Ship bike to California, ride home planning

[SteveM]

Family vacation planned for late June to SoCal, no time to rid there, but a ton of time after. I'm considering shipping the VFR out there and taking my sweet time coming home.

Where do I begin to arrange this?

[ben10281]

Forawrd air. I shipped a bike from terminal to terminal (Sacramento area to Chelsea) for about $600 a couple years back. I showed up with a bunch of tie downs and two combo locks. They brought out a crate and told me to secure the bike myself and then lock the crate shut. Luckily it showed up in Chelsea in the same condition as when I shipped it out. I took a couple of pics if I can find them I will post them.

[Rosco61]

https://www.forwardair.com/prepaid/MCmainpage.jsp

Pretty cool. Nice crate too.

[breakdirt916]

I don't know anything about the ride back, but when I shipped to cali, I found that freightcenter.com had the lowest price

I believe the price will vary/fluctuate, so post on uship, google all the shipping companies, check forums to see what other people have used, get quotes from all the sites (ask them for both door to door, and terminal to terminal), then go with the best compromise. For me, it was cheapest to ride up to a terminal in lowell, MA, load the bike onto a pallet, then ride it off of a pallet in cali.

also, call your insurance company and verify that they'll cover you for the trip

[rsw81]

I used haulbikes.com to ship mine from California to Boston, door to door. Really nice rig specifically designed for motorcycles. However, the shipping time is quite a bit longer than crating it and putting it on a plane. Cost was $600, so if you can do it on a plane as mentioned above for the same price, I'd do that!

[ben10281]

The name Forward Air is misleading. For motorcycle transport they actually throw the bike on a truck.

[ranette]

I shipped my bike from southern California to Vermont. Did quite a bit of research, got a ton of quotes through Uship, most of them were really high, though I know some people have had success with them. Finally went with Keyboard, http://keyboardmotorcycleshipping.com/. They only ship motorcycles and pianos, the truck that delivered mine seemed to be about 50/50 bikes vs. pianos. Flat fee of $675, no hidden extras. Guy showed up on time, bike was in the exact same condition that it left the dealer in California. They have a pallet that they designed themselves, all of the contact points are padded with some sort of fleece. Bottom line is I would highly recommend them.

[R1]

The roads out here are terrible. I wouldnt waste your time...