RE: European Tour Help....

["brettis" <brettis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>>1) Guided tour company.
2) Rental
3) Ship bikes over and back for trip.
4) Purchase at beggining and resell at end used bikes.
 Brian Wolfe<<


Brian,

In 1995 I shipped my ST1100 over to Europe to tour for a month myself. At
the time my expense for air shipping my bike (which is decidedly bigger than
the Triumph) was $1100 going, $1300 coming back and $300 for crating. Being
smaller, the Triumph should cost less assuming the rates are basically the
same. During my research I found that a month was the break even point for
renting vs shipping. Less than a month it cost less to rent--four weeks or
more and it was worth it to ship. That's not counting the immeasurable
pleasure of riding your own bike and having pictures of famous places half a
world away with your own bike in them.

Buying and selling is risky--and a great deal more work unless you find one
dealer who agrees in writing to buy the bike back from you at an agreed upon
price. But then you're still basically renting. The lowest cost would be to
buy and then sell to a third party at the end of your trip...but that only
works if you have plenty of time and the market is there. A lot of variables
and unknowns. I'd only suggest doing this if you have a friend there who can
store the bike and arrange the selling for you if you can't get it done
before flying home.

Hope this helps.
Feel free to email me off list if there's anything else I can help you with.

Brett
Seattle



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