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I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience and/or insight regarding shipping or transporting a motorcycle across the country. Next month I'm moving from CT to AZ and need to have my '88 Harley transported.
I shipped a bike from GA to WA for a friend... not cheap, I think he said it was in the $600~700 range (800-haul-bikes or somesuch) and was the cheapest he could find.
If you're moving, it'll be FAR cheaper to rent (or buy) a trailer and move it yourself. Actually, sounds like an ideal time/situation to do a longer ride, but I've done several ride-and-fly purchases that were nearly cross-country like this.
If you're using professional movers, ask them how much it would cost to put the bike in the van with the rest of your stuff. I had mine shipped with the rest of my stuff from NC to CA and it was only a couple hundred bucks extra. The guy packaging it in did a great job and it came out unscathed.
We, (me & bro-in-law), have shipped our m'cycles a couple times from east coast to left coast and from east coast to Denver...now we just get on them and ride 'west', but we have the time/inclination.
In both shipping situs, it was handled by a 'motorcycle shipping specialist co', and both times the bikes came through OK, but were obviously offloaded and reloaded a couple, three times: that is the risk point in getting your beloved scoot to the delivery point without scratches, nicks, problems, imo. And neither was a cheap, handy process...
The towed rental trailer is the only option that gets the scoot from A to B, without the probability of move(s)/transfers, but may not be practical for the OP.
A quick GOOG shows a page of 'motorcycle shipping specialists', though none promise 'no transfer' in my cursory reading, and no idea of current pricing.
Just make sure you ask about your options because some are cheaper than others. I shipped my bike last year with A-1 Auto Transport from CA to NY and they were much better about explaining my options than the others I talked to. If you need to reasearch any companies, the FMCSA website is a great place to start. Other places like BBB, Yelp, Transport Reviews, and whatever else is out there are just fancy advertising companies.
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I used Allied Moving's motorcycle shipping service from San Diego to NJ. This was a while ago but what I vividly remember was every other service I looked at had more excuses and 'outs' in their contracts for any little issue while Allied seemed more reasonable. It may not have been the cheapest but it wasn't far out of line and I was happy with the service.
I used keyboard motorcycle shipping once and they load the bike onto a shipping frame which prevents the bike from falling over and it was on wheels so they could push it around..
When I moved across country, the movers just threw the bikes into the moving van and I couldn't see how it was packed on the truck but they delivered the bikes while my other stuff went to storage. I'm pretty sure they didn't have the shipping frame but there was no damage in either move.
I drove my Sportster up the ramp onto my Penske truck. Tied it to the side with straps and ropes really well. Covered it in moving blankets and made sure the loading ensure things were snug and wouldn't shift around it. Needed some help getting it spun around to drive it out. You don't want to have to try to roll it out backwards...My current bagger might be harder to spin around..
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