So how does one get in touch with Dan Lawson? Uship seems to not allow an individual to make direct contact...
I'm a little late to this one, but I'd shipped bikes across the country a couple times and have had some good experiences and some bad. Uship is one I have not had good luck with. I found them difficult to deal with and was not at all pleased with their customer service. My bike did arrive undamaged (eventually), which is about the best I can say for them. A1 Auto Transport Inc is one I've used that I liked and would definitely used again (especially for you guys talking about Alaska.)
I used Haulbikes in 2010 to go from Los Angeles, CA to Albany, NY. No crating, no draining fluids, no nothing. It did take a couple weeks (3-4, if I remember). I'm sure it would have taken longer if the pickup or dropoff were in a more remote location. I was cheaper than I was expecting, I think in the $600 neighborhood.
Last year I used Heritage motorcycle to ship my cb700s from NYC to just north of Los Angeles, last March. Great company tobdeal with, $800 total. They picked up the bike, put it on its own pallet and no unloading or fiddling with it until it was delivered. It took about 6 days, and actually arrived before I did, they held it a couple of days for me until I figured out my new address for delivery( moved from NYC). Best part is they had shipment tracking the entire way.
Just from reading other people's stories. If you are shipping via air, a motorcycle is considered hazardous cargo. It has combustibles like gas in it. It has to be crated and the regulations are such you really can't do it yourself, so you have to pay the airline to crate and ship it. It's a lot quicker than ground transport, but that means more expensive. If you do choose to go via air, don't take the same flight. It will take anywhere from 4 to 24 hours to process it through the freight terminal at the destination.
Page is a very small city, more like a large town, and it pretty remote as well. Can't see the local demographics supporting a bike rental place, maybe off road only stuff for tourists. I know its far, but wither Phoenix or Mohab would be your best bet. There's just not much in that neck of the woods, but it is beautiful out there.
Most of the big bike out shippers (Like haulbikes.com) will only send a rig out when it's full for their destination. That's just basic trucking logisitcs; empty loads coast money to operate. So you may get lucky and get the tail end of a shippment that's 90% full, or you may be bike number 2 and waiting for the load to fill. Either way, that truck won't leave till it's well pass the point of paying for fuel and tolls. You'll probably do better with them in the summer, especially if there's an event near one of your destinations. Also, bigger/more populated cities help.
You'll likely end up shipping your bike from Anchorage and not Fairbanks. If so, I'd strongly recommend staying away from Lyden Transport. You can read about the problems our group had with them on the last page of my Ride Report. Scroll down toward the bottom of the page and look for the header "BIKE SHIPPING WOES". Lynden is one of the most screwed up companies I have ever had the displeasure to work with. You may want to check with Classic Motion, as they can arrange for crating and shipment back.
Performing necromancy on this thread. I need to ship (let's say four) bikes from Oregon to California. Looks like prices for shipping a single bike in a single crate are pretty average ($450-500). Has anyone tried using a larger crate and removing the wheels to save on space, thereby using one larger crate? This seems a potential alternative to paying $450 x 4 bikes. Or, does it simply not amount to enough of a space savings to justify the effort? Thanks.
I have done that, but with 3 bikes. It's a looong story, but we finished the TAT and had a Forward Air container reserved in Portland, in which we planned on putting two bikes. Fate left us an extra bike, so with a fair bit of disassembly we made it work. And it worked fine. The Foward Air guy had to get a bigger forklift after his first attempt.