Hi Ray -

When I took the Tenere to the US and back, I shipped it by air - when it came back from Dakar it was on a boat for three weeks...

It used to be relatively cheap to ship by air to and from the US (particularly from), but with the exchange rate and last year's revisions to the 'dangerous goods' legislation from the US (Ironically, it was easy to ship my bike to the US - it even went in the hold of the same plane I was on, which is a distinct no-no as far as shipping out of the US is concerned...)

The shipping (by air) is based on volumetric weight, but since the bike weighs more than the volume ratio, it's based on weight... my crate was listed at 300kgs I believe - that includes the weight of the crate, and my luggage/camping gear I stuffed in there as well, although it wasn't that much, that was the band it fell in... it cost me $1800 USD one way (to the US) which at the time was about �1000. Unfortunately, it was significantly more than that to bring it back, as the agent I had used didn't want to handle 'dangerous goods' after all the regulation changes in March last year...

You can still use someone like Motorcycle Express (they charge around $2000 USD each way), but have limited port of entries - basically east or west coast (which made it harder for me as I wanted Vegas, baby). They are very efficient from what I have heard - you basically deliver the bike to them and they crate it etc. And on the whole, you bike will be there on the date you want it.

The other option is to send it by sea - either in a container if you can find a carrier sending a load of stuff, or using Wallenius Wilhelmsen who ship vehicles back and forth from the far east, via the USA. It is significantly cheaper (around �700 each way when I got a quote) but does take three weeks. It is essentially a huge ro-ro ferry, so you just drop them the bike - no crating etc.

There is one stop on the east coast and the other at Ventura near LA - you might have to pay storage at the port for a few days unless you can coordinate your flights exactly... still, spending a bit of time in California ain't that bad...

Hope that helps,

J xx

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