Motorcycle Shipping Crate Requirements and Specs

You may find yourself in need of a motorcycle shipping crate if you’re shipping your bike and you should know that those shipping crates have to meet certain specifications or you may run into trouble. The mental image of custom motorcycles rolling off a trailer makes for a nice daydream but the truth is that uncrated motorcycle shipping under some circumstances can be harmful to your baby’s health.


There are wooden motorcycle crates, aluminum motorcycle shipping crates and you can even make your own crate if you’re handy. The bottom line is that that whatever kind of moving crate you choose it has to meet certain requirements and do the job. They aren’t much fun but they are a fact of life that bikers should know about.

Why are they important? Well, one reason would be that if your crate isn’t up to snuff, the shipping company can dispute the claim should your bike be damaged during transport and believe me you don’t want to give motorcycle insurance companies a loophole to jump through.

Here’s a short but sweet (read: boring) motorcycle moving crate specs and requirement tutorial:

YOUR MOTORCYCLE SHIPPING CRATE MUST:

• Be movable with a pallet jack or forklift.
• Hold your motorcycle in a stable manner preventing it from working loose during transport after it’s fastened down
• Be enclosed completely with a covering to protect motorcycle inside the crate
• Be made of sturdy construction from either wooden or metal materials
• Be certified before being used to ship a motorcycle internationally
• Have no fluids leaking out of it. (You should have drained the gas tank and disconnected the battery before loading it in the crate!)
• Have the delivery address and all other required information clearly marked on the outside

CAN I MAKE MY OWN MOTORCYCLE SHIPPING CRATE?
So you want to make your motorcycle crate yourself? What are you a tightwad or a cheap guy would rather be working with wood than riding your bike? I’m not going to tell you it can’t be done but before you waste your time you should know that some countries require that the wood used to make the crate must be specially treated and have an approved stamp of certification on display or they will ship your motorcycle right back to you. Another problem is that if you have damage after the fact, the insurance company may deny your claim unless your motorcycle shipping crate was put together by a professional packer.

THE BOTTOM LINE ON MOTORCYCLE CRATES
That’s the boring but necessary scoop on motorcycle crates. Next time you’re at a dealership and see the brand new bikes being unloaded in their crates you can pat yourself on the back knowing that you know how to crate a motorcycle as good as anybody!

Now that you have all that knowledge under your belt you can take a little time to cruise through GoGoCycles Used Motorcycles for Sale.