My brother in law's bike is currently sitting in my garage. It's a long story but essentially it was bought here and he was going to come back and ride it. Plans change and now he needs it down under. Anyone shipped a bike there? Anyone know of a decent shipping agent?. It's an inbred.
I do know that it needs to be cleaned within an inch of its life before heading off to its new life. I really need some advice on where to find a decent deal to sea freight a bike and box.
My advice is don't bother. Sell here, send money, buy bike there. You are looking at £200 minimum to send it. If you are sending a bunch of stuff and including it that's a different story.
Cost should be around £150-200 depending on how you cut the box.
Have a look at someone like transglobal express who use the major couriers.
The option you want is the DHL one I think. There is a size limit where the price jumps so just check the dimensions and see if the bix can get smaller.
Also you pay volumetric weight so your average bike box can take up to 32kg. So as above may be time to try and send more.
Did 6 Bikes to Oz this way over winter this year. All packed well and arrived fine.
Also clean it well and read the import guidelines on anything else you put in.
Takes about 1 Week
We sent two bikes to NZ when we moved there. They took a long time to arrive (which was fine, we were away travelling) - not one week as was suggested above (which I'm sure is possible, but perhaps more expensive).
Our bikes were in bike bags (so the wheels were removed) and then these were put into a crate, along with our other goods, by the shipping company. In hindsight, this meant we had no control over what was on top of them. One of the bikes was fine but the other one suffered a fork being bent inwards. So I would recommend using those spacers that new bikes come with (you can prob ask your LBS for some) and doing what you can to ensure your bike goes at the top of the crate.
I would agree with hels above - consider selling the bike here and buying new in NZ. Bikes are (or at least were) definitely cheaper out there, and when you factor in the cost of shipping just a bike, plus insurance and the cost of travel to the port at the other end to pick it up etc, you might find you can get a better easier deal this way.
Tomc - I was referring to Airfreight.
It was under 1 week door to door if paperwork is done correctly, slightly longer if there was a delay.
It was also worth noting that M&S Away from Home cover still covered the bikes as we were on an extended holiday.
Are you going out yourself any time soon, or someone else you know? If so, then flying out with the bike (with an airline friendly with bikes, e.g. BA) could be an option. It would cost less than £100.
Significantly cheaper than freight.
I don't have a specific company to suggest.. But DON'T send the bike sea freight. You will be stung for all kinds of extra charges at the other end.. Docking fees, unload fees, storage fee..
If it's one item send it air freight to their nearest airport in NZ for them to pick up...
I learnt this lesson the hard way...
[url= http://www.transglobal.org.uk/ ]Click Link for Air Freight Quote[/url]
Door to Door Service
About £175 for a slightly lower bike box
Takes about 1 Week with no extra charges (to Oz pretty sure it's teh same to NZ but check)
Use the Cheapest UPS Deal
(I have done this with 6 bikes this year)
I'm moving to sydney next week (have I mentioned that? Maybe once or twice...) and am shipping all of my stuff including 2 bikes.
We got quotes from LOADS of shippers, and found that (when you are shipping only a small amount of stuff) Crown relocations are cheapest by a country mile.
2 bikes, a big telly, and the equivalent of 10 big packing crates is costing me £750 (plus insurance).
But DON'T send the bike sea freight. You will be stung for all kinds of extra charges at the other end.. Docking fees, unload fees, storage fee..
THIS is why the other companies are so expensive - their "economy" is based of sending a whole house full of stuff. Crown's quote was fully inclusive - whereas all the other companies added on hundreds for various fees.
Give Crown a call, the were also the nicest to deal with
I'm moving to NZ later this year and have a similar but different query.
We are looking in to it, but if anyone has any advice it would be much appreciated.
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/shipping-stuff-to-nz-bikes-kit
Hi,
I've been here in NZ for about 9 months and wanted to ship a few things back here (including bikes and bike bits) when I returned to the UK for a few weeks in the summer. I googled about import duty to nz and it said that unless my visa was for 12 months or more I would have to pay import duty over and above the duty free allowances. Cost is GST (rate varies depending on type of item but about 15%) plus some other charges. So I didn't bother as my current visa expires end of Jan.
Anyone with any contradicting info or advise, it would be useful to hear.
I have found bike stuff a lot more expensive here and cheaper to buy from CRC or Merlin and pay for shipping. Below $400NZ the import fee is not collected, but even paying duty some items still work out cheaper, in my experience anyway.
Good luck with the move. I'm in CH CHURCH myself. Not as much MTB to go at here as in the UK, but some good stuff all the same
Is there an exemption for stuff thats now new? For Oz we just declared that everything was over 1 year old and there fore not taxed.
For migrants to NZ if you have a RRV or residency you get to import everything gst and import duty free for a period of 12 months. Vehicles have some specific rules based on ownership time but essentially whatever you import is foc tax-wise.
I just shipped 2 road bikes to Christchurch using the UPS deal on Transglobal. They charge volumetrically, so find the smallest box you can fit your bike into.
Took about a week to arrive, and we had an additional NZ$40 to pay for some unspecified customs charge. Transglobal were very helpful indeed when I made some mistakes on the original order, and the bikes arrived in good nick.
We're shipping our MTBs over sea freight. Four bikes and a few boxes of kit came to about £650 using Doree Bonner international movers, who we chose because they were the most helpful people we spoke to. Time will tell if our bikes arrive in one bit though.