Preparation and Bike Collection - A trip of this magnitude needs plenty of preparation and plenty of what if questions to be answered. The rationale for sending my bike across came down to the ridiculous cost of hiring especially if you want to go the TT. It was demonstrably cheaper to send mine across even with insurance and so on added in. I used the Get Routed people to do the actual transportation. That meant they worried about the loading, whatever approvals were required at either end, shipping and then unloading at the UK end. All you have to do is disconnect the battery and make sure there is less that 2 litres of fuel in it. Getting liability insurance (the same as our 3rd party) was sourced through Tourinsure out of Germany. You need that bit of paper or you are going nowhere in the UK. They are ruthless about it and having a NSW number plate was going to make me a police magnet. I also took out comprehensive insurance for a couple of months as well. I was worried about some numpty wanting to nick my rego plate so I attached it with security screws to at least deter them. I also put an Apple AirTag on the handlebars so I could see where it was as long as someone with an iPhone was nearby. It reported when it was at the Sydney freight forwarders, Sydney Port, Singapore Port then at Felixstowe in the UK.
One late curveball arose with the Federal Department of Transport now mandating that you require a Reimportation Approval to bring your bike back into Australia. Seems a bit odd that they know you're taking it out, it's registered in Australia and so on. Go figure.
The collection at the Port was straight forward. I checked into the local Premier Inn, gave them a call, and got a taxi down to the freight people. Way out in the back corner was the Bumblebee looking all lonely. Popped a new battery in that I had sent with the bike and it started first try. Bonus. Attached the panniers and top box then back to the hotel. I will spend today getting everything where I want it with anything not needed for the next five weeks being secured at the hotel where I will come back to before dropping the bike off again.
The organisers of the rally this weekend were good enough to send the rally book out last Friday to give all us newbies a week to work out a ride plan. I'm just about done needing to just load my cunning plan into the Garmin and Google Maps. I'm aiming for a safe ride through the English countryside, score at a level not to embarrass myself and to socialise. The start point is slightly to the east of Crawley which is south of London. Weather is forecast to be dry.
Next update will be in regards to the Rally this weekend.
PG
