We plan to start a bicycle trip in Bangkok soon. We need to send one of the bicycles by cargo in order to get the luggage under the weight limit of 20 kg each. Will we have to pay any duty/VAT/taxes when we pick it up in Bangkok? How much would that be? Are we better off paying the overweight on the plane? Do they have a storing charge for the bicycle? We might have to store it there for a month or so. The cargo company couldn’t provide any of this information…

We plan to start a bicycle trip in Bangkok soon. We need to send one of the bicycles by cargo in order to get the luggage under the weight limit of 20 kg each. Will we have to pay any duty/VAT/taxes when we pick it up in Bangkok? How much would that be? Are we better off paying the overweight on the plane? Do they have a storing charge for the bicycle? We might have to store it there for a month or so. The cargo company couldn’t provide any of this information…

I wanted to ship my musical gear to Thailand but I was told that I would have to pay some kind of duty. If you are working in Thailand you can claim the duty back in 6 months.

Having said that I was also informed that if you get a good shipping/removal company they can do the paperwork that gets around this issue.

Anyway, I decided not to ship my gear. Post back here if you find out any good information.

Good luck.

I recommend paying the extra baggage and taking it with you. Duty sucks and you are not supposed to pay it on an older bike but you just never know. They may hit you up for $300+ and you will have no choice but to pay or give up the bike. I've had to pay up to 80% of the items worth on Duty, not to mention the shipping. I just took over my bike from Denver to BKK in June, the total fee on EVA Air was only $120. Going through customs is NO problem.

Where do you need to leave it for a month and why? You could leave it at my place for a month if you need. I'm in the central business district. They also have bonded storage at the airport which isn't expensive. I left 8 crates there once for about 3 weeks. They charge a daily fee by the bag.

I agree with Jason, bring your bike with you, otherwise customs will whack you.

We plan to start a bicycle trip in Bangkok soon. We need to send one of the bicycles by cargo in order to get the luggage under the weight limit of 20 kg each. Will we have to pay any duty/VAT/taxes when we pick it up in Bangkok? How much would that be? Are we better off paying the overweight on the plane? Do they have a storing charge for the bicycle? We might have to store it there for a month or so. The cargo company couldn’t provide any of this information…

I brought my Trek over a couple years ago, as luggage, on United. No problems with customs. I have the bike here in Surin. Bring less clothing maybe to make weight and buy the clothes you'll need in Thailand? Cheaper than getting whacked a duty fee sending the bike as cargo. Also, maybe just rent some bikes here? If you are only coming as a tourist no need to bring the bikes along unless they are some specialty sort of cycles? Should be easy enough to rent for a Bangkok cycle tour. There are a few bicycle tour groups in Bangkok as well. Some have internet sites you could peruse to see what your options might be. Just some thoughts.

Cent

Just to clarify the cost, it was $120 for extra baggage. My bike was one of 5 pieces I had on that trip traveling alone. They charged me $120 (each way) for each extra baggage and the bike is over-size but it was still the same charge. I'm sure you can't ship and get through customs for any less than that.

Additionally, I'd invest in a plastic travel case ($200-$300) for your bike that has wheels... Assuming you have a quuality bike that was a big investment.

If you have a bike under $800 you might just consider renting or buying new here and selling if you can. Bikes are surprisingly less expensive here and decent Shimano parts.

Thanks for all the good advices!

THe thing is that I live in Vietnam where the duties/taxes are bad, so I will not send it here. We are planning to go back to Europe by bicycles from Bangkok so we need to bring the good quality bikes. Since I am here in Asia, my partner need to take two bicycles + his luggage in the 20 kg weight limit which will obviously be a problem... We'll sort something out. Looks like we should pay the overweight. Thanks anyway!

And thanks jasonc for your offer to store my bike. I will PM you if we can figure out how to do this...

Also check with your airline, some have special tariffs for bikes.