austin
Well-Known Member
The big trip of 2015 officially started at 4.30am this morning as I set off to deliver the bike and most of the luggage to Air Canada at Heathrow.
The journey was wet to start and on the cool side at just 6c for the first couple of hours before the sun came out. During the ride down my clock lights kept going out, only for me to later learn that there is an ambient light sensor in there that switches them on and off with light levels. I hope it was just that sensor responding to changing light conditions as dawn broke and not the start of a problem.
The Air Canada cargo depot is easy to find right in the middle of the freight area in Heathrow. It was quite a place that part of Heathrow with loads of trucks and activity in what seemed to be a very well organised area. Its easy to see why a big airport is such an important part of the economy. Anyway, the guys behind the desk at Air Canada claimed to know nothing of my bike or me despite me sending emails to both the Heathrow cargo email address and Karl in Montreal (lead manager for the promo), who had confirmed just last Thursday that all was booked in the system. Once I had provided the all important AirWay Bill number they could find it on the system and confirmed that the Dangerous Goods Notification and the Customs forms were all done. At this point they tried to charge me £650 which is their standard bike shipping charge. After explaining that I should be getting their special promo rate which was $700canadian plus a modest amount for handling, X-rays etc at Heathrow so something less that £500 ( $1canadian = about £0.55) they got on the phone to Canada, called in supervisors and managers and eventually worked out how to charge me and what was included in the offer price. Final bill £481.00 Which is a superb price for shipping. I then rode the bike into the warehouse, explained how to open the panniers and left them with a key. The bike will be checked and then flown out on Tuesday and we should be repatriated on Wednesday afternoon.
I am back home now after a pleasant 1st class Virgin train journey where I was plied with food and Johnnie Walker RedLabel whisky. A pre-booked 1st class was cheaper than standard and I got a little bit drunk. Happy days
Here's some other pics of the bike fully loaded. Panniers and all the stuff weights about 50Kg and probably pushes the bike over its payload limit with us two on it.
More, much much more later. I will also be posting a version of this ride report on ADVRider and will post a link when I start that so you can see what the yanks and canadians think of a Brit's view of their country.
The journey was wet to start and on the cool side at just 6c for the first couple of hours before the sun came out. During the ride down my clock lights kept going out, only for me to later learn that there is an ambient light sensor in there that switches them on and off with light levels. I hope it was just that sensor responding to changing light conditions as dawn broke and not the start of a problem.
The Air Canada cargo depot is easy to find right in the middle of the freight area in Heathrow. It was quite a place that part of Heathrow with loads of trucks and activity in what seemed to be a very well organised area. Its easy to see why a big airport is such an important part of the economy. Anyway, the guys behind the desk at Air Canada claimed to know nothing of my bike or me despite me sending emails to both the Heathrow cargo email address and Karl in Montreal (lead manager for the promo), who had confirmed just last Thursday that all was booked in the system. Once I had provided the all important AirWay Bill number they could find it on the system and confirmed that the Dangerous Goods Notification and the Customs forms were all done. At this point they tried to charge me £650 which is their standard bike shipping charge. After explaining that I should be getting their special promo rate which was $700canadian plus a modest amount for handling, X-rays etc at Heathrow so something less that £500 ( $1canadian = about £0.55) they got on the phone to Canada, called in supervisors and managers and eventually worked out how to charge me and what was included in the offer price. Final bill £481.00 Which is a superb price for shipping. I then rode the bike into the warehouse, explained how to open the panniers and left them with a key. The bike will be checked and then flown out on Tuesday and we should be repatriated on Wednesday afternoon.
I am back home now after a pleasant 1st class Virgin train journey where I was plied with food and Johnnie Walker RedLabel whisky. A pre-booked 1st class was cheaper than standard and I got a little bit drunk. Happy days
Here's some other pics of the bike fully loaded. Panniers and all the stuff weights about 50Kg and probably pushes the bike over its payload limit with us two on it.
More, much much more later. I will also be posting a version of this ride report on ADVRider and will post a link when I start that so you can see what the yanks and canadians think of a Brit's view of their country.
