How to ship a bike?

Hey guys. A work buddy would like to ship his dad's harley from California to Nebraska. Neither of us have ever shipped a bike before so I'm not really sure how to advize him. Have you guys ever shipped a bike? What companies are reliable? Anything or anyone he should look out for?

I bought a bike in Nebraska several years ago, it was a '71 Honda CL350 that I had been looking for. Just like one that I had when I was 15 years old. I just tried to find the company that I used but they didn't pop up in my search. It was haul bikes or something like that. It arrived on a semi and there were probably 15 or so more bikes still on the trailer. It arrived in great condition and I had no complaints except that it took a while to arrive due to their multiple stops along the way. All irrelevant I suppose since I can't find them now.

I did a quick search and one that seems to get a lot of good reviews is Federal. I've never used them and they may bar expensive. You could check them out though.

https://www.funtransport.com

I didn't look very hard. I searched for bike shippers and it didn't come up but when I actually went back and searched for Haul Bikes, there is was. Imagine that, using their actual name. DUH.

Anyway, this is the one that I used years ago and like I said, the bike arrived in excellent condition. There were a lot of bikes on the trailer but they were all safely secured with plenty of space between them. At the time, they were more reasonable than most. That may no longer be the case.

https://www.haulbikes.com

Hey guys. A work buddy would like to ship his dad's harley from California to Nebraska. Neither of us have ever shipped a bike before so I'm not really sure how to advize him. Have you guys ever shipped a bike? What companies are reliable? Anything or anyone he should look out for?

I guess my question would be... is HE acquiring his dads bike? It would be cheaper for him to fly out to California & ride it back with the added enjoyment of the ride.

Hey guys. A work buddy would like to ship his dad's harley from California to Nebraska. Neither of us have ever shipped a bike before so I'm not really sure how to advize him. Have you guys ever shipped a bike? What companies are reliable? Anything or anyone he should look out for?

Yep,, I too have used Haul Bikes on several occasions. The last one was a few years ago when a chap from California bought my 70 HD Cop bike. It shipped from my house in Michigan to California for under 500 bucks. If you do a little digging you can find independents who will ship cheaper, have done that several times thru the years too, but if you do that there are a lot of unknowns to deal with. Things like people showing up with open trailers come to mind. While they can lean toward taking a little more time to get to the haul (their prices are held down buy hauling numerous bikes to numerous locations IMHO), a professional Trucking Company like Haul Bikes is usually more secure. Another way that I have also used is to palletize the scoot and work thru a Trucking firm. That way is wayyyyy cheaper in my experience but a lot of the trucking companies require a crate being built. It's not that difficult to build a 1x2 crate and shrink wrap the thing but ya gotta also have the means of hauling the palletized scoot to a terminal. I did numerous machines like that and shipped for a couple hundred bucks and made a few bucks on charging my customers for the crating but it's a lot of hassle.

On the cop bike to Cali the scoot sold with both types of shields, bat wing and classic. I ended up leaving the classic attached along with the original trunk. Then I grabbed some carpet padding, wrapped the bat wing in it, wrapped that in cardboard with shipping tape, then when the Haul Bikes got here and after they tied the scoot in their rig I took the bat wing and used cheap ratchet straps from HF to tie the bat wing onto the seat of the bike so the buyer could quick release it when he took possession. Haul Bikes was good with that and charged nothing extra.. Make sense Cha?

Since it is an HD....think someone mentioned previously that HD will ship bikes for you as well.

Yep,, I too have used Haul Bikes on several occasions. The last one was a few years ago when a chap from California bought my 70 HD Cop bike. It shipped from my house in Michigan to California for under 500 bucks. If you do a little digging you can find independents who will ship cheaper, have done that several times thru the years too, but if you do that there are a lot of unknowns to deal with. Things like people showing up with open trailers come to mind. While they can lean toward taking a little more time to get to the haul (their prices are held down buy hauling numerous bikes to numerous locations IMHO), a professional Trucking Company like Haul Bikes is usually more secure. Another way that I have also used is to palletize the scoot and work thru a Trucking firm. That way is wayyyyy cheaper in my experience but a lot of the trucking companies require a crate being built. It's not that difficult to build a 1x2 crate and shrink wrap the thing but ya gotta also have the means of hauling the palletized scoot to a terminal. I did numerous machines like that and shipped for a couple hundred bucks and made a few bucks on charging my customers for the crating but it's a lot of hassle.

