2017 Summer Epic part 1, prelude

This year's Summer Epic tour is broken into two parts; 2 weeks starting tonight, return for 2 weeks of work-related stuff, then back to Europe for two more weeks as part 2.

Since I bought a new main bike for North America, my old main bike, my devastatingly spectacular 2013 BMW K1300S, Raven, flew with me to Dublin, Ireland yesterday.  I'm working remotely yesterday and today, and start my vacation in earnest tomorrow.

Getting the motorcycle over here was stressful at times, because I wasn't sure of the process, any forgotten paperwork would have ended the adventure before it began, etc.  But first thing was, let's plan the meatbody and bike flights.

Air Canada Cargo has been doing motorcycle shipment sales for the past 4 years or so.  As an example, shipping my 290kg K1300S (with some luggage) hit me for CA$950 (one way) taxes included!, YYZ to DUB.  Regular price on that journey is CA$3324.07.  Screamin' deal.

They only offer this deal on certain destinations, depending on how much emotional effort it takes at the other end to deplane the bike.  This year, they've pretty much limited it to several Europe destinations and within Canada.  They don't do South America anymore because of difficulties with customs, they won't do the US because it is an administrative nightmare flying "dangerous goods" into the US these days.  And they can only fit bikes into "wide body jets".

Dublin was on ACC's sale list, and I figured Dublin, being on an island, and being somewhat remote from Europe, would be a good place to start or end a tour.  Dublin it was!  Booked both my meatbody and bike on the same redeye Wednesday night Rouge flight.  I actually booked my meatbody flight months before, but I couldn't book the bike's flight until 28 days before departure.  Had to do my own research to ensure this was a widebody plane, etc.  It all worked out.

You also need insurance.  For Europe, you want Green Card visitor's insurance.  It is good for a huge list of Western Europe countries and then some.  I got mine from knopftours.com as soon as I booked my meatbody flights; he mailed me the green papers ages ago.  I put them in a ziplock bag in my wallet for safe keeping.

Then work got busy, and I barely had time to think about any of this.  July is our fiscal year end.  *busy*  Plus my credit card got skimmed 10 days before the trip, and I had to factor in retrieving the new card from my local RBC (takes 7-10 business days to be shipped to your home, 2-4 to an RBC branch).

Did manage to get my International Driver's Permit (IDP) while retrieving my new CC.  CAA handles that, it costs $25/year, and CAA also takes care of the photos required. 

On Monday, I started researching what to expect when I fly over on Wednesday, and ran into several comments that you can't import a bike with a lien on it.  And I had a lien on my K1300S.

When I signed the financing contract for the K1300S, it specifically stated that I could not take the bike out of the country for longer than a month.  The sales manager added "But seriously, what do we care?  As long as you keep making your payments, I wouldn't worry."  Seemed cool, and I had no intention on hurting my credit rating by screwing over BMW.

But then I read in a few places that the importer might run a search for liens on the bike.  I don't know how easy that is or isn't for them, so I started to panic; this was now the day before my flight after all.  My sales manager was on vacation, so I called BMW Finance.

The first agent I talked to said it was next to impossible to pay off the financing on Tuesday, and have all the paperwork processed and in my hands by sooner than Thursday (I was flying Wednesday), and then I'd still need to get this paperwork to the ministry to clear the lien.  She said there might be faster way to clear this up, by getting some waiver on the lien from my dealership.  She went off to research that option, and 5 minutes later, I lost the call.  *stress*

I called back in, and got a new agent.  He was less than helpful.  "I've been doing this for 12 years, and you will not get that lien sorted out before Thursday, or more likely Friday."  He had some other golden bits of knowledge to pass along too:

• "Are you sure you can even bring your bike into Ireland?  You know it is impossible to bring a non-Canadian-spec bike into Canada, period, right?  Impossible.  I bet it is impossible in Ireland too."
• "There is no way to waive a lien."
• "No, you cannot talk to the agent you talked to before."
• "BMW will never allow you to take your bike to Europe with a lien on it."
• "That 30 day out-of-country implies taking it to the United States, not overseas.  You will not be allowed to take it off the continent."
• "No, you cannot talk to the agent you talked to before."
• etc.  There were a few other nuggets, but I've wiped them from my mind.

