Bikes in a lorry / van being taken abroad by a haulier

Quattroformaggio said:

I really don't see the point in all of this.
What's the sense in having your bike and not using it? ……After all, why on earth did you buy your bike in the first place?

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For the same reason that it suits some people to camp, rather than stay in a hotel. Some to stay in British run B&B’s rather than an F1, a privately run pension or the George Cinque. For the same reason that some bods only take their bikes out on the occasional Sunday for 30 miles, whilst some use it every day and others only for the two weeks for their annual holiday.

If it suits a fellow to fly and hire or ship his bike by train or road, or to tow it behind his car or motorhome from A to B, so what? It’s their holiday, not yours. You and they can do whatever they like, within the constraints and wishes open to them.

Wapping said:

For the same reason that it suits some people to camp, rather than stay in a hotel. Some to stay in British run B&B’s rather than an F1, a privately run pension or the George Cinque. For the same reason that some bods only take their bikes out on the occasional Sunday for 30 miles, whilst some use it every day and others only for the two weeks for their annual holiday.

If it suits a fellow to fly and hire or ship his bike by train or road, or to tow it behind his car or motorhome from A to B, so what? It’s their holiday, not yours. You and they can do whatever they like, within the constraints and wishes open to them.

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Yada, yada, yada.
The OP hasn't said he WANTS to transport his bike, WANTS to fly/hire or fuck all else.
He merely said the cost and time is currently putting him off from riding.
Putting him off.
Because of a current mindset of looking at the distance as a slog and hindrance instead of part of the holiday.
You're regularly popping alternative views into threads, and I was merely doing the same.

Given that he’s got a 600 mile journey from home to Portsmouth it’s not unrealistic to sit at home and consider what options are available but it depends on what his targets are once he’s in Spain and if the cumulative mileage doesn’t require a service and new tyres before getting home it’s only a day at either end of the trip to ride the bike for the whole trip.

Of course we then have to take into account that it might be a bike totally unsuitable for 600 miles of motorway in one day, he might have health issues or he might only have a limited amount of time so a 3hr flight on a Saturday morning then pick the bike up in Barcelona is the only way it’s feasible

Quattroformaggio said:

Yada, yada, yada….. What's the sense in having your bike and not using it? …..You're regularly popping alternative views into threads, and I was merely doing the same.

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He is using his bike, just in a different way to you.

We post up alternatives when the original plan (such as it is) is probably not viable (most usually within the time constraints available *) or when people have absolutely no idea how to to go from A to B to C and want to be told how to do it. The recent post and subsequent thread where a bod wanted to ride from north Wales to the ring, to the Black Forest and back to north Wales (stopping to see things along the way, with time spent in the Black Forest itself) all in six days, is a classic example.

The fellow says that he doesn’t necessarily want to ride his bike from Scotland to Spain, which is absolutely fine and (to a degree at least) understandable, the time taken maybe being better employed doing something else in his world. Others don’t want to ride from Yorkshire and Lancashire to Folkestone or Dover. Others besides want to put their vehicle onto a train between Germany and Italy. Others, still, to take a ferry from Portsmouth to Santander, rather than trundling across France and the Pyrenees.

Can you help him with any news as to whether, post-Brexit, the concept of shipping a bike from A to B and back is realistically possible? If so, how and by whom?
If it transpires that the service has been withdrawn, is too expensive, the paperwork too dull, the times don’t match or the only haulier operates from Penzance, Dublin or Istanbul, then he may indeed have to rethink his holiday and look for alternatives. Then your preferred method of riding everywhere, irrespective of possible alternatives, will definitely come into play. You may even be able to give him routes based on similar journeys you’ve made yourself, which would be great and no doubt well received…….or he’ll stay in the Highlands….. or he’ll buy a fly-me package holiday to Vietnam, his week off work not giving sufficient time to ride there and back.






* It often takes quite a bit of teeth pulling to find this one simple piece of information out

Here’s some websites that might be able to help:

https://www.movingmotorcycles.co.uk/european-motorcycle-transport/

https://www.eurobiketrans.co.uk/spain/

https://www.rapid-shipping.co.uk/motorcycle-shipping-to-spain/

https://www.thebikerguide.co.uk/motorcycletransportation

A few phone calls or a bit of email / on-line enquiry might answer the OP’s question, unless of course someone has done it recently (say in the past six to nine months) or has booked something for later in 2023. If so, who was it with?

Costs don't stack up for most, but if time is a huge constraint it looks better, however.

I fancied meeting some guys I know in the Alps for a few days, time more limited now I have young child so instead of 2 days (min) each way, fly and ride means only 1 day each way, saving me 1000+ miles of dull motorway and 2 nights accomodation and crossing costs.

Still with most you have to drop / pickup bike so thats a day each time, with a lift required to bring you back after dropping it / take you there to pick it up.

