Author Topic: Shipping a couple of bikes to Canada?  (Read 2738 times)

Shipping a couple of bikes to Canada?
« on: 28 January, 2019, 01:33:25 pm »
From the UK.

Anyone have any experience?

It's looking like £120 each if I want to fly with them. Any other options?

LittleWheelsandBig

  • Whimsy Rider
Re: Shipping a couple of bikes to Canada?
« Reply #1 on: 28 January, 2019, 01:37:30 pm »
Shipping bikes internationally (particularly intercontinentally) is not easy or cheap.
Wheel meet again, don't know where, don't know when...

Re: Shipping a couple of bikes to Canada?
« Reply #2 on: 28 January, 2019, 01:39:34 pm »
Shipping bikes internationally (particularly intercontinentally) is not easy or cheap.

That's what I'm finding. I should have mentioned it's Vancouver/BC. Hoping with the Whistler thing, there might be something a bit cheaper.

LittleWheelsandBig

  • Whimsy Rider
Re: Shipping a couple of bikes to Canada?
« Reply #3 on: 28 January, 2019, 01:48:17 pm »
Good luck. If the cycling trip isn't very long, I'd look at renting.
Wheel meet again, don't know where, don't know when...

Re: Shipping a couple of bikes to Canada?
« Reply #4 on: 28 January, 2019, 02:03:24 pm »
Some airlines cover them as part of bagge allowance, even oversized. BA, for example.

Re: Shipping a couple of bikes to Canada?
« Reply #5 on: 28 January, 2019, 02:05:36 pm »
Good luck. If the cycling trip isn't very long, I'd look at renting.

It's an emigration  ;D

Some airlines cover them as part of bagge allowance, even oversized. BA, for example.

It's £120 each to fly with them (And I'm flying with BA). As said in OP.

LittleWheelsandBig

  • Whimsy Rider
Re: Shipping a couple of bikes to Canada?
« Reply #6 on: 28 January, 2019, 02:08:14 pm »
Message the Things. They shifted to the USA and, several years later, back with a variety of bikes and worldly goods travelling by sea.
Wheel meet again, don't know where, don't know when...

Re: Shipping a couple of bikes to Canada?
« Reply #7 on: 28 January, 2019, 02:12:42 pm »
If memory serves, The Things had a shipping container.

Re: Shipping a couple of bikes to Canada?
« Reply #8 on: 28 January, 2019, 06:00:42 pm »
Hi D.A.L.E. Am I missing something with my new Glass Lenses specs ?
I did/do not see any mention of flying with BA in your opening post !!

I would have thought that two bikes could be boxed as though sending them by individually by courier in reconstructed 'Bike Boxes' (I have sent many around the UK totally without damage.

My chose would be in the hold of Air Transat with yourself as a passenger.
Your ears are your rear-end defenders,keep them free of clutter and possibly live longer.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Shipping a couple of bikes to Canada?
« Reply #9 on: 28 January, 2019, 06:41:27 pm »
Sell them and buy new left hand drive ones  ;)
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Shipping a couple of bikes to Canada?
« Reply #10 on: 28 January, 2019, 08:33:59 pm »
not sure it will help, but Sendmybag can be an economic way to shift STUFF to foreigns. Could you ship luggage and use the BA flight to carry the bikes? Have you considered upgrading your flight to a premium, which would double your luggage allowance?

Re: Shipping a couple of bikes to Canada?
« Reply #11 on: 28 January, 2019, 08:39:04 pm »
Some airlines cover them as part of bagge allowance, even oversized. BA, for example.

It's £120 each to fly with them (And I'm flying with BA). As said in OP.

Is that quoting them as baggage or as sports equipment though? Confusingly BA will quote you a high price for shipping a bike box as sports equipment but also have a policy of allowing them through as luggage for a much lower price, even if oversized.

Re: Shipping a couple of bikes to Canada?
« Reply #12 on: 29 January, 2019, 11:05:14 am »
I flew with Air Transat to Vancouver and it was quite a bit cheaper than that, I think half the price.

I had a complicated spreadsheet with flight costs, bike transport costs, travel to airport etc and in the end Transat from Gatwick (I’m in Brum)  came out on top.

