Shipping a frame from US to OZ

brazilianhipster

My work has brought me to Brisbane. I’ve recently bought a BMC frameset from Competitive Cyclist in the US. I was told by Competitive Cyclist that they cannot ship BMC bikes to Australia.
I continued with the purchase, and got the frameset posted to a friend of mine who lives in Houston.

I am now looking at shipping the bike from Houston to Brisbane. This is where to issue start!
The cheapest shipping cost I’ve been quoted to date is just over $1000 USD (694 GBP)!!!

Why is the cost so high? Can anyone suggest a cheaper option I could explore to get the frameset to Brisbane?

Giraffoto

Get your friend to pack the frame between two thick sheets of polystyrene and take it to his nearest Fedex depot - it will be a lot less than 1000 USD, and that's the expensive option.

MattC59

I had an aluminium MTB frame posted from the US to the UK a couple of years ago. It cost $56, plus the import duty that the post office clobbered me with.
In total I paid:

Postage: $56.75
Insurance: $5.75
Import Duties: £48.62 !!!

It was shipped via USPS priority service.

$1000 seems a little high to say the least !!!!

Monty Dog

Air freight is usually based on volume - pack the frame safely in the smallest box possible (remove forks + pipe lagging + bubble wrap) and measure the dimensions. Go online and try a number of couriers to get quotes - DHL are usually pretty reasonable. USPS are reknown for losing stuff.

campbellrae1

I shipped a full bike back from Aus to the UK earlier this year with a load of other stuff, the box was massive and weighed like 40kgs. With DHL it was £300, would have been a load less for just a frame. They were very good, got back in 4 days.

May be worth talking to pack and send in Brisbane, they have offices all over the city centre! For what it's worth, most frame boxes are within the maximum post parcel size, so you should save quite a bit if you can keep to that.