How to air-freight ship a motorcycle from Buenos Aires

To ship the bike dealing directly with the brokers (saves $100 USD).  I was shipping to Los Angeles, USA and so the broker (Navicon) used Continental, they also have other arrangements for shipping to other countries.

  1. Contact the following person at the agents (Navicon) in order to be given a time/date to show up at the  Buenos Aires International Airport (EZE) Cargo Terminal.  I would suggest showing up in Buenos Aires one week before you want the bike to fly.DOLORES  WOODYATT
    LAVALLE 482 Buenos Aires – Argentina (First Floor of Building)
    NAVICON  S.A.
    Dpto. Exportación Aerea.
    TEL: 5288-1664
    FAX: 5288-1675
  2. Drive the bike to the cargo terminal (explaining you are going to ‘Franco’ in Exportaciones). Get there by 10am, otherwise the Aduana will go off for lunch from noon-2pm and you’ll have to wait to get customs clearance for the export.
  3. Find Franco and someone will give you an entry to the cargo area paper
  4. Drive the bike into the warehouse
  5. Remove most of the gasoline from the tank
  6. Disconnect the battery terminals
  7. Lower the bike height as much as possible (removing mirrors, windshield, and any top-case if it makes a difference).  The width wasn’t important as the pallet the bike will be put on was wider than my KLR650 with two 1550 Pelican side cases on a luggage rack.In my case I left the 1560 Pelican top case on the bike (it was too much work to get in on their in the first place) and it didn’t seem to affect the price of shipping as the front faring is quite high relatively.

    KLR650 on pallet, aduana inspection, Buenos Aires Airport

    KLR650 on pallet, aduana inspection, Buenos Aires Airport

  8. You’ll be asked to put the bike on the wooden pallet they build for you. Customs (Aduana) will then show up and inspect the bike.   Franco will tell you the airline/customs want you to only have articles directly related to the motorcycle on the bike (e.g. no clothing other than motorcycle gear, no camping or other things you typically have on this sort of trip).  However I assured him that I didn’t (even though I did have two cases mostly full of clothes and camping gear).  I tried to hide them a bit behind the ‘legitimate’ articles.  The customs lady glanced at my top case and didn’t even look in my side cases and approved the bike for shipping.

    KLR650 wrapped for shipping, Buenos Aires Airport

    KLR650 wrapped for shipping, Buenos Aires Airport

  9. They’ll strap down the bike to the pallet and wrap it in thick cling-film plastic sheets.
  10. When you finish with the procedures at the airport, the following day you have to go to the Navicon office (at the address in #1 above) in microcentro to pay and get the air way bill. LAVALLE 482 1er Piso – Buenos Aires – ArgentinaThey will tell you how much you have to pay and you will go to the bank beside the office to deposit in the bank account of the company the money (cash only – Pesos or USD).With the ticket of the deposit come back to the office (7th floor office this time) and you’ll be given the Air Way Bill and documents to pick up the bike at your destination.  Apparently you can track progress of the bike on Continental’s web site with the master way bill number at the top of the documents you receive.
  11. If you are shipping to the USA then your bike will arrive in Houston by air and then put on a truck for delivery to the final destination – if Continental does have air cargo service to the final location. I was told that it will arrive two days after the flight in Los Angeles – so it takes two flights but no trucking.   I brought the bike on Thursday to the airport and it won’t fly until Tuesday.
  12. Costs to fly the KLR650 motorcycle from Buenos Aires (EZE) to Los  Angeles (LAX): $1187 dollars to Navicon and Continental in total. $100 to Sandra at Dakar Motors – I don’t think using Sandra for this was necessary.  The breakdown of the costs (USD) is approximately:$634 to Continental for the flight
    $180 in charges Continental pays and are charged back to you
    $340 to Navicon for the pallet and brokerage.

6 Responses to “How to air-freight ship a motorcycle from Buenos Aires”

  1. Vernon Danielson says:

    This is great information. Any idea who to contact in Los Angeles since I want to do the same thing (pallet & wrap) however I want to go the other direction. Any info would be appreciated.

    Thanks – Vern

    • Gauchito Gil says:

      Hello Vernon,
      I’d suggest contacting Continental Cargo at LAX and they’ll either point you to a broker or tell you how to do it yourself. Not sure if only brokers will arrange for a pallet. The HUBB sometimes has people offering pallets after having arrived… good luck.

    • Jay says:

      Hi there, contact Michael from All Coasts Transport (google it out, i don’t want to paste the link here). Clever guy, he lives/works in Los Angeles, and he is a specialist in motorcycle shipping.

  2. michael says:

    great article thank you very much!

  3. Tip says:

    I’m working detals for a US to Buenos Aires ride on a KLR. Considering the cost of getting the bike home, I’m thinking about selling it there. What’s the used bike market like? What would it sell for relative to US prices and how complicated is the paperwork?
    The income from the bike and $1K shipment savings would go a long way towards picking up a new bike when I get home.

    • Gauchito Gil says:

      Hi Tip,

      I don’t know what the used bike market is other than what I saw at Dakar Motors. There, so many riders wanted to leave their foreign bikes in Argentina (for the same reasons you are considering it), that they weren’t able to sell them easily. Even if US and Argentinian used bike prices are roughly equal, the fact that you are selling a foreign bike means that the price you would receive would be significantly lower – because the bike would have to be illegally registered by the new owner or they would have to pay import fees and do paperwork.

      So I wouldn’t expect it to be easy to do or particularly worth it financially. The trip probably makes more sense the other way – fly to Argentina and buy a US registered bike and drive it to the US.

      Good luck.


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