Going over there

[airoilheadbeemerguy]

Hi all, have been yakking about doing this for decades & next Sept mama & I will be going over. I want to take my RT over to Europe(mostly Germany, Low Countries & France) for approx 4-5 weeks to tour & sight see. Anyone who may have done so recently please post your success/problems with air freighting your bike and with which firm/airline please. This is about the only challenge I've experienced yet with planning.:bikes

[ltljohn]

You will get lots of good advice here, you may also want to go to bmwsporttouring.com they are a good bunch and several go to Europe regularly you can't have too much information.

[DarrylRi]

Check out the Global Touring area of the main website.

Talk to Stefan Knopf http://www.knopftours.com about it, he can make it happen for you.

[dbrick]

Darryl's modest. There's good info on his site, too:

http://darryl.crafty-fox.com/motorcycles/europeriding.htm

[pffog]

Can't help with the shipping questions, but you will love the area, great roads, not the grandeur of the high passes in the Alps, but the roads flow well and pavement was good. Food is not as good as Bavaria, but better then a lot of places. Small roads are the best.

Don't be afraid to venture off and explore, that is the fun of exploring.

[GlobalRider]

Anyone who may have done so recently please post your success/problems with air freighting your bike and with which firm/airline please. This is about the only challenge I've experienced yet with planning.:bikes

I would call some shippers. They charge about 1/2 of what the airlines charge. I paid $1125 vs $2200 for shipping that ended up on the same flight. Go figure!

Mind you, I did most of the work; built my own pallet, tied my bike down, drained the gas tank and disconnected the battery, and then bubble wrapped the whole thing.

Be prepared to pay another couple of hundred bucks to clear customs.

Get your Green Card insurance (sold by the month) from Stefan Knopf in advance or if you fly into Germany, you can get if from an ADAC office in person for €22 per month. There is an ADAC office 10 minutes from the Frankfurt airport.

You can find more info that may be of help such as accomodations lists and map lists on the link below my signature pic.

Where are you thinking of flying into?

[airoilheadbeemerguy]

Where are you thinking of flying into?[/QUOTE]

Preferably Dusseldorf although Frankfurt is probably more realistic for arrival & departure. In my mid/late teens we were in Germany for three glorious years, Dad was on Nato duty. Want to revisit both spots we lived, one just east of the Ruhr and the other at Baden-Baden. Plan to see the north country, then ride over to Holland, Belgium, down along the old western front(following my grandpa's history in the great war) and then have the next 2-3 weeks open to where the winds will take us). Thanks for all the input so far, will post my results.

[GlobalRider]

Preferably Dusseldorf although Frankfurt is probably more realistic for arrival & departure.

I don't know if any non-charter flights originating in the US fly directly into Düsseldorf.

Frankfurt and Munich are certainly far more "international" as far as airports go.

[franze]

Good for you. Can't help with the moto transport BUT, if you or anyone else would like some excellent map copies I am happy to send you two of my well worn National Geographic supplements. One is titled "A Travellers Map Of Germany" and it contains "tours" of routes that link historical routes such as "Fairy Tale road which follows the Brothers Grim. This tool can be used as a supplement to a road map. Also have the "Travellers Map of the Alps" which is basically a relief map of the alps with key cities/lakes on it.

[DarrylRi]

I'm flying over to Frankfurt on 3. June for 4 weeks. I've got some errands to run -- I need some parts for my old bikes -- but I'm planning to wander around Tuscany and Emiglia-Romana in Italy for a little while. I'm going to finish with rally in the Harz mountains put on by an email group I'm a part of.

I've got an R1100RS I keep at a friend's house in Karlsruhe. I got the bike over there via Stefan Knopf's Daytona shipping service. It cost me $500 in 2002, and all I had to do was drop the bike with him in Daytona. For a couple years I kept the bike stored with him, the service was very inexpensive, and the bike was always serviced and ready to go when I arrived. Later, when I bought an R52 and wanted it shipped home, I gave it to him and he air freighted it to me at SFO. That was about $1700, but it arrived in perfect shape and there was not a single hitch at customs. I can't say enough good about Stefan.