UKC

G'day,

I need to take a gravel bike to Europe, and back eventually, by plane direct to DUS. The bike in question is a Sonder Camino (small) with 700c wheels.

Question 1: which of the hard bike boxes can I get it into? Alan from bike box Alan doesn't know the Camino so can't say for certain. He is unsure about the width of flared bars fitting in the case.

Question 2: without opening a Brexit can of worms - am I likely to get stung with import duties going into Germany? The bike will be staying in Germany for about a year and then coming back.

Thanks for any wisdom conveyed. My google-fu on these subjects hasn't led to any.

U

1. I'd be surprised if it doesn't fit in a bike box Alan - I have one of the cheaper copycat boxes and my medium camino goes it fine (regular bars). I can't see why the flared bars wouldn't fit if you taken them off.

2. Probably not, if you take it on the plane. As it's personal items not for resale you're not actually meant to pay any duty, but having shipped my own stuff from the UK to Denmark it's a bit of a lottery, often involves annoying conversations with poorly informed shipping companies, and at least some kind of admin free. On the plane its less of an issue - I moved all my bikes over this way without issue.

I'm in a queue at Calais port with my gravel bike in the back of the car. It's your bike, you're taking it home again later - I can't think of any reason why there would be any duties to pay. 

this is of course the common sense answer . But with all common sense regarding  the movement of “stuff “out the window , I’d say the OP is very wise to check and then check again . If it were me and I liked the bike and  there was any doubt I’d leave it  here and buy something cheap and sell it or give it away ar the end . Being away for a year as opposed to 2/3 weeks might “ invoke”  some weird rule . I suppose it depends how much you like the bike .
 

I lived elsewhere in Europe for a long time, I took stuff from the UK to Finland. Some came back when we moved to the UK. Ultimately our entire house contents moved from FI to UK including a number of bikes (although most had been bought from UK web shops originally anyway!). Basically once you've bought something you've paid tax on it surely? I think only very very expensive items potentially attract duty? But does anyone declare expensive jewellery for example when going on holiday?

but wasn't that pre Brexit ? Probably/possibly different now.

It was, I suspect Finns or French residents can't buy bikes from Wiggle so cheaply now! But people take their cars on holiday with them with no tax paid so I can't see how a bike is any different. I'm now on a ferry waiting to leave (missed the first due to queues at UK border control), loads of the cars and vans, both UK and non UK registered, have bikes on or in them! There must be thousands of bikes going in and out of the country daily.

I've squeezed my XL Canyon Grail into one of those standard hard boxes.  It was a bit of a pain (handle bars off totally, and even had to take out fork, but it worked).  Its a big bike though.

I also had to totally deflate tyres to get them to fit into the road bike wheel slots.

As for sodding brexit taxes... the customs chap doesn't need to know its one way.  Wouldn't be an issue at an airport as clearly its for a holiday.

Thanks all.

Your responses give me some comfort. They also confirm that the answer is not black and white. Except on the bike fitting in the box. That seems a clear "no problem".

XL, how big are you! I'm 6ft and after multiple checking, my Grail 6 is a M. Mine came in the enormous shipping box, just fix the front wheel, drop bar & saddle.

Dump the box and use a transparent CTC bike bag.  I've put my bike into the hold of an aircraft maybe ten times - never had an issue.

Big enough    was on the border between an L and an XL, but went with XL after speaking with Jeremiah Bishop.  I'm fairly stretched, but its great for bike packing and stability.