Then you have to go to airport, pay for parking car, pay for flight, get to airport a couple of hours before flight, othe end you need to get through customs and find way to bike depot - with tax costs.

I came to the conclusion it was no faster / no cheaper & probably a lot more hassle than just riding there - certainly for Alps, southern spain is probably a different proposition.

However it is probably cheaper to just hire a bike in the Alps, with big bikes being about £150 a day - probably some extra for high mileage or better insurance, so call it £200, but for 5-6 days riding that is not so bad, fly out early morning and riding the alps by mid afternoon saving a day each way / 2 nights hotel / 1000 motorway miles, maybe another 2000 miles riding in the alps:

75% of a Pair of tyres £200+
2 Nights accomodation / food / drink £200
1200 Miles Fuel out / back £200
Service cost / wear & Tear / Depreciation £100
Crossings £100

Maybe £900 of savings against £1200 for bike hire / £150 for Flights / £50 car parking at airport - so possibly £500 premium, but if it means you can cut an 8 day trip down to 6 days and its the difference between a pass-out and no trip its worth the £500, or if your self employed and it means you can work 2 extra days as well then the hire looks attractive.

I came to the decision I am better off just going somewhere a bit closer for 5 days - Eifel / Black Forest / Vosges, get just as many "good miles" in as they an all be reached in a day.

The main attraction of a hire would be to have a different bike for a week, maybe something smaller as many of us ride huge bikes to cover big miles, or something more suited to gravell and go and explore off piste a bit, I might fancy a V4 Ducati hire, a bike I would never dream of spunking north of £20k for, and I prefer V-Twn torque over 4-cylinder top end, but would ove to try something diffferent for a week, or maybe a sportsbike something I have not been able to contort myself onto for long days since the 00's, but for a few days "canyon carving" as our American frieds call it then why not?

Rasher makes some interesting and good observations. He’s quite right in that much of it is horses for courses.

To use the example of the OP’s home: Aberdeen to Newcastle is 250 miles, before you have even caught a ferry to the Continent. To Hull, it’s close on 400, to Harwich 550 and to Dover 600. Portsmouth is 600 miles too, whilst Plymouth is the same at a touch over 600. By way of simple comparison, my house to Dijon (half way down France) is about 460 miles, so doable in a day.

It makes perfect sense to truck a bike somewhere or do a fly-hire holiday, from so far away. I’d think nothing of putting my bike (as I have done) behind my motorhome, to take it 500 miles to Fort William from London. Towing it behind a vehicle makes sense, as does having someone else take it or flying and hiring. Like avoiding all and any motorways all the time, there are no medals handed out for riding everywhere.

You could try contacting https://www.focusedevents.com/euro-bike-trackdays and see if they will do a transport option only for you.

I have done many track days in spain with them and the cost of transport and hotel and track time is in the region of £5-600. Transport from ABZ is on top of that.

That's not a bad idea. I went on a 3 day event with No Limits in September and it was £599 incl bike transport, hotel and 3 days at Portimao.
I did the first day on track, decided it wasn't for me and did 2 days up in the beautiful Portuguese countryside.
I realise you've got to get your bike to their pick up point and they're only there for a few days, but they might be able to take your bike out on one date and pick it up when they're next there, sometimes within a few weeks.

Dirty Ming said:

That's not a bad idea. I went on a 3 day event with No Limits in September and it was £599 incl bike transport, hotel and 3 days at Portimao.
I did the first day on track, decided it wasn't for me and did 2 days up in the beautiful Portuguese countryside.
I realise you've got to get your bike to their pick up point and they're only there for a few days, but they might be able to take your bike out on one date and pick it up when they're next there, sometimes within a few weeks.

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That is an interesting angle, from what I can see it might be cheaper to pay for a track day and never ride on the track, than use other transport services!

I am not sure they would want to do transport only as I suspect their business model is to fill the track allocation they have, but who knows?

Well worth a call.

I might fancy trying it, go for a spin in the mountains and maybe do a few laps of the track for a laugh, also means you have tyre fitters and mechanical help if anything goes wrong - and bike repatriation, you only need recovery back to track where there is secure storage and transport home pre-arranged for you and bike

This idea is a take on the old method of booking a cheap package holiday, simply to get the aeroplane flight.

The HGVs were fully loaded, double stacked stillages hold 2 bikes, tools and kit. When I told the organiser I wasn't doing the last 2 days he "sold" the place on track to someone who was local and just paid for the track time.

Thanks for everyone's information here. It's been really interesting and helfpul and you have provided me with a lot of information I didn't have before.
On this occassion, I've decided to book the ferry from Portsmouth to Santander but in the future, I might fly and hire a bike so thanks again for all the info.

Excellent.

Enjoy your holiday.