Project The (Mexican) Fizzer Mk III

Wow almost forgot to come back and close this one out. I got her to the point where the rims only needed painting, she runs beautifully.



Pulled the rims off to paint them then my brother said he wanted her, so I went one step further and am now in the process of stripping her down so I can fit her onto a pallet to ship over to WA. This was the same thing my brother did for me when I received my parts bike. I’ll put up some photos once I’ve packed her all up and let you know what the transport and cost is. I’m at the stage that I need the pallet now, relatively easy to get from work so once I have that it’s strapping her down and protecting her from any potential transport hiccups and off she will go with a selection of critical spares…

 

My girls gave me a hand with a roll of glad wrap and with a couple of crates from work she's almost ready for her trip across the Nullarbor.

I joined the two crates together and cut out the middle section dropping the main frame and swingarm assembly in the middle. As it is front heavy I cut two slots in the side of the rear crate and put a ratchet strap around the swingarm to hold the tail down. I then built a box frame around the front end so that provides some support and I'm thinking about going to Clark Rubber and seeing if i can get a bunch of foam offcuts to fill the rest of the crate and stop the various bits floating around.

I think she'll be ready to go next week so need to start looking at logistical options as well.

 

Last time I sent a bike here from WA via this method it was $200 (including insurance and tailgate fees) so it's cost effective. I expect to get away with this one for $250ish but we'll see. I had it half stripped for painting anyway so no biggie.

Crates were free from work with no need to muck around trying to find something elsewhere and pickup etc, so I just grabbed them.

Each to their own I guess, no way I'm paying half the bike's value to get it over there, but that's my choice I guess.

 

Ok so she's being picked up today. The crate size ended up being 1930 x 830 x 1000 (L x W x H) and approximately 200kg. I used truckit.net as the online auction for the freight, ended up being $350 from MEL to PER with $1000 insurance. The company that won the auction (you bid a cost basically) was the same company I used before, National Freight Management. They seem pretty good so I'm confident things will arrive with no complications.

The cost I had in the other direction (1 x pallet) was $200 for comparison, but that was a special backload rate only available PER to MEL. The bike I had sent via this method (for those who haven't been following) is a broken down parts bike contained under the "second fizzer" thread.

 

@ruckusman careful with the name change suggestion lol I wouldn't be surprised if I get a name "ikeabikes" for a while, but admit it would be hilarious.

I just put up the info to demonstrate that it is possible, I'm sure internationally you'd have to pack it a lot better and seal it in a crate but it would certainly be cost effective. My experience is more in LCL international freight than domestic - but it's the bloody importation charges that will kill you. I've brought in crates of similar size/weight from Italy that cost around $1000 for work. The freight itself isn't the problem, in Australia it's the duty (5% of declared value) and GST that push up the $$.

 

Standard pallets (eg CHEP or LOSCAM) are around 35kg, and are built heavy duty enough to withstand around 2,000 kg max. Not all pallets are built as heavy as those though, but I can't think of any pallet that wouldn't withstand the 300kg required that suits most roadworthy bikes in AU.

Note: building a crate (getting bits from your local industrial area for example by asking or verge shopping) is probably a better option for protection of the contents. You'll have to guesstimate weight but if you can fit in the 1200 x 1200 profile you can treat it as a standard pallet because trucking companies go by square meter floor space and cubic volume when doing their costing calculations.