For a motorcyclist, travelling can be done in one of two ways: on a hired motorbike or one’s own. We advise hiring for tours lasting less than two weeks with destinations reached by air, but for longer tours we advise shipping your own motorbike from Europe.
Hiring may appear expensive, but the costs of shipping are no less, since the owner has to pay all the costs of documenting and preparing the motorbike before leaving and of making these adjustments on return. The hired motorbikes are registered in the country in which the tour takes place, and often the insurance includes the neighbouring countries; moreover, in the case of a breakdown, a replacement motorbike is provided: this service is not available with your own motorbike.
However, we guarantee the presence of a support vehicle, with spare parts and repair equipment, which may possibly accommodate damaged motorbikes: this service is also available with rental motorcycles, but it certainly provides greater safety for those traveling with own motorbike.
Hiring reduces the logistic operations to a minimum, because clients have the motorbikes at their disposal directly at the airport or at the hotel, filled up with petrol and ready to start: a solution which we term ‘Fly and Drive’. On the other hand, if the motorbike has been shipped, several days are necessary for customs formalities and for the reshipping at the end of the tour. Not just that: even before leaving a certain amount of time will be needed to pack up the motorbike and deliver it to the shipper.
For these reasons we prefer journeys with clients’ own motorbikes when the tour starts from Europe and shipping is only for the return, or on routes where we have operated for many years, where local agents and shippers know us and our needs. Apart from Chile, where we are based, this is the case in Kyrgyzstan, Iceland, Mongolia, the United States, Australia and New Zealand: on all the other routes the times required for the shipping technicalities are much greater.
Hiring provides for the delivery and return of the motorbike in the same country: we offer the ‘One Way Rental’ method, which consists of starting out from one place and leaving the motorbike in another, from where we shall send it back. If using one’s own motorbike, we can provide this service only in Chile, while for other destinations we design a route that begins and ends at the same place. Examples are the tours of Pamir & Wakhan and Iceland with departure and return respectively at Bishek and Reykjavík.
Finally, we can also organise motorbike rental or shipping motorbike for anyone who is not following our tour but wishes to have a motorbike at their disposal, or take advantage of our container for shipping their own, and then continue their journey alone.
