Shipping the bike to Europe

Bogota (Colombia), the last point of the trip.  So I go back to France.

I thought initially to sell the bike here in America because this bike has over 80.000km is unmarketable, and it would be better to sell it piece by piece or incidental accessories. In fact at the beginning of the journey I imagined that after both Africa and Latin America, the bike would be a ruin. This is very far from the reality.

Finally I decided to bring the bike in France for several reasons:
- The Automobile Club of France did not answer my questions about if I would get back the deposit (€ 17,500!) in case I would sell the bike on the spot
- I promised to participate to the Touratech weekend, early June, with the equipped bike
- For next big trips or to duo rides, the bike is always on top

To send the bike, there are two options: plane (cheap, fast and generally hassle-free) and boat (slow, two times less expensive, and often a source of worry to the ports of departure and arrival). I do not need the bike immediately so logically I should send it by ship in a container. But the idea of ​​finding myself in the train from Paris to home, helmet in hand and bag on the shoulder depresses me. So I'll finish the trip on the bike and I arrive at my parents and Toulouse on a motorcycle. So I send the bike by air.

The procedure is basically the same as for the sending of South Africa to Argentina, described in detail here.

Send requests for quotes to almost all officers of local transport is listed here

I choose the cheapest quote and agencies that seem most serious. I mention two:
Lyncargo (contact : Veronica) et Samarkandra (contact : Karen)

I am finally dealing with Samarkandra. They take care of everything, and they send 2 or 3 motorcycles per year as well, but I must be with them, among other steps for fabrication of the box, customs, inspection by the police anti-narcotraffic ... In the end, they are full of goodwill, but not sure how to do and call me every day for information, a photocopy, an appointment ... The person that assists me to build the box around the bike is coinvinced I will pay on the weight and not the volume, so there is no need to to dismantle the bike. In fact, he does not know how to calculate the volume and weight, and I have to explain him how to do it... They do not know the functioning of the "carnet de passage en douanes". But it is a good idea to use it when you have one, because the matter is resolved Customs whereas usually in minutes, with import papers classic, this may take a day and expensive.

How much is he sending his bike on another continent? Everything included, it cost me 1350 EUR. If I would have sent the bike a month earlier, before the pretext of the Libyan civil war to increase fuel prices, it would have cost at least EUR 100 less. This is surely not the best price we could get, but seems to me correct. It is two and a half times more expensive than the ticket for me, but it weighs 4 times heavier.

About this price, there is a fixed part (communication costs, box manufacturing, transportation to the airport, pass customs, etc ...) and a part proportional to the weight / volume. In my case, there were about 1 / 3 of the price related to fixed costs, and 2 / 3 proportional to the weight / volume.

The price therefore depends on the weight and/or volume as follows:
We consider the volume (in m3), and we consider that each m3 weighs 167kg.
This provides a "weight volume".
Compare this with the actual weight, and it is the larger of the two used for the actual cost.

In my case, the final box was 206 x 76 x 127 cm, or almost 2 m3, so a volume weight of 332 kg.
The actual weight was 350 kg it (bike + luggage + weight of the body).
There was no need to make a smaller box.

In the end, Samarkandra is a place to consider for such sending, they also deal with shipments by boat, much more complex administratively. But I do not highly recommend them, among other things due to a lack of profesional, and some items of the bill that increased by 10 or 20 USD at certain stages, or even 150 USD added to the final bill " by mistake ". I did not ask them for a discount with advertisement in the blog, just to keep my freedom. Contact by email with Karen is excellent, in both English and Spanish. Also note in their favor, they have accepted without problem to send the bike before receiving payment, and even without any guarantee that the transfer of money from my bank was launched. This saves time. Thank you to Samarkandra.

I also recommend to contact contact Lyncargo, even if in the end I don t have worked with them. They were initially a bit more expensive, but with all the last-minute additions to Samarkandra, you get the same price. What I like with Lyncargo is that I asked (as others) to offer me the least expensive setup, and Veronica sent me a comparison with estimates for shipments to Paris, Madrid, with 3 or 4 different air cargo companies, the days where there are flights etc. .... in short, a comprehensive analysis that allowed me to decide: will the Moto in Madrid (and me) on a flight Iberia Cargo.

I took my leather motorcycle jacket on my carry on and I sent the bike the day before my personal flight, to be sure to be still there, if there was a concern last minute, and to have if possible the bike available when I arrived in Madrid.

10am: My plane lands in Spain
12am: I'm at the counter Iberia Cargo
2pm : Iberia and custom documents are finished and the box is in front of me
4pm :  I ride a motorcycle on the roads of Spain.

It's a great feeling to arrive by plane and depart directly from the airport on his motorbike.
The journey continues...