Shipping my bike from Canada to Ireland on WestJet June, 2023
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- Опубліковано 3 чер 2023
- My name is David Goldman, I'm a documentary and portrait photographer/filmmaker. I've been working on a long-term multi-media portrait series called The Motorcycle Portraits: themotorcycleportraits.net/ I feature individuals whose lives are deeply connected to motorcycles. Racers, builders, collectors and world travelers. I use my bike as a mobile photo studio and to date, I've traveled over 30K miles and photographed 107 people in the US and Canada. For the summer of 2023 I'll be continuing this series in the UK/Europe and I'll be working with @westjet and their "BIKE'Air" program to get my bike to Dublin from Halifax Nova Scotia and then back from Paris. This is how I did it.
On June 2nd I shipped my motorcycle from Halifax to Dublin with @westjet This little video talks a little about how that went down. I live in Nova Scotia. For me to do this, I took my bike (2019 KTM 790 Adv S) to the Halifax airport. I dropped it off at the Cargo dept. From there the bike was prepped for the trip. To be clear, the bike would fly on a cargo plane while I would fly on a commercial flight from Halifax to Calgary which is West Jets' main Canadian hub. From there the bike would be put on a wide-body commercial plane that I was also on and together we flew to the final destination of Dublin.
To prep the bike I had to:
• Make sure there was no more than 1/4 of a fuel in the tank.
• Clean and vent the extra fuel tank (Rotopax)
• Disconnect the battery terminals
• Make sure there were no compressed gas, oils, greases, etc. That means do not have chain lube, camping fuel, or similar. You will need to buy this at your final destination.
• Camera, phone, drone batteries, or similar should be carried with you on the plane.
• You may want to have a bit of cardboard or foam that you can put on the seat to protect it from the compression created by the straps. This way you avoid any indents or damage to the padding when they tighten down the ratchet straps.
• Leave your key in the ignition but also have a zip tie or some kind of way to secure the keys to the bike so if it were to pop out of the ignition it won't get lost.
• Carry an extra set of keys for the bike or whatever you have associated with the bike just in case they are lost during the travel.
• You can leave your panniers on the bike with your clothes or whatever inside except what I've already mentioned.
• You can leave your tank bag on the bike although originally I was told I was not allowed to keep the tank bag on so it's possible you may have to remove that.
• I can't speak for any other airlines but with regards to @westjet the bike is strapped to a metal pallet. It is NOT put in a box or crate etc. It will remain exposed and strapped down.
Once I arrived in Dublin I went to the cargo offices (15 min walk from the gate) and there I needed to have all my paperwork in order (this you will have sorted since you will have booked your flight and the cargo dept will create the paperwork for you.
If you are staying 90 days or less there is no duty or fees to be paid to customs. I can't speak to longer stays. I did have to fill out a form with the VIN # of the bike and my basic info. Customs stamped some paperwork and sent me over to where the bike was. I presented them with the stamped paperwork and had to pay a handling fee of around 140.00 Euros (give or take, I can't remember exactly at this moment)
After paying the fee and handing over the paperwork I waited for about 20 min and they brought out my bike.
• This is the time to give the bike a once over and make sure it was not damaged, hook up your battery, fire it up, and head off on your adventure.
A few other things to remember:
• You will need a "Green-Card" insurance. This is for foreign vehicles traveling in Europe. You can get it for just liability or for comprehensive & liability. I chose to go with both. I have heard horror stories of bike theft, especially in the larger cities, and personally have a friend whose bike was stolen in Edinburgh. To me, the risk was not worth it although the price is significantly more so I guess you have to decide what it's worth to you. There are a number of places to get this green-card from. Just google it. The insurance is based on a 30-day coverage. So if you are there for 70 days. You will need to get a 90-day pass.
• You might also want to make sure you have good health insurance with emergency evacuation should you need it.
• Make sure you have your registration sticker up to date or at least proof of it on your person.
• I always have copies of my passport, bike registration, insurance, etc in a few places just in case I lose one or have to hand it over to someone for some reason.
That is basically how my experience went. I will be flying the bike home from Paris in Sept and at that time I'll offer up more info.
You can check out the @westjet FAQs for their "BIKE'Air" program here: www.westjetcargo.com/en-ca/wh...
