 2 bikes.

I investigated the possibility of shipping my Canadian motorcycle to Australia, so that I could ride around that continent for a couple of months on my own moto.

I discovered that one has to purchase a carnet (essentially a customs bond) to admit a foreign vehicle to Australia for tourist purposes. The carnet costs about $1,000. So I abandoned that idea.

I note that your profile shows that you are from Perth, but your inquiry is about shipping bikes from the USA to Australia. So I can't tell if you are interested in permanently importing the bikes, or just temporarily importing them for tourist purposes, with the intention of exporting them again.

Either way, I think it's going to be a big headache for you. Physical transportation will be the least of your concerns, the problems are going to be either the carnet (for a temporary import), duties, taxes, and conformity to Australian vehicle regulations (for a permanent import), and quarantine & sanitizing (steam cleaning, etc.) of the bikes in both cases.

In other words, unless the two bikes are really special (classic bikes, collectors' items, etc.), I think you will probably discover that it's not worth the effort.

Michael

If a vehicle is brought into Australia as a personal import, the requirement to adhere to compliance rules is avoided. I know this from personal experience. Unfortunately an individual can only bring in one personal import in a five year period. A personal import still has to comply with roadworthiness rules, but need not have a full compliance inspection and be fitted with a compliance plate. The protocols are as dumb as a sack of arseholes.

As regards shipping, the cost of air freight seems high at first glance, but when the cost of handling is added to sea freight, it comes out fairly level.
Bikes Abroad in Melbourne have quoted me for air freight from Perth to LA at about $4k AUD including handling and crating, I would imagine LA to Perth would be similar???? Bikes Abroad are easy people to deal with.

And I second Pan's comments about carnets, they are a royal pain in the duck-run.

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Thank you, for your reply,
Perhaps I should have put a bit of information about the motorcycle's.
We went to California in 2013 having purchased our bikes for the classic Route 66 to Chicago and return to Los Angeles, sell bikes fly home. Had such a great time we stored our bikes, returned in 2014, in 2015 I traded mine in as I was having some mechanical isssue's, back again in 2018 and with the plan of returning this year 2020, well we know that is not happening.
Which has bought us to this inquiry.

I've never heard of a motorcycle being crated for air freight, unless it was being transported by a smaller single-aisle aircraft such as a B737 or A320, in which the cargo hold is not tall enough to accept a fully assembled motorcycle.

All aircraft used on routes between Australia and North America are twin-aisle (in other words, widebody aircraft), and they all have sufficient height in the cargo area to accept a fully assembled motorcycle - heck, you don't even have to lower the windshield.

The normal practice for shipping motos from Canada to Europe and vice-versa is to just throw them in a ULD (Uniform Load Device) - ride it in, ride it out. A ULD large enough to hold a full-size motorcycle - such as a LD-6, pictured below - has a weight capacity of 7,000 pounds. A single large motorcycle weighs about one-tenth of that. So, the trick is to find a carrier who is operating on routes where the aircraft is very close to maximum gross weight because they are carrying a lot of fuel, and has empty space down below in the cargo hold, and needs to repatriate some of their empty ULDs back to home base. If you find such a carrier, for them, tossing a motorcycle (or two) into an otherwise empty ULD is "money for nothing", because the motorcycles weigh so little.

You might want to do some research and see if there are any 'charter' or lesser known (such as low cost operators) air carriers flying between Oz and North America. Those carriers typically always hit gross weight and have lots of space left over down below - especially on long routes such as Oz to North America.

I'm amazed that the Australian company quotes AUD $4,000 for a single motorcyce. Shipping my Honda ST 1100 from Canada to Europe costs me about AUD $1,500. The airlines don't even ask the weight of the motorcycle when you ask for a quote.

Two motorcycles can fit into a LD-6 ('Lower Deck 6) ULD, no problem.

So - maybe go shopping around, ask air carriers operating from North America to Oz what they would charge for a couple of motos in an LD-6. Rates will vary dramatically depending on time of year - so if you are not in a hurry to get the moto, let the air carriers know it doesn't matter what month it gets shipped in.

There is information about the "Dangerous Goods" aspect of shipping motorcycles by air at this post: Rules for shipping motorcycles by air freight. I made that post in 2006, but the rules have not changed substantially since then. Just show up with less than 1/4 of a tank of fuel. No need to disconnect the battery or do any other kind of disassembly. Be aware that the air carriers don't like it when there is stuff in the panniers other than perhaps a helmet and a tool kit - for them, that complicates things.

Michael

My motorcycle, in a LD-6 for shipping Canada to Europe

Hello

$1500 for such a big container is almost free, only possible if the airline needs cargo to fill up an empty plane.

$4000 sounds about right for a quote from any major airport to any major Airport around the world, if they have enough other cargo to choose from.

But, who pays $4000 to transport a bike?

Airfares here on the HUBB were all before Corona, now the market is upside down.

Read:
https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ge...pping-the-bike
https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/get-ready/shipping
https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/links/shippers

What you have to think about is how or who will get the bike from where they are stored to an airport or seaport?
Will you fly there or will it be done by an agent on your behalf?

Getting a small seacontiner for yourself or share with others will be an option.

But, if you're a resident of Australia an want to permanently import the bikes, getting them to Australia is the little part of it.
First, inform yourself how to do that and if it's worth to import used bikes.

Most informations you'll find here on the HUBB is how "tourists" temporarily import a vehicule with the intend of using it as "tourists" and at the end of the trip, to get it out of Australia again.

sushi

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Thank you Michael,
It will be very helpful with making a decision.

Thank you Sushi2831,
The Coronavirus situation is an added complication with our decision. We are both Australian citizens. that have enjoyed our road trips in USA & Canada.
The choice has to be made sell or ship and we are running low on options

Almost correct, but not quite. The trick to understanding how to get a very low price such as $1,500 lies in comprehending how aircraft get loaded.

For long range aircraft, you can choose any two of the following three options when loading the aircraft:

1) Fill the seats
2) Fill the fuel tanks
3) Fill the cargo hold

You can't do all three.

So, what you want to find is an aircraft with a full passenger cabin & a fairly high fuel load. That will generally guarantee that there will be empty space in the cargo hold. A motorcycle in a LD-6 container is, to the airline, the same as an LD-6 container filled with popcorn - relatively speaking, it weighs nothing*. If the airline has to move the empty container in any case - to redistribute containers to and from outlying bases - then they will be happy to toss a moto into it and pick up a little bit of money, rather than transporting the container empty and getting no money at all.

FYI, I flew my motorcycle from Toronto to Zürich a few years ago for $1,500.

Michael

* "It weighs nothing" means that if the aircraft take-off weight is 500,000 pounds (228 t), which is typical for a long range widebody, a 700 pound motorcycle is not much more than one-tenth of one percent of total aircraft weight.