*stress*

I calmed down for a few minutes, unfortunately not until after a coworker called to get me to do some work.  Sorry George; that could not have been a pleasant experience for you.  ;)

I called back in, and got a new new agent.  He was a bit more reasonable about things, but he still agreed with the crux of the issue; paying off the lien on Tuesday would not likely resolve anything until Friday.  He did however point out that I didn't need to provide anything to the ministry myself.  He thinks the process the first agent described was specific to leases, where the title holder is actually the leasing company.  In my case, with a standard loan, the title is in my name so there's nothing to change there.  *slight reduction in stress*

With that last conversation, things got better.  Even if Swissport holds my bike at the terminal until the lien clears, I should be able to manage all that from Ireland, assuming I get the lien paid off immediately.  

The lien still had $10k outstanding, but the stars aligned, $8300 in expenses got reimbursed literally 1 hour before I first called BMW on Tuesday, and I scraped together the rest in an hour.  I raced off to the bank, got a bank draft, then hauled butt to BMW Finance near Major Mac and the 404 in Richmond Hill, and got that taken care of.

I stopped by Air Canada Cargo on the way home and talked with them too.  Further destressing ensued; ACC themselves have no way to check for liens.  When I asked what the likelyhood was that Ireland would check, they said "it is random, at best".  Okay, I figure that's gotta be 50/50 that I'd either get my bike immediately or have to wait for Friday.

I also stopped at RBC on the way home, to get personal travel insurance.  I thought I got that through my work, but all the documentation I could find specified that it was only for business trips.  Got the uber 1-year contract for about $175.  Covered!

A few other things came of the ACC conversation and the later inspection for shipment;

• Though ACC were filling in the motorcycle mass on the Dangerous Goods (DG) document, and even stated not to have the DG consultant (DGC) fill in the weight on ACC's web site, they're not actually allowed by Industry Canada to fill in the weight field; only the DGC can do that, and they don't have a scale.  You're required to weigh it yourself, or stop by ACC to get weighed, then go to the DGC for him to fill out the document including the weight, then return to ACC to ship the bike.
• ACC is only allowed to edit three fields on the DG document; waybill number, source, and destination.  
• They can give you maybe 10KG wiggle room in the mass of the bike vs the DG doc, but anything more means you have to pay for a new DG document to be written.  That happened to a guy an hour before I got there; he estimated his mass to the DGC, and he was 28KG high.
• They let you ship clothes and tools with the bike, but there are limits:
• You can't ship ANY batteries on the motorcycle besides its lead acid battery.  Don't bother packing batteries with your flashlight, because they won't be allowed.  Don't bother packing a Li-Ion jumpstart battery, because it won't be allowed.  etc.
• You DON'T need to disconnect the bike's battery anymore.  You used to have to disconnect the battery and tape the leads to the frame.  Their attitude now is that modern motorcycles are pretty safe, as long as the keys are not in the ignition.  ACC provides a ziptie to attach the keys to the handlebars, but you might have fun trying to remove them without a knife at the other end.
• You can't ship any compressed gas canisters, including shaving cream, CO2 for tire inflation, etc.
• Don't even try to smuggle anything on the bike.  The security guys go over the bike with flashlights, looking between the fairings and engine, underneath, under the seat, etc etc etc.  I felt bad for my motorcycle; she was violated!
• With your permission, they put all the extra stuff (clothes, tank bag, jacket, etc) through an Xray machine.
• 1/4 full gas tank, or less.  Since they often can't see into the tank in many bikes (with unusual tank shapes to maximize capacity), they want to see the meter.

As usual, once you're done, you just walk away.  They have people that will put your bike on a skid, or sometimes in a container, strap it down, and send it on its way.  I absently put the receipt in a bag with refused batteries.

After getting weighed, I zipped over to the DGC, got the paperwork, returned to ACC for the previously-mentioned invasive bike inspection, and *done*.

I took a taxi home, packed some clothes to take with me in case my bike would not be retrievable for a few days, and got ready for my meatflight.  I absently put the receipt for the motorcycle shipment in my laptop bag.

I also found out that to temporarily import the motorcycle into Ireland, they really want to know you are going to leave with the motorcycle too, as opposed to selling it in Ireland I suppose.  I looked at Ireland's weather, figured I'd want to flee Sunday before the real rain began, and booked a ferry from Dublin to Holyhead in the UK, and paid a little extra so I could cancel or change the booking.

Several times over the past 4 days, I've randomly seen my IDP.  It is an extremely inconvenient size, larger than a passport, thick, shouldn't be folded, and made out of moisture-wicking paper that wouldn't handle a rain well.  I "put it away" every time I found it, but the only proper "away" place should be my wallet, which it won't fit into.  So I keep losing it!  It isn't critical as most countries probably wouldn't require it, but I'd like to have it if I get to Poland and beyond.