Very helpful video David and thank you for sharing with us. My wife and I are planning a similar trip this year and were wondering if you needed a carne de passage for travelling in Europe. We are planning on going to Italy, Spain, France, etc. Thank you in advance for any information!
Hi @Kenjisan7970 if your bike is registered in the US or Canada then you will not need a Carne for Europe. You should be able to get a 90-day exemption for bringing in your bikes but definitely double-check all of that before booking flights. You will absolutely need "green card" insurance though. Hope that helps. Subscribe to this channel if you l ike as I'll be starting to post videos from the trip.
Hi@@TheDavidGoldmanphoto . Thank you so much for your reply! I'll look into the green card insurance and have subscribed to your channel. Looking forward to your videos from your trip. Ride safe as always.
@@kenjisan7970 Thanks!!. I'll be dropping my first "official"' video from this past summer and I'm almost done editing the second. If you like you can also follow along on my Instagram: @thedavidgoldmanphoto or my Substack where I talk a lot about the trip substack.com/@thedavidgoldmanphoto?
afternoon David and thanks for the video. At the end you mentioned you would be doing another video to go over all the paperwork... are you still doing this video?
And did you run into any issues with the paperwork or customs?
Thanks in advance.
Hi 2Wheel4Fun, I have not done a video BUT I wrote an article about it in issue 87 of Upshift Online magazine: upshiftonline.com/blogs/magazine/upshift-issue-87-november-2023 in it I go pretty in-depth to what I ran into.
As for your specific questions about customs/paperwork. the short answer is no, although when I landed in Ireland they did not know the rules about 90-day stays and exemptions etc. Same issue when I left from Paris to go back to Canada so my advice is that you FULLY know those rules and have a copy of them to show whomever you may need to either arrive without extra fees or leave with your bike. Hope that helps.
@@TheDavidGoldmanphoto Thanks for the speedy reply and looking forward to reading your article. I plan on flying it from Calgary to Rome this August.
Thanks again for your help.
@@2Wheel4Fun Oh cool. Via WestJet? Rome in August ?? Wooohooo, that's going to be hot. Don't wear the adventure motorcycle snowsuit. You'll die. Let me know if you have any more questions. I learned a lot on this trip.
I am thinking about Scotland 🏴 to Canada 🇨🇦 (Halifax). The riding across Canada to Vancouver then returning from there. Any ideas of rough costs for shipping the bike?
@@KGowans I'm not really sure, I can only tell you what my costs were:
Halifax - Dublin June 3,2023 = Freight Charge CAD $1,700.00
Paris - Halifax Sept 5, 2023 = Freight charges EUR €2,950.00
Hope that helps but obviously you will need to contact West Jet for more accurate and up to date costs.
Hey Dave!
I want to buy a motorcycle from argetina and shipping to USA any tips or advice? Thanks.
Sorry, I don't know anything about that.
Hi Dave! I am planning a trip from England to South East Europe ( Bulgaria). Wonder did you do any research into buying a bike in the UK, registering it and insuring it? Any tips you have about doing something like that instead of shipping your bike? Not planning on selling the bike but heard its hard to get insured if you are not a resident in the UK.
Hi @AlexHkolev, sorry, I have no info on that kind of thing. My bike is a US-registered bike and I came from Canada so that wouldn't apply to your trip.
Do I need an agent to book my bike? Can you please post a booking link? Thanks
The best way to get more info would be to go to the WestJet FAQ page but for international flights, you WILL need an agent. I used GSM. Here is the link: www.westjetcargo.com/en-ca/what-we-ship/motorcycles
@@TheDavidGoldmanphoto thanks
Do you need proof of insurance to fly the bike? Looking to buy a bike and have it fly back with me not sure how I’d get insurance. Please let me know it’s within Canada
you definitely need insurance when riding around Europe and going across borders. It's called a "Green-card"
@@TheDavidGoldmanphoto I meant to get the bike on the plane what kind of documents did you need?
@@Lebmourad9 Please read what i wrote above in the notes under the video. It answers all your questions :)
What was the cost to ship to Europe from Halifax?
Halifax - Dublin June 3,2023 = Freight Charge CAD $1,700.00
Paris - Halifax Sept 5, 2023 = Freight charges EUR €2,950.00
Hope that helps.