Back to the business of shipping bikes

After a little bit more internet research we feel comfortable that Pacific Air Cargo will be able to help us and work as our cargo agent. Our contact person is Belen Castro, she may have been chosen as she speaks English, very hard working and accommodating to our numerous questions. The process is very similar to when we shipped from Canada with the exception that we need to crate the bikes. So while Belen is gathering all the information needed for a shipping quote and working hard to find a carrier that will accept the motorcycles we are contacting bike dealers in Quito looking for packing crates. I figured they would be the best place to start as they would receive new motorcycles in crates from the manufacturer. We contacted BMW, Harley Davidson, Kawasaki, Honda, and Husqvarna (they make more than just chain saws). Things were not looking good as one by one we got responses that they did not currently have any crates, then Sebastian from Pro-Racing replied that he had two crates available but would need a couple of days to uncrate the bikes that were still in them. This was fine with us as we still had not heard from Belen about flight times and such.

Sebastian giving us the tour of their dealership. This is the service and storage area. The showroom is upstairs.

They don't look like much but they need to be made of certified lumber or Canada will not allow them into the country.

We wanted to confirm the crates in person so we hopped on the Trollebus to the dealership, Sebastian was there and showed us the crates as well as their dealership. Pro-Racing is a multiline dealer selling Triumph, MV Agusta, and Husqvarna. They also have a full service shop for all types of bikes, while we were there they were working on a KTM, Kawasaki, Honda, BMW, and a big side-by-side. This is a very capable shop with trained mechanics, not some backyard guy with a dirt floor and homemade tools.

In any event the staff were very friendly and it looked like the crates would work for our bikes even though they were made for 250cc dirt bikes. Yay! One less thing on the to-do list.

We have not heard back from Belen yet so we wait anxiously going over as many details as we can, trying to get them into some sort of priority. The four day holiday is trying our patience, it is more of an inconvenience than actual hardship, but we cannot do anything about it so we make the best of it and take in some of the carnival activities. There is a big procession at the main square in old town.

After a bit more email correspondence and 7 days, we find out that the crates will be acceptable to the airline plus all other criteria has been satisfied. We can now move forward with crating the bikes. The airlines were nervous about the crates because the wood used has to be in accordance with international softwood regulations. I explained that the crates made it into Ecuador without issue so they should be able to leave. In any event it was back to Pro-Racing where Sebastian arranged for a friend of his to take the crates and us to the cargo warehouse. Once there we proceeded to weigh the bikes and get them disassembled for crating.

The crating process is simple in theory, make the bike fit the box. The smaller the box the less you pay. There is a break-even point where the volumetric weight is less than the actual weight, the ideal size is for these two numbers to equal, thus giving you minimum size for the maximum weight. Our bikes with luggage and riding gear weighed in at 189kg and 190kg. The volumetric weight of the crate is 183kg so we will be paying for the actual weight which should be about 230kg per bike including the weight of the crate. So the next steps involve removal of the front tire, letting the air out of the tires, strapping down the bike enough to compress the suspension.

The easiest way to get the front tire off when the you cannot use the center stand.

That looks a little better.

Then we have to stuff bits out of the luggage into the nooks and crannies of bike and then packing the bigger pieces into the larger air spaces around the bike. Strap it all tightly so that it does not move, and trial fit the sides and lid of the crate. The first try revealed that the luggage rack was still too high so a couple more bolts needed to be removed so that the luggage plate would rest on the rear fender. That extra inch was all we needed to fit the lid without touching the bike.


 It is now about 5:30pm so we head off to the bus depot for our two hour ride into Quito.

Up early and down to the breakfast place. Two fried eggs, coffee, fresh juice, and a cheese bun for $2USD, then onto the 2hr bus back out to Tababela. Today is a bit more organized as we are crating the second bike, it is nice that nobody is in the warehouse to bother us and we manage to cut the crating time in half. Belen is once again taking very good care of her Canadian customers and insists on buying us lunch. The gesture is appreciated and we enjoy the typical Ecuadorian lunch of soup followed by a main course of rice, meat, beans, salad and fruit juice. Also, $2USD a plate.
By 4pm we have everything completed, tomorrow we take the bikes to the airport and customs will do their final check before the crate is sealed and tagged for shipment.

From this.

To this!!

Back on the 2hr magic bus, supper at the Shawarma place because they have 1liter beer for $1 and a very good garlic sauce, plus the other customers are very entertaining. Tonight there is a birthday party and the teenagers are singing and drinking but not eating.

Our appointment with the customs is for 11:30am so we need to be at Pacific Air with enough time to have the bikes loaded into a truck and drive the 10km over to the airport. This is all good, we arrive at 10am and the bikes are already in the truck, however, Belen tells us that the customs departments needs a detailed, itemized list of everything in each crate. The previous list was not detailed enough and there is a risk that customs could simply refuse to accept the bikes or confiscate anything they cannot reference on the list. Oh boy, this is going to be fun. Strip everything off the crate except the bike, open all our bags and list each item within. 

Brenda’s bike is fairly easy as she has the bigger bulky items like tent, tent poles etc. My bike is packed with all the mechanical bits, plastic peanut butter jars stuffed with electrical parts, bearings, wires, fuses, electrical sensors, wrenches, and of course the borderline acceptable Kolpin container otherwise known as a gas can. We do not want to draw attention to the GAS CAN so we call it by the brand name Kolpin. Needless to say, the appointment needed to be bumped to 2:00pm or maybe 3:00pm because the truck driver needed to eat at 2:00 instead of driving to the airport, or maybe eat earlier would have been a good idea, but this is South America and that is not how they roll down here.

If you can’t beat them join them, so after lunch we take the bikes to the airport, only now the customs office is almost closed for the day so they are not interested in looking at the bikes. They claim that the crates can only be inspected 4 hours before flight time, which is not until 6am. They were nice enough to accept the bikes off the truck into the airline warehouse for the night, at least we did not have to come back for that.

Customs lady. She seemed very serious concerned about the time of day.

Applying the shipping stickers. We like stickers.

More South America factor. The loading ramp is 6inches to high for a standard truck.

Airline cargo  warehouse.

Look Boss da plane.

Back on the 2hr magic bus. We take supper at the Chifa place tonight, big plate of mixed veggies with chicken, shrimp and pork. One plate is enough for both of us, $5USD and a frozen chocolate covered banana from the little store for $0.30.

The plan is to be ready to leave Quito in the morning as our bikes should be on a plane when we wake up. Oh, and the bikes are going to Calgary via Amsterdam as KLM airlines does not have any direct flights to Canada. At 9am, Belen emails that the flight has been bumped to 11:40am but the bikes are already in the plane so it is very unlikely they will get removed from the plane. This is enough confirmation for us, we check out of the hotel and head for the bus terminal, next stop Tulcan.