Re: Shipping a couple of bikes to Canada?
« Reply #13 on: 29 January, 2019, 11:27:51 am »
I moved to the USA in 1997 and packed my cycles and home comforts in a crate the size of a small office desk.  18 months later I did the same to return.  I used an international shipping company whose name I cannot recall after 20 odd years and paid to fly the crate because I wanted the contents quickly.  It seemed quite cheap for the convenience.  In 1999 I returned to the USA but with no commitment to stay so travelled light, taking a bike and a big bag as my only luggage - using BA all this was in my luggage allowance.  Returning in 2000 I had two bikes and some home comforts to bring back to the UK.  I used the same shipping company who turned up with a pallet and packed my pre-boxed items as a "part pallet load".  Being in no hurry I sent it by sea which was cheaper and took about 6 weeks.  Note that all of this was in the days before the luggage forwarding services etc. 

Re: Shipping a couple of bikes to Canada?
« Reply #14 on: 29 January, 2019, 12:15:13 pm »
I think even at £120 each that's going to be a good price compared to any of the parcel delivery services. Most won't accept "parcels" as big as a bike, and pallets cost a LOT more.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

mattc

  • n.b. have grown beard since photo taken
    • Didcot Audaxes
Re: Shipping a couple of bikes to Canada?
« Reply #15 on: 29 January, 2019, 01:34:37 pm »
There was a thread about using couriers quite recently, either here or the CyclingUK forum?

A chap had found that if you take a bike to bits it fits better into the MUCH cheaper small boxes. seemed like a hassle for a short tour, but for emigration could be worthwhile.
Has never ridden RAAM
---------
No.11  Because of the great host of those who dislike the least appearance of "swank " when they travel the roads and lanes. - From Kuklos' 39 Articles

Re: Shipping a couple of bikes to Canada?
« Reply #16 on: 29 January, 2019, 08:12:51 pm »
Well this is proving to be a bit of a pain in the arse tbh.  :facepalm:

I think even at £120 each that's going to be a good price compared to any of the parcel delivery services. Most won't accept "parcels" as big as a bike, and pallets cost a LOT more.

It's annoying that I'm in that weird middle-ground of not having a lot of stuff, but not exactly lightweight either.

Karla

  • car(e) free
    • Lost Byway - around the world by bike
Re: Shipping a couple of bikes to Canada?
« Reply #17 on: 06 February, 2019, 12:26:18 am »
I looked at shipping a race bike to meet me at an event in the USA last year, and discovered what LWaB days: It's not cheap whatever you do.  The customs is a killer: it would have been far cheaper for me to fly with both bikes accompanying me and then post one of them onwards once I'd landed in the US.  Most airlines will allow you to fly with two bikes, so that might be the best way to go.

I know a family who have just moved to Toronto a few months ago so I can put you in touch if you want to ask about the formalities?

Re: Shipping a couple of bikes to Canada?
« Reply #18 on: 20 August, 2021, 10:41:24 am »
I looked at shipping a race bike to meet me at an event in the USA last year, and discovered what LWaB days: It's not cheap whatever you do.  The customs is a killer: it would have been far cheaper for me to fly with both bikes accompanying me and then post one of them onwards once I'd landed in the US.  Most airlines will allow you to fly with two bikes, so that might be the best way to go.

I know a family who have just moved to Toronto a few months ago so I can put you in touch if you want to ask about the formalities?

For anyone in the future who Googles this, the answer is as follows;

The best (cheapest, easiest, fastest) is, annoyingly, to fly with them, especially with Air Canada if possible. A flat fee of $50/£30 per bike box, regardless of how many bags you want to check, with a weight limit of 32kg/70lbs per box. I came back with 3, stuffed to the gills and it cost me $150/£85 on top of my 3 checked bags. I had to rent a van on the UK side (everyone in Canada has a mahoosive truck so getting a lift to the airport was easy) for £60.

Moving about the airport was shite because of those daft anti-terrorism barriers they have up, meaning I had to shuttle by hand each box 20m at a time, but it beats paying the >$3000 I was quoted by several shipping/courier services.