On the cop bike to Cali the scoot sold with both types of shields, bat wing and classic. I ended up leaving the classic attached along with the original trunk. Then I grabbed some carpet padding, wrapped the bat wing in it, wrapped that in cardboard with shipping tape, then when the Haul Bikes got here and after they tied the scoot in their rig I took the bat wing and used cheap ratchet straps from HF to tie the bat wing onto the seat of the bike so the buyer could quick release it when he took possession. Haul Bikes was good with that and charged nothing extra.. Make sense Cha?

You ever do something in life and NOT take a picture? I am not a picture taker except for something to document an event or circumstance. Years of construction created many pics but once they went off to the company archives they were trash. I think it is great that you do this but how in the heck do you find them again?

You ever do something in life and NOT take a picture? I am not a picture taker except for something to document an event or circumstance. Years of construction created many pics but once they went off to the company archives they were trash. I think it is great that you do this but how in the heck do you find them again?

 

Yeah,,, I know,,, it's another flaw in my otherwise completely innocent, introverted and normal personal identity Sly. I had kind of a rough childhood, left home at 15, lived on the streets, ate out of dumpsters, figured out nothing was free in life before I was 16, saw a lot of stuff that no kid should be exposed to (close friends killed) , met the Lord, He and I hammered my trajectory, got a job, bought my 1st House with cash before my 19th birthday. Out of all that rough beginning also came the fact that life could be way to short and that I needed to document what was unfolding before my very eyes. Got involved in takin.

The introduction of the digital camera's/video was like a HUGE calling card with my name on it. After that happened I would do things like taking over 12 thousand (not a typo) pics every time we set out for a month or two of CTFW or at a Graduation or what ever in an attempt to get a few worthy pictures. That habit slid me into finding great joy in snapping away.

I dual Majored as a non traditional college student when I went back to school in '93. As well as a B.A. in Business Management I also ended up with a CIS (Computer Information Systems) degree which both were a valiant attempt at teaching a completely old school care free unorganized hippy to be at least becoming somewhat organized. It really did not work but some of it did in that I did manage to go external on P.C. hard drives and now have more than 1 = 1 terrabyte externals full of pictures/video's = how I know where to find the pics.

Tippy was also plagued by a similar disease as I in my love for pics and, 40 years of being married to me, spending her earlier years of being a stay at home Mom for our 4 kids and home schooling them ended up with endless family pics in photo albums with the contents of pre-digitized photo's. We also have stacks of VHS home videos from those years too..

Short answer brother,, yeah,, I pretty much dont do a lot of nothing with taking a ,, or :photographing: or sometimes even :photographing:...

I know you dont care much for long answers so I made that as short as possible Sly.. How'd I do?

Puc

Yeah,,, I know,,, it's another flaw in my otherwise completely innocent, introverted and normal personal identity Sly. I had kind of a rough childhood, left home at 15, lived on the streets, ate out of dumpsters, figured out nothing was free in life before I was 16, saw a lot of stuff that no kid should be exposed to (close friends killed) , met the Lord, He and I hammered my trajectory, got a job, bought my 1st House with cash before my 19th birthday. Out of all that rough beginning also came the fact that life could be way to short and that I needed to document what was unfolding before my very eyes. Got involved in takin.

The introduction of the digital camera's/video was like a HUGE calling card with my name on it. After that happened I would do things like taking over 12 thousand (not a typo) pics every time we set out for a month or two of CTFW or at a Graduation or what ever in an attempt to get a few worthy pictures. That habit slid me into finding great joy in snapping away.

