2013 Trip - Buy, rent, or ship?

[Discojon75]

Should I buy, rent, or have a bike shipped over? I'm looking at about 2 weeks of riding, with one or two days on either side for processing.

Thinking Poland to Finland via Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, and maybe St Petersburg...

[MichaelJ]

Originally Posted by Discojon75

Should I buy, rent, or have a bike shipped over? I'm looking at about 2 weeks of riding, with one or two days on either side for processing.

Two weeks? Rent.

Show up, sign the papers, and you're off.

Shipping your bike over and back will cost more than the rental.

Buying and registering a bike over there is usually just about impossible unless you live in the country.

[CourtFisher]

+1
Michael is correct: for 2 weeks, rent.
You'll find many rental sources in Germany, perhaps even Warsaw,
http://www.rental-motorcycle.com/eur...aw_rental.html
but
you'll need to confirm in advance rental agent's willingness to
allow bike to FIN via Baltic;
and
vehicle rental to RU/ St Petersburg unlikely + US citizens need visa to RU

good luck

[Skander]

Defiantly Rent, last year I shipped my RT to Europe from the Middle East and I paid a fortune for boxing, shipping (round trip), insurance, clearing and all that paper work, it cost me about 2000 Euros.
Today you can rent a GS for about 110 Euro / day, you still have to keep a deposit of about 2000 Euro but that is refundable if you return the bike undamaged.
2000/110=18 days rental
I am renting this summer and RT for about 120 Euro / day for 2 weeks, and will cost me less than 2000 Euros
Have a great trip and best of luck,

[randel]

Originally Posted by CourtFisher

+1
Michael is correct: for 2 weeks, rent.
You'll find many rental sources in Germany, perhaps even Warsaw,
http://www.rental-motorcycle.com/eur...aw_rental.html
but
you'll need to confirm in advance rental agent's willingness to
allow bike to FIN via Baltic;
and
vehicle rental to RU/ St Petersburg unlikely + US citizens need visa to RU

good luck

Why should rental company not allow driving through Baltic? It's all EU and Schengen.
Much bigger (or expensive) issue may be not returning bike to original location (renting from Poland, returning bike in Finland?)
It may be much easier to plan a round trip then. One rental company in Estonia:.http://www.renditsikkel.ee/en/

[CourtFisher]

Originally Posted by randel

Why should rental company not allow driving through Baltic? It's all EU and Schengen.
Much bigger (or expensive) issue may be not returning bike to original location (renting from Poland, returning bike in Finland?)
It may be much easier to plan a round trip then. One rental company in Estonia:.http://www.renditsikkel.ee/en/

Agreed. FIN via Baltic is all EU/ Schengen. But commercial rental agencies
are sometimes limited by their insurance underwriters, or impose surcharges
for full coverage beyond certain geo limits. It just pays to ask/ confirm.

Yes. One-way PL-->FIN would be impossible/ not available, or horribly expensive to pay return trucking.

[MichaelJ]

Originally Posted by CourtFisher

But commercial rental agencies are sometimes limited by their insurance underwriters...

These are the people who REALLY run the world

[jetjackson]

+1 on rent.

Friends of mine are coming over to meet in Amsterdam, then they are hiring a car and I am going to follow them on the bike through Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria.

The rental company is telling them they are not covered for Czech and Hungary as they are 'eastern' states and a higher risk. So given that, I wouldn't be surprised if they got funny about the Baltics. So they needto pay to get insured for those other states. (This is comprehensive btw, we know 3rd party is automatic across all EU states)

[Discojon75]

Ok, I think I'm going to modify my plan for Berlin to Poland to Lithuania and back. Sounds like rental is definitely the way to go.

[jetjackson]

Nice, check out http://forum.soe.se/showthread.php?4...light=lettland

Inmate RDX* has spent a bit of time up there, has some good pics.

[Paulius1]

Hi, if you like, you can rent my bmw 1150RT. Details PM.

[nordicbiker]

Two weeks?

Germany > Poland > Baltic States > Finland and ferry back to Germany should be possible. Or take night ferry Helsinki - Stockholm and after another two days in Sweden night ferry back to Germany!

But there is still the problem if the rental company allows you taking the bike to the baltic states. Some rental companies like e g http://www.roewer-motorrad.de/motorrad-vermietung.html request that you make a special arrangement with them (possibly additional insurance fee) in ANY case the bike leaves Germany, regardless which direction!

You should also check your selfrisk in the insurance policy, it will be up to 1500...2000€ for any damage you cause!

[insureguy]

Presuming you haven't left yet......I shipped to Germany for a 17 day trip. Renting didn't work because we wanted to go to Eastern Europe and Russia. Many Rentals aren't allowed in E Europe and none in Russia. Total cost about $2500 round trip plus insurance. Was well worth it, but I agree renting would make sense if you don't go to forbidden countries. We left Bremerhaven-Berlin-Prague-Vienna-Budapest-Krakow-Bialystok-Rezekne-Moscow-StPete-Helsinkie (Ferry to Stockholm)-Copenhagen-Bremen.

Total blast, and couldn't have done it on a rental. We spent multiple nights in Prague, Moscw and StPete. Two weeks is very doable depending on your agenda.

[Pecha72]

Originally Posted by insureguy

I shipped to Germany for a 17 day trip.

Just out of interest: how much was the shipping? And I assume you had to do it both ways then?

[insureguy]

Pecha72, it ran about $1200 each way including ship fee about $900 to Wilenius Whilhelmson and port and agent fees about $300. It was actually cheaper having my own bike than renting; though I was without the bike about 2 weeks each way.