Folks I am going to be taking a round trip from Germany to the Black sea. I am looking for referals on reasonable shipping of my KTM 950 Adv from New York (area) USA to Germany. My peferences is a door to door carrier who can deliver the bike inland in the EU to a shop or a friends house so i don't have to trek from the port down south to start my trip. Anyone got: 1. A good carrier they have used for Ocean or Air? Prefer non-crated but I am flexible. 2. Thoughts on how to get a shop or someone to recieve the bike in Austria, Munich or other places before I arrive? I guess the trucking company can hold it but I am just figuring this out. Last time I did this, I had to go to Hamburg to get my bike and that is out of the way and would waste a couple days in total. Thanks Folks!!
Just look around for local brokers, google maps.. shipping broker. Most of the larger companies don't want to deal with just one bike, so keep phoning around and always ask the bigger companies for references. I have even shipped a bike from California to Ireland through my local UPS store in the past. The secret is finding the right person who is willing to put in some time and effort for you, not necessarily the best company. The cheapest way will be to go to your local KTM dealer and see if they have any old crates, if not then drop it off at a crating company in NJ, sans fluids, then ship by Sea to Rotterdam and pick it up there yourself however a good broker should be able to help you clear customs and have a German shipping company pick up the crate and deliver it to a location close to you. In Germany this should only add a few hundred dollars to the ~1k shipping cost. Make sure that on your invoice it states whether your bike will be picked up in the crate, uncrated or delivered to a dock with a commercial address, this can make the difference of a couple of hundred dollars on the receiving end and can usually be built into the cost for free upfront. The most expensive will be to go direct to a vehicle shipping company, there are many on the web. Most will pick up, air freight and deliver to almost anywhere you want. Safe to know that they will use a crating company used to bikes and should navigate customs clearance way faster knowing what they have. FYI, I used to own a shipping company in Ireland and have done this many times. It is not too difficult to even do most of the paperwork yourself. You can view the challenges in shipping as part of the adventure or sit back relax and let someone else do all of the work.
I shipped my bike the other way but ended up having to ride to Munich as I couldn't find anything in Vienna. It's not a bad ride, half a day on the autobahn. I did look at shipping via water (way cheaper) but it's impossible to get guarantees of arrival times (you could end up waiting weeks for it to arrive). With a plane it's more expensive (about 2 or 3 times more I think) but at least it's there when you need it to be. FWIW I flew it in and out of Toronto - less customs hassles (based on the experiences of others). Check out my planning NA and NA 2010 links in my sig for more info.
Catweasel is correct on the shipping times. By air including customs plan at least 7 days from drop off, one day to crate, one day for transport to air cargo, one to two days delay for space on a flight and then as long as is it not a weekend a couple of days in customs. For sea plan at least 8 weeks from NJ to Munich, a lot more variables as your crate will become part of a container load.
Yep, I dropped my bike off about a week in advance, but didn't have to crate. Only had to make sure the tank was (mostly) empty (they let me keep enough in it to get to a garage on the other side) and I also had to disconnect the electrics (and tape the terminals). The bike flew on the same day (albeit from Munich) as I did (from Vienna) and by the time I'd landed, cleared customs, got my bags, gone to the shipping company, then gone back to customs to clear the bike and then returned to the shippers, my bike was ready to go :) 4 hours tops. The return leg was a bit different as, this time, the bike was on a different flight and I had to return to Munich about a week after I got back to Vienna. I can't recall with certitude but I don't think the shippers charged me any storage.
Sea transport East coast US to Europe should take no more than 2 weeks. From seaport to Munich maybe 1-3 days more. Handling at seaports is slow, yes, but 8 weeks total across the Atlantic, it does sound a bit long. I once sent by sea from Sydney to Helsinki, and this was first estimated to take 42 days, and there were some delays on the way, so it finally took almost 60 days. But it came literally from another side of the planet.
8 weeks was the longest I ever had for a bike, that was a shipment from Arizona to Dublin, Ireland. So it included a land journey to the East coast, two boats to get to Dublin and a week in customs. If I was planning a major vacation and really needed to make sure I would give a bit of wiggle room. When I had the distribution company 6 weeks from the US to Europe was not unusual, however my shipments were more complex for customs as each pallet had sugar products
I do agree, that when seafreight gets delayed, you´re easily talking days or weeks (as opposed to possible delays with airfreight - usually only a few hours, or 1-2 days maximum). Just like the shipment from Oz, that I mentioned, was delayed over 2 weeks. It seems to be quite common, too.
There are a number of things that can delay sea shipments. FYI, it won't hurt this shipment however there is a current risk of a West coast port shutdown when the latest contract runs out. If there is someone out there in the know about this please create a separate thread if there are updates, might help someone else on this forum.
Your one-stop-shop for this is here: www.knoptours.com Stefan will take care of it all for you, shipping, customs, insurances, you name it. You can pick it up in Heidelberg at his place and then ride to Munich. I did that and it was a completely hassle-free experience.
I shipped my bike from L.A. to Germany (Bremerhaven) in 2012. It took 6 weeks on sea in a container. After arrival in Germany it was shipped in a truck to Vienna - for around 250 Euros I think. The costs depend on the distance. My contacts in the past http://www.intime-ham.com http://www.zweiradtransport24.de These would be professional too http://www.gravelroadlogistics.com http://www.knopftours.com/Web-Site/Hello.html As I was told it is more difficult to ship FROM the US then to. I remember that my bike delayed several weeks because there was a problem with the papers of one of the other bikes. In that case the hole container with all bikes won't go on the ship until the problem is solved. If you really plan to ship the bike to Vienna, I can pick it up and store it for you.
Guys Thanks for all the help. I reached out to Knopf to get a quote. They have a great location outside Frankfurt and my buddies and i will trailer the bikes out of Germany from there to start our trip in Romania (we have seen germany on 6 previous trips.) I will update the curious when it all gets set up. scott
