Exporting Bike from the US to Germany

1315 Views 6 Replies 6 Participants Last post by zmago, Oct 8, 2011

Cyndera

Discussion Starter · Oct 7, 2011

Dear All,

My apologies if this has been posted anywhere else already; the search function did not yield any results.

My father bought a Honda Shadow about 2 years ago so he and my mom can ride while they are here to visit me.

Now, due to an unfortunate change in my personal life, my dad would like to ship the bike to Germany.

I have already checked customs and possible taxes, but what I am looking for now is a recommendation of companies that would ship the bike and do all the paperwork.

If anyone knows a company, please let me know. I have no problems doing the research and comparing them, but I am not familiar with these types of businesses at all, so any help is appreciated.

Thanks so much,

Cyn

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JasonSK

· #2 · Oct 7, 2011

Your probably going to want to contact some of the international shipping companies, but avoid air freight companies (I work for one we charge a ton) Ocean freight would be the cheapest.

http://www.motorcycleexpress.com/ rates are nearly 2 grand to start though!

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marcn

· #3 · Oct 7, 2011

I would suggest renting a bike when they got to Germany,unless they plan to move there. It would probably cost less to rent then to ship. Plus shipping by water would take quite a while.

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Cyndera

Discussion Starter · #4 · Oct 7, 2011

Actually, my parents live in Germany, my dad has a bike there.
He bought one here, to ride when my parents visit me and my husband (I live in VA), but now that my husband decided that he wants a divorce I have no place to store the bike.
My dad isn't getting younger, so he was considering selling his Honda and keeping the cruiser.

Thanks though!

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Dodsfall

· #5 · Oct 7, 2011

It would probably be more economical to sell it then buy another one in Germany.

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bigk

· #6 · Oct 7, 2011

Don't you also have things like mph here in the U.S and then you got km/h in like 99% of the countries out there? You either got to convert or you just know off the top of your head that X mph is X km/h. I'm sure the laws requires this and that on the bike such as certain amount of lights, certain type of helmet etc.

That's some thing I would think about if i was planning on shipping the bike to another country.

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zmago

· #7 · Oct 8, 2011

I friend of mine just got back from a six month stay in the U.S. He bought himself a bike when he was there for $1500 and planned to bring it back to Europe with him, but the cheapest price he could find for shipping was $2800, so he left it behind.

When you import a bike into any European country you have to go through a process called homologation, an inspection to make sure that it conforms to the local regulations. The paperwork is not all that expensive (about 100 euros), but you might have to replace parts like mufflers and such if they don't conform.

I think unless it's a rare and valuable bike it would probably not be worth while to try and import it it Europe.

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