I dual Majored as a non traditional college student when I went back to school in '93. As well as a B.A. in Business Management I also ended up with a CIS (Computer Information Systems) degree which both were a valiant attempt at teaching a completely old school care free unorganized hippy to be at least becoming somewhat organized. It really did not work but some of it did in that I did manage to go external on P.C. hard drives and now have more than 1 = 1 terrabyte externals full of pictures/video's = how I know where to find the pics.

Tippy was also plagued by a similar disease as I in my love for pics and, 40 years of being married to me, spending her earlier years of being a stay at home Mom for our 4 kids and home schooling them ended up with endless family pics in photo albums with the contents of pre-digitized photo's. We also have stacks of VHS home videos from those years too..

Short answer brother,, yeah,, I pretty much dont do a lot of nothing with taking a ,, or :photographing: or sometimes even :photographing:...

I know you dont care much for long answers so I made that as short as possible Sly.. How'd I do?

Puc

 

https://www.venturerider.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=116128

Wordy as usual, but you know I love you, brother.

Wordy as usual, but you know I love you, brother.

 

What do mean wordy,,, didnt you notice the video camera hanging from my shoulder and camera in the pouch on my hip in the picture I supplied,,, no words,, just a pic,,, that shoulda counted for something here brother :rasberry::rasberry:

Love you too Sly!

I have used USHIP you put your info in and you have a bunch of companys give you qoutes and you can research them and pick the best one I never had a problem with any of the people who have deliverd for me.

Hope the didnt chase that lop eared advice seekin varmint @Chaharly off (sorry bout that Cha)... Another flaw of mine,, didnt mean nothin by it Cha,,, just got carried away as usual:whistling:

Nothing to be sorry for! I've got pretty boring topics, so I dont mind you guys throwing some interesting color on these topics. He's looking through USHIP and bikehaul at the moment. I told him about palleting it etc, but its his dads and I dont think he's gonna pallet it for us. I told him he could fly me out there and I'll drive it home, but again, he sure didnt seem too interested in that. Hell he even refused me the third fourth and fifth times I asked him! We'll see what he ends up doing to get it back here.

Hey guys. A work buddy would like to ship his dad's harley from California to Nebraska. Neither of us have ever shipped a bike before so I'm not really sure how to advize him. Have you guys ever shipped a bike? What companies are reliable? Anything or anyone he should look out for?

Hey, Chaharly, not sure this will help you but others may be interested in this info. Was recently at the International Superbike Show here in Toronto and chatted with an airline company who had a booth to promote their bike shipping option. What they do is ship bikes from - to airports they serve. No crating. The bikes are just strapped in place. The price was similar to an airline ticket.

Hey, Chaharly, not sure this will help you but others may be interested in this info. Was recently at the International Superbike Show here in Toronto and chatted with an airline company who had a booth to promote their bike shipping option. What they do is ship bikes from - to airports they serve. No crating. The bikes are just strapped in place. The price was similar to an airline ticket.

Dont know if I'd want to share a seat with a HD Fatboy:bawling:

Craig

I used HaulBikes to bring the 89 1st Gen from Wisconsin to Tucson.

They were excellent!

The driver also rides. His HD trike can be seen in the top floor. It's white. Sorry, I had to change the post because I got my bottom and top floors mixed up. That's what I get for not going shopping yesterday...the family added about $20 worth of goodies for Easter dinner I didn't have.

What you do need to know is they pick up your bike and take it to a central area to wait for the next run to wherever the scoot is going. In my case, I had to wait a few weeks as the West coast run had just left before I scheduled. But once on the road, the driver kept both the company and us customers in the loop, good communication. You may get lucky and get picked up in the middle of a run. I don't know how that works.

I recommend them.

I think that bike haul looks like the real deal. Did ya ask him how many ventures he shipped?

This guy rode his father's Sportster from Iowa back home to CA. His thoughts.

I think that bike haul looks like the real deal. Did ya ask him how many ventures he shipped?

No I didn't ask him. He was interested in the bike though. It showed me he's one of the "good guys"...likes to ride regardless of the scoot.

We yapped for a while then he was off to LA.