Shipping a GSA to London from LA

[Motomochila]

I'm riding Europe in June of this year for about 30 days or more. Thinking about shipping my GSA from LA to London to arrive in time for a once over before taking off on my journey. Other option is to buy a used bike in London and then sell it after my ride. Anybody done either instead of renting? I talked to a few that have spent far more time riding Europe and all have shipped their bikes. Is 30 plus days worth shipping? Who's the best and safest shipper? If you bought a bike, how much did it cost you after selling?

Would it be better to ride a 650 or 800 instead of my GSA? I also have a KTM 690 enduro and could ship or buy one just the same. I've seen many pics of riders on smaller bikes doing the world, but is it comfortable enough?

Leaving June1-5th in 2013 if anyone is interested in joining along for the ride. The wife will meet my in Rome sometime in July. (The only way I could convince her to let me go).

Thanks for your input guys, and girls. -Jerry

[rdwalker]

Must be to London?
Stefan from Knopf Tours arranges air transport across the Atlantic, but to Germany. He is based in Heidelberg and offers also year-round storage at inexpensive rates.

The big savings are when he ships containers to/from major bike events in the States - he can include customer's bikes inside. You already missed LA container, but there is one coming out of Orlando after the Bike Week.

Anyway, contact him for advice; he is a nice guy. Here is the info and sample pricing: http://www.knopftours.com/Web-Site/M...Transport.html

[Dan-M]

I don't know how costs compare but it seems renting would be the most hassle free way. A used bike may be of questionable reliability.
Shipping + customs + possible delays = headaches.


I like the meeting the wife in Rome angle to make the sale. I used the same trick in Baja a few years back.

[rdwalker]

Originally Posted by Dan-M

I don't know how costs compare but it seems renting would be the most hassle free way....

That is actually quite true. Shipping will run about $1k each way, plus insurance, plus paperwork, plus storage, plus set of tires, plus... plus... plus...

For rentals, you are looking at 700-1000 Euro per week, depending on bike brand/model.


Plan & reserve early; you are going there in prime riding season and desirable bikes get booked fast. I don't have any contacts in the UK, but for reference here are rental outfits I used on the Continent - I had great experiences with every one of them. You will not be able to rent one-way, so plan your route as a loop - location like Frankfurt, Zurich or Munich or even Milan may be most convenient for you. (Actually, AdMo has one-way Milan-to-Rome for extra charge).



AdMo-Tours, worldwide coverage
http://www.rental-motorcycle.com/

Bosenberg (brokers with agencies in Germany, Switzerland & France)
http://www.bosenberg.com/

Iberian Moto Tours
(several locations throughout Spain)
http://www.bmwmotorental.com/


Individual agencies:

Knopf Tours mentioned in above post.
http://www.knopftours.com/Web-Site/Rental.html


Stergios Papagatsios
MotoGreek Motorradvermietung
Kistlerhofstrasse 84
D-81379 München, Germany
phn.: +49 (89) 7849904
email: motogreek@arcor.de


Motorrad Center Tullius GmbH
Eisenmännchenstr. 4
65201 Wiesbaden, Germany
phn: 0611-182106-0
fax: 0611-182106-13
email: andreas.fehr@tullius-wiesbaden.bmw-net.de
http://www.motorrad-tullius.de/


MotoTouring
Milan, Italy
http://www.mototouring.com/

[StuartV]

I rented a 12GS from IMT in Madrid last May for a week. They were great to deal with.

Previously, I also had really good luck by just finding a BMW dealer (in Dusseldorf, for that trip) and calilng them directly and renting (a K1200GT) directly from them for a week.

[5_19]

http://www.bikeshareworld.com/

No personal experience, worth looking into.

[MJS]

If renting in London, you'll have some difficulty and pay extra for going over to the continent. Not saying it can't be done but I found there were limited rentals available and a surcharge when I tried to do the same a couple of years ago.

That may make shipping a viable option.

[Motomochila]

Originally Posted by rdwalker

For rentals, you are looking at 700-1000 Euro per week, depending on bike brand/model.

Looked into rentals; at 1200 euros per week, or $1593.00 dollars per week for a 1200 GS or GSA is pretty steep when you consider 4 or 5 weeks. Spending over $6 grand just for bike rental would greatly hinder my travel plans. That didnt include mandatory 180 per week for insurance. This is the reason for my inquiry. Has anyone bought a certified used bike from a reputable dealer and sold it after riding 5-8 thousand miles. 6500-8500 euros would buy a fairly decent BMW or KTM adventure motorcycle. I've looked at a few with low miles. Still hoping I can get a dealer to work a buy-back deal so I can lower that $6 grand price tag. Could be a pipe dream. Maybe better to ship both ways. Regardless, I'm looking at the 15th of June or a day close to head out. The holidays have hindered my UK buying investigations via phone, but I will continue as soon as the UK dealers get back to work.

[ghostryder]

I have looked into rentals as well, and yeah it is pricey. I know Marty Hill has shipped his bike a few times over seas and has had no problem. Maybe he will chime in and let you know who he uses ( i know he ships it out of Fla). It makes more sense to ship it of you are going to be there that long.

[Montauk]

May I suggest, when you are looking for shipping from LA to London, perhaps you may also want to check prices if you were to ship from east coast, such as NY. It is closer from NY to London. I don't know the difference in price be, but it's worth checking into.

