My new friend arrives in Canada

 

After all the waiting and anticipation, my Japanese journey with the NSR officially comes to an end with the arrival of the bike in Canada!

Because nothing has been easy with this process, one final hurdle was the Wet’suwet’en rail protests which delayed the arrival of the bike in Ontario by at least a week since it traveled from B.C. to Ontario by rail.

But finally, the bike is here, de-crated and safely stored away. Looking back on the entire process, it’s pretty baffling that it has taken 6 months to import the bike. However, nearly 3 of those months were spent with the bike sitting at Apex collecting dust while I figured out the logistics! But the honest truth was that a lot of things went wrong. Partially within my control and partially outside of my control. So let’s start with the things that were outside of my control:

• Japanese export regulations. They are known to be some of the most stringent in the entire world. Because of this, many exporters do not want to deal with you. Exporting a motorcycle requires the bike to be crated and loaded into the container via forklift. It is not as streamlined a process as exporting a car where a “roll on, roll off” system is utilized. Plus it is a personal item that happens to be classified as a “hazardous good” which means lots of paperwork. And if you don’t know what you are doing, they (the exporters) will have a very difficult job ahead of them.  Because of these reasons, most of them do not want to deal with you.
• Relying on others with a general lack of experience in this area. I appreciated everyone who has tried to assist in this area, but because importing a bike from Japan is not as common as I had originally thought, I got a lot of conflicting requirements. One exporter told me I had to get a letter from Honda verifying the age of the bike. Another told me that I would need to contact Honda and get a list of all of the recalls for the MC21 model since it was first marketed. I basically knew that this was never going to happen so I just kept trying different avenues until I found someone who did not request this documentation from me. Don’t really know what to tell you otherwise, but if you have ever tried to deal with a manufacturer, you know that it is difficult getting anything from them, nevermind documentation on a bike that has been discontinued over 20 years ago!
• Typhoon Hagibis. The devastating typhoon that lasted nearly 3 weeks. Although this did impact business to a certain extent (I know that Apex closed for the weekend), my  import contact in Japan was unable to reach his colleague in Japan for at least a week and a half
• John got vertigo. This happened right before he started building the crate and the poor guy was out of commission for two weeks!

On my end, I think my biggest mistake was attempting to work through the Export companies directly. I just had no idea that businesses called Freight Forwarders existed. I will admit, the process of acquiring the bike was pretty time consuming and I put more research into the actual bike itself rather than the export process because I just didn’t expect it to be anywhere near as complicated as it had been.

What really got the ball rolling for me was a small company called Fast Freight Forwarding based in Etobicoke. Leon, the owner was very helpful and responsive, usually responding to my emails within 30 minutes . This was a very welcomed departure from the treatment I had received up until this point. He had established contacts in Japan that he worked with. Other than some back and forth regarding the specifications of the crate, it was a very easy process and CAD $2000 gets the bike fully insured and loaded into a container and shipped  from Japan to B.C., and from B.C. to Ontario by rail.

I was a little bit nervous about the arrival of the bike in Canada. Before leaving the bike in Yamanashi, I left the original copy of the ownership behind the seat of the bike and took a photo copy with me. I know that ideally, I would keep the original copy on me at all times. However, in this case, I was concerned about the bike not clearing customs in Japan, given how stringent they are. If that were to happen, there would be nothing I could do from the other side of the world. This was a concern for me, and I anticipated having issues at Canada Customs because of it. But in that worst case scenario, at least I would still be able to access the original ownership on this side of the border.

When the bike arrived in Ontario, I was notified by Leon. As a word of caution, you must act fast. You are basically given a few days to pick up your shipment before you start incurring storage expenses (which are calculated by the size of the shipment and the number of days it sits in the warehouse). Also, when you pick the bike up at the warehouse, be prepared to pick up the entire crate. (The warehouse staff will load it onto a truck or trailer for you via forklift, but after that, you are on your own!)

 

In a previous phone call to CBSA, I was advised to come during business hours to pick up the bike. But note that this is a two-step process: The first step is to bring your documentation to the Customs office where they will provide you with a stamped release that must be taken to the warehouse to pick up your shipment.  The CBSA office is open several days a week, 24 hours a day, so obtaining this release can be done at any time, and I suggest getting it done ASAP in case you encounter