Shipping bikes to the US

Any recommendations, oh FOAK?

So far I've contacted James Cargo who seemed very helpful at the UK
end but the agent at the US end seems to be unable to answer his
emails at all, let alone a couple of simple questions of the 'how
much' variety.

Also contacted a company called Allfreight, still waiting for them to
get back to me.

 

Do you have enough old tat to fill a container? Dave Milligan sometimes
posts here. He ships bike around the world (mainly to/from Oz) in
containers so may have contacts. Seems his port of choice is Portland,
Oregan http://www.getrouted.com.au/des_usa.html
Get the container stuck on a train to whereever you are going. Job sorted.

 

How many/much are you looking to shift? One? A container load?

 

Depends where Timo is heading. There's no point paying the extra to get
it through the canal and up to Portland if he's heading to the east
coast or anywhere that isn't the North west really.

 

Three bikes and a bunch of assorted boxes. No idea how high that pile is
going to be (yet), but I think it probably won't fill a 20' container
yet.

 

First stop, Nevada. After that it depends where I find work. Which might
have me end up in Chicago...

 

Fixed that for you.

 

There are 10' containers out there, but they're pretty hard to get hold of.

The cost of going LCL (ie sharing a container with other stuff) might
not be far off a 20' price, by the time you've factored in crating etc.

I don't have any UK contacts any more (although I could get you some if
you needed), but I would call your local office of Expeditors
International and talk to them. They don't specialise in automotive,
but they are pretty good at figuring out solutions to interesting
problems. Their Customer service is also about the best in the industry.

I assume you need to move at least soem personal belongings, in which
case, you might want to look at an international relocation company for
some quotes to cover the lot.

 

My new job is based in Chicago. I've only been there twice so far.

 

How did you like it so far? Ann seems to rate it reasonably highly,
given that it's a big city and cold in winter...

 

I'll ask some the US Military Harley crowd.......

 

Are you really serious? <G>

 

I like Chicago, and was reasonably upbeat about moving there (didn't
happen). It's a pretty decent city with plenty to do.

"Cold" however isn't sufficient to describe their winters. I was there
in a January at well below -26c with raging winds and insufficient
winter clothing (I was living in CA at the time). At least they have an
infrastructure set up to deal with all the snow and ice.

Summers can be very humid, which I hate, but spring and late
summer/autumn are great.

 

This rather begs the question; does the USA really need more shite old
bikes?

 

indeed

 

It's a fantastic city. There's tons to do, the places where normal
people would live (in normal houses), are within striking distance of
downtown, etc.

The weather is utterly gash, though. If you can cope with that, it'll
be fine.

 

vulgarandmischevious posted:

Compared to back here? Wow. I know it's called "The Windy City";
beyond that I know it has good (if short) summers and severe winters.
Swings and roundabouts?

 

On 2010-02-27 17:34:34 +0100, DR <> said:

(Chicago)

Chalk and Cheese.

I've seen bigger waves off the lakeshore than I saw most of the time in
California. "Surfs up dude".

Mostly warmer than the UK, but horribly humid with it.

Like the UK has (probably) never seen.

Probably, can't say I've looked much at the childrens facilities.

 

.... and there is a proper race track a about 2-3 hours further north.

Well yes, I was trying to find a place where the weather would be an
improvement.

 

James cargo

Oh, you have spoken to them -)

Where are you flying it to ?

We didn't use an agent in the US, we got the bikes out of customs
oursleves.