We are shipping to South America!! It is not a cheap thing to do but to cut away a good chunk of the cost, we built our own crate and made Domino fit quite snug inside so our dimensions were as slim as possible. We were in Melbourne just a few days before our flight and we needed to build the crate there before our flight. EuroBrit motorcycle shop is the Ural dealer in Melbourne and they let us borrow some space to build, a drill, and a sawzall in case we needed it. It was so helpful to be able to work there!
The weather in Melbourne is quite temperamental so we decided to try to get the wood, build the crate, and pack the bike all in 1 day since the following day was supposed to be rainy. We thought it was doable so we went for it! Leading up to the building day, Austin spent many hours drawing up a master plan and came up with a really solid sketch and list of exact measurements we would need for all of the wood. We also got new tires from the shop so we needed to remove all 4 tires and swap them so that was another time-consuming item that filled part of our day.
The day before we built the crate, we stopped at Bunnings (equivalent of Home Depot) and talked with the Bunnings guys about the wood we needed cut and they said they could help cut it all to size and we could pick it up the next morning. That's exactly what we did because we thought it would save us time and they would make really straight cuts, especially for the large sheets of plywood. Looking back, getting the wood all pre-cut was a life saver! We rented a truck to transport the wood so I hopped in the truck and Austin was on Domino as we headed back to the shop to drop off the wood. As Austin got started with the crate base, I took the truck back to Bunnings and hopped on the bus back to the motorcycle shop.
Throughout the day, we balanced swapping out all of the tires (taking off each wheel one at a time), building the crate, packing the crate, and finally sealing up the crate and putting the official shipping label on it. We woke up at 6:30am and ended up getting back to our hotel around 9:30. We both were toasted since it was such a busy, non-stop day, and all of it was in the full sun. We both got a bit tan and also drank our weight in water throughout the day.
The next morning, the cargo guys were coming to pick up the crate so we jumped in an Uber to meet them at the shop around 9am. The owner of the motorcycle shop (Jai) had a forklift at the shop so he lifted the crate up and placed it into the transport truck. The crate looked really strong and Jai said it also felt really strong, SCORE!
That was the last time (we thought) we would see the crate until Santiago, Chile...but...we had a big problem the night before our flight..