From LA to NY, you have to check for yet 2 more options:
(1) If you can ride it to NY before hand and fly from there to London, and ride back from NY to LA.
(2) Find it national transporters. Dealers transport bikes from one location to another, you may want to check with local dealer - Irv Seavers, Long Beach BMW Motorcycle, Ventura BMW Motorcycles, and I think there is a new one - Countryside?

[marty hill]

Ok, here we go. Knoff ships out of orlando, fl. right after the daytona thing in feb./march. He has also shipped from the west coast at one time via boat. If in a hurry air ship must be from/to vancouver. On the east coast either montreal or toronto are used. Knoff flew my bike into atlanta once, not sure if still possible. Flew bike from london to vancouver this past june using motorcycle express. Cost is about $1200 by ship from orlando/about $2200 by air from/to canada from anywhere in europe. Break even is about 3 weeks vs. rental. I ship the bike fully packed and carry nothing on the plane to frankfurt. Take the train to heidelberg or have Knoff send a van ($35) for pickup. If you need or want more detail PM me.

I would guess that buying a bike and re-selling it on the way out is a bad idea. What happens on the last day when they offer to take it off your hands for 1/3 of it's worth?

[ac_elite]

Originally Posted by Montauk

May I suggest, when you are looking for shipping from LA to London, perhaps you may also want to check prices if you were to ship from east coast, such as NY. It is closer from NY to London. I don't know the difference in price be, but it's worth checking into.

From LA to NY, you have to check for yet 2 more options:
(1) If you can ride it to NY before hand and fly from there to London, and ride back from NY to LA.
(2) Find it national transporters. Dealers transport bikes from one location to another, you may want to check with local dealer - Irv Seavers, Long Beach BMW Motorcycle, Ventura BMW Motorcycles, and I think there is a new one - Countryside?

Shipped by ST1300 from Winnipeg to Amsterdam in 2008, did the research and for me it was too costly to rent (trip was almost 4 months), as well as riding own bike with custom seat com system and no limits where you want to go.

I brokered the whole thing myself, and found a shipping agent just to stamp the DG labels on and provide me with the paperwork for both the outb and inb trip.

I used Air Canada Cargo, my brother and wife are Flight Attendants so I had some discount, but in reality it was not that much. What made the real difference is that I started to speak to the Cargo supervisor at least 9 months before the trip, and got him excited about my project, I would touch base every few weeks or so. I had my dealer crate the bike (using a Gold Wing delivery crate), the Agent came and looked at it and left the paperwork. I had it delivered at the Cargo center, it was shipped by road to Calgary then put on the Jumbo jet to Franckfurt and trucked again to Amsterdam, on the way back I used the receiving broker to ship back with my existing return paperwork. I don't remember the cost of the outbound but inbound was about 1300.00 Eu. The actual custom part was seamless, took less then half hour and we had to return cause the dude forgot to stamp the paperwork.

I did have some help and as I was prepping for the bike a forum member from holland offered help to store the great while we were on tour.

Funny thing on the way back I had a few liters of fuel left in the tank and nobody cared, of course battery was unplug for both legs.

For moto insurance, I would definitely recommend http://motorcycleexpress.com/ After receiving my payment they overnighted my Green card insurance valid for most of Europe including the Balkans and some Northern African (bordering the Med countries.

If you want to take a quick peek at my set up and how I went about it click on the link to my ride report and look at the first few pages.

We used http://www.hostelbookers.com/ for accommodation and often stayed in 1-3* hotels paying a fraction of the price.

Sorry fort typos I did this really fast.

Great trip in perspective.

[Motomochila]

Spoke to both a BMW and a KTM dealer in London on Saturday. Seems I can buy a "certified" used GS 800 for around $9,000 or a KTM 990 for the same price; low miles- under 5k, and sell either back for a total cost of about $1500.00 out of pocket plus fuel and expenses. I would prefer a GSA1200 but I these seem to be hard to come by in the UK. Whatever parts I need I will bring along to customize my ride; GPS, bar risers, soft bags, etc. I''l sell the bike back with the add-ons less GPS, (leaving mount hardware) and the bags, (again leaving mounting hardware). Much cheaper here in the states.

Buying as a foreigner I do not have to pay GST, or said a salesman; I'll have to check that out soon. I will need to pay for licensing and insurance, but it looks as buying might be a viable option for me. LA to London is looking like about $1300-1500 each way for my GS plus I will need to service the bike completely on either end since the chemicals are drained and the battery disconnected. That alone adds 4-5 days of waiting for a dealer to get to my bike. Remember its my vacation, not theirs, so nobody will be in a hurry to get me going on the road.

Dates are around the 15th of June and getting to Rome on the 4-8th of July and returning to London about the 15th through the 20th of July. So far; me and probable one more. Hey...solo through Europe is cool too. I'm sure I'll find a few friends along the way.

[marty hill]

No chemicals are drained. Battery neg disconnect takes about 2-3 minutes. I was ready to leave Knoff's within 30 minutes/most of that was waiting for the gps to find where it was.

[ghostryder]

Originally Posted by marty hill

No chemicals are drained. Battery neg disconnect takes about 2-3 minutes. I was ready to leave Knoff's within 30 minutes/most of that was waiting for the gps to find where it was.

That and you figuring out where you were