The AT's on her way...

Air freighting our bike abroad...

I delivered the AT (Africa Twin) to Moto Freight near Heathrow who are organising its packing and air freight to meet us in Buenos Aires.   We removed everything from the bike that we would take with us as hand luggage on the plane.  I took Dee's bike gear with me (helmet, jacket, trousers, boots and gloves).  The bike had to arrive with less than a quarter of a tank of petrol and it will be flown like this so I will have some left to get to a petrol station on my way to Buenos Aires (Ezeiza airport is about 22 km outside the city).

We chose Moto Freight because of their excellent service and experience in sending bikes all over the world (air and sea).  They make a list of everything with the bike, luggage, clothing, footwear etc. and everything is tagged.  My stuff was wet from the ride down so it was left to dry first.  The condition of the bike is also noted down and photos taken.

We had a list of what could NOT go with the bike and this included spare oil, camping gas cylinders, spare batteries, toiletry fluids and gels.  Spare cash was also not advised as this would show up on the x-ray in customs and the last thing we wanted was to give them an excuse to open the crate!  Even a tube of glue in the puncture repair kit had to be removed.  Everything has to be accessible so the top box had to be left open.

Moto Freight have purpose made wooden bases that the bike is strapped to.  All loose items are bubble wrapped and placed beside the bike.  Once complete, the whole bike is shrink wrapped.

The standard sides are added.  These are to suit a sports bike so for higher bikes they add an additional section.  They may take the screen off but I have left this to them.

The finished crate:

When we collect the bike we have to pay the airways bill and airport charges.  We are paying Dakar Motos in Buenos Aires to help us get the bike out of customs - our Spanish is not that good yet!  They also offer insurance for the Mercosur Countries - Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.

We are flying off tomorrow!