OK so bikes here are expensive and I'm sucking up the large portion of "I told you to ship your bike over" my missus is handing out.

Really can't expect my Dad to clean my bike in the UK to the nth degree, so I reckon shipping everything out bar the wheels/tyres will do the job at least I can get some new wheels here.

Assume I can just get my old man to get a bike box from a local bike shop, drop in a wad of bubble wrap, twist the bars and pack it up like that? Anyone got a rough idea of the cost? I'm getting bike-sick and I want it here as soon as poss!

(BTW Australia is lovely. Winter, they say. 20c!!!! hahah)

He has to clean the frame anyway, so he might as well clean the wheels. Tyres are pretty easy to clean (just hose em down), but they aren't exactly expensive to replace so you might not want to bother with them.

Make sure that he really really cleans it very well – I cleaned mine very well with an old toothbrush and that was okay, but when they checked it in New Zealand they sprayed it with disinfectant and grumped a bit at me. The same when I went to Australia with it, except that time it was super clean and they didn't grump whilst they sprayed the disinfectant.

Cost when I looked at posting a bike the other way was going to be quite a lot, I seem to remember it was over £200. Are any of your family coming to visit – that's the easiest way – especially if you can convince them to come on one of the airlines that does free bike carriage (Air New Zealand do, can't remember which other ones).

Joe

A lot of people in New Zealand buy bikes and parts from either shops in the USA or Chain Reaction in the UK by the way. I guess it's the same in Australia.

Joe

aphex,

Where have you been looking, and at what brands. I moved to Perth bout 2 years ago (the weather is a bitch hey) and brought my Heckler over, cost me about 170 quid, but i cleaned it and took it too bits including swingarm so i could get it into as small a box as pos. If you ship your bike and it isn`t spotless customs will hold it and charge you a lot to clean.

The other option is Giant, i got over the badge snobbery pretty quickly when i worked out how cheap they are here. Trance X0 for $4K for instance!!

Where do you live? My local shop in Cannington does some awesome deals if your intersted.

I'm in Freo right now and moving to Melville in a few weeks. Fleet Cycles is across the road from me.

Biggest problem is I'm looking at bikes around the 2k mark (AUD) but finishing kit seems poor at that price. Toras. Juicy 3's. Which shop is in Cannington? I hear Wembley Cycles is decent? Bike Force Freo seems really roady focussed.

Drop me an email and we can hook up if you have "contacts". Get my first paycheck week on Wednesday but had to get comp insurance as I'm working for Freo hospital on a 4 year 457 while we decide if our goal is to stay here. Have to say I'm loving it but Freo is pricey.

Mark

Tried to email you, no joy….

Hi Mark,

So i was in the local bike shop today and have some good news!!

The have a medium Giant Trance X3 (ex demo, been on oe ride) for
$2200…. that is a very good deal.

http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-AU/bikes/mountain/2334/32059/zoom/

Spec is pretty good, mix of Deore and SLX but nice forks and shock so
very upgradeable.

They also had an anthem X0 which they will do for $2200, similar spec
but forks not as good.

http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-AU/bikes/mountain/2333/32053/zoom/

How tall are you?

Give me a shout if your intersted.

Cheers

Ben

If you do get your bike sent over – Make sure you use plenty of bubble wrap!

My bike box looked – quite literally – as if someone had repeatedly thrown it off a tall cliff when it arrived here (Tasmania) by air freight …some 2 months later.

The bike was ok though, as I'd disassembled pretty much everything and wrapped it in layers of bubble-wrap, parcel tape and pipe insulation. I think it cost something like 200 pounds to send over + import/inspection fees

I shipped 6 bikes in boxes (amongst others) to NZ last year. Using the local house removals company using "groupage" ie: shared container, the bikes cost £30 each. It did take 4 months, but it was very cheap.

Second hand off of PMBC?

The Quokka is hard work but you do get to visit some suburbs you've never heard of.

Only a real dropkick would ever say I told you so. 😉

Why??

WA is hardly a mtb mecca?

Id be out on the water too (kitesurfing, windsurfing and fishing )much to be pottering about in the heat amidst boring dusty scrub on a mtb.

Yeah I know, thanks for all the "I told you so"s….

I'm only here for 12 months so waiting 4 months isn't an option at all.

Why? Well, that's a silly question. WA is hardly a motorsport mecca either but people still drive 6 litre V8 utes.

PMBC – been on there for a while tbh. Nice bunch of peeps but never owt I really like the look of. Fussy get.

What exactly are the import/inspection fees? I'm wondering just how much they could charge me, worst case scenario. Do they charge per grain of dirt, or per bike?

Also to the "why" question. Can I kitesurf to work? Can I windsurf to work? Can I fish to work? No. I can not. And I have no interest in road bikes whatsoever. And I have friends with mountain bikes who, guess what, ride mountain bikes in the hills. WA doesn't need to be a"mountain bike mecca" for me to enjoy riding. It beats Wolverhampton.

edit: actually I can claim back the cost of shipping all my stuff over here, and they will reimburse me the cost of shipping bike over and inspections. i know, shudda dunnit in the first place.

The biking in WA is actually excellent, lots of really nice singletrack, infact easy to put together a 4hour ride on 90% singletrack!! This time of year the trails are beautiful, fast and a lot of fun and surprisingly hilly, not a mecca but bloody good none the less.

Sounds like you should prob import the bike, have a look at this site, will give you all the info you need. To be honest if you get it sent minus tyres and after a good clean that would prob be enough. There should be no import fees as the bike is used but your import limit is $1000, after that can be up to 25% extra in tax, but this only applies to new stuff.

http://www.customs.gov.au/site/page.cfm

And if you want anyone to show you the range of great trails i know just the man….

Just might take you up on that offer dude. Wherabouts you livin? Currently in Freo but moving up to Melville in about 4 weeks.

Will get my old man on the case and get the bike sent over as soon as humanly possible. Will be sending it sans wheels as I only had Crossrides on and, to be fair, they're pretty battered. Must make sure he puts some wedges in the disc brakes as Formula bleed kits are hard enough to get in the UK – I doubt very much I'll be able to get one here and I'm damned if I'm paying for an Avid one!Gonna hire a couple of bikes on Sat and ride down the coast a bit as I've not ventured south of Freo. I'm sure Rockingham is do-able.

My email address should be visible but I'm also on PMBC site (aphex2k) so if you can't get in touch via email then drop me a PM on there if you're a member.

See yaz!

I live in Cannington, but won

b

ing for a few more weeks, broke my ankle about 8 weeks ago!! The bunch i normaly ride with are great though, they will show you around.

Not very often that I head that way, you can get good maps in bike shops though for a few bucks…. I do a fair bit of road riding but mostly up in the hills or too and from work (I work in Freo).

shorts_in_winter has it right (and about the shorts). I did a 78km loop on saturday that was 90% flowing singletrack. My legs told me there were plenty of hills. Mtbiking in WA is much underrated and getting better all the time with new trails, riders and events.

Worth trying Torpedo7 for new wheels when your bike arrives.

I don't windsurf or kite board to work but I occasionally kayak in. Guess I'm lucky.

4hr ride with 90% singletrack sounds like a pretty good ride to me.

One piece of advice I can give from my riding in WA is never land on the spinifex, it may look soft but it'll come back to haunt you a few days later – hands full pustules!

For advice on where to ride try Jo and Tim Bennett at kalamunda cycles – they both live up in the hills and own/run the shop and race.

They should be able to give you some pointers and are lovely people (old friends)

Never used to road ride myself but the early morning bunches in Perth were a lot of fun, hammering along in a bunch down past the river with the sun blazing was a pretty special feeling. I miss it a lot!!

Need to sort out my salary saver and superan and should be able to pick up a bike in about 6 weeks. Funds seriously low and the free accomodation is ending early sept so need to get a bond together and start looking for a place to stay for the rest of the year here.

Sending bike over is too much hassle. 2k seems about right but I'll probs go for a hardtail tbh but all depends. That Anthem looks a nice bit of kit and no doubt they'll come down a bit when the 2010 bikes are surfacing.

You can also get some stellar deals on the hard tails…. i can happily meet you at the local shop when you have some cash together…

Sounds like a plan. As I said, it's gonna be a few weeks but I'll try n hook up. Can you not see my email in profile?

Just got back from work. Spent a whole day being shown the exact contents of the resus trolley and how to use the defib. Fun.

Just grabbing a spot of dinner and getting the train up to the city for Friday avo drinks. Hard life innit? 🙂

Sorted a bike out and should be picking it up in a week. Managed to get an 09 Giant XTC 2 for $1400 dollars, just need to go down and try it for size. 2010 bikes out in a month or so, hence the good deal on last years model. Works out around £700 and it seems a reasonable spec for the cash.

Really missed my bike. Hired some cacky hardtails from a local shop but the weather's been a bit crap and we hardly used them.

we're moving to NSW in the new year and i'm a bit unsure what they investigate as 'looking under 12 months old'. Do you have to get things professionally cleaned before you ship them? We are getting everything shipped by the company my wife's working for but what sort of criteria will they have for how clean the bikes are, how new they are and what we are allowed to take into the country? Help!

Erm… yeah. I had a bit of a panic about that whole '12 months old' thing. I had a pair of brand-new-with-tags-on Endura gloves in the package with with my bike. Thought I was gonna get fined, or deported or something..

I think ultimately it's a bit of a misnomer – designed to prevent people bringing new-new stuff into the country and selling it on whatever, without paying import duty. In practice the customs inspection people didn't seem to give two hoots about the gloves, they seemed more concerned about the half of Surrey I had brought with me attached to my shoes.

So long as it's been used a bit I'm sure you'll be fine. Just make sure it's spotlessly clean and tyres etc. are thoroughly disinfected with a bleach solution. This will save you a TON of hassle..

Good luck!
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p.s. Awesomely ancient thread, by the way. This has to be a new record for thread ressurection!

We brought various "new" things with us when we moved from the UK, and never had a problem with them. However, customs did have a problem with some cane laundry baskets and xmas decorations with fir cones in them.

We had the choice of paying to get them treated to make them "safe" or let them destroy them.

remove the tyres, get some when you get here; way easier than proving disinfectant has been used etc, and give the rest of the bike a thorough clean. being an island, it is the thought of pests getting brought in to the country that aren't currently present that has them worried. all the crap that tyres may've been through is what they look for; doesn't mean that they won't make you have to get the bike cleaned by them, but they are pretty good about it overall, especially if you make some effort to start with!

The 12 months new thing – you'll be stupidly unlucky to get pinged on this if it's in personal luggage; bring in 20 tee shirts the same with tags on, they may think you are going to sell them on and are trying to avoid paying duty. pretty commonsense TBH; they'll only drag you on this if you have something else dodgy going on and then they hit you with everythign they can, same as UK.

If your shipping stuff over in a container I really wouldn't worry about the customs pulling out a bike to see how old or dirty it is but better off making sure its well packed, in case the container shifts and things can get damaged easily. Customs are more interested in things made of wood or cane furniture? Our fridge we broubght back with us was infested with oz ants, which are slowly taking over the country! When we where moving back to brighty the shipping company sent one of my bikes separately by air freight which was alot cheaper than a courier and only took a couple of weeks
One story I have about oz customs was on a trip back to Perth in 02 when foot and mouth was rife. I had a new Linn pre and power amp in my luggage which i should really of payed big import tax on but all they wanted to do was clean our shoes as we had been on walks in the county side!

can you wash tires in the dish washer? I've got 3 bikes plus my wife's and two kids bikes – I'd have to buy 12 new tires when we got there.
Not sure about the removals people packing stuff either, I've got one bike box but is it worth buying 100m of bubble wrap just to be on the safe side?
Cheers for the heads up on the cane furniture btw.

Packing companies in our experience have been excellent, its there job and they know what they are doing but there is something personal about your bike.I have never put new tires on any bikes and even shipped some used tires too. Just have to be clean not sterile.

Maybe I was lucky but when I moved over the removal people turned up 6 hours early and all I had time to do was quickly hose my two bikes down and throw them in a box with lots and lots of pipe lagging and bubble wrap. They turned up in oz a few weeks later, the boxes had never been opened.

Not sure if this cleaning to surgical standards is a bit of a myth or has actually happened to anyone.

I know it’s been a while since this quote was active, but can anyone suggest a shipping company to use? I’m heading to WA from the UK next month and any advice would be massively appreciated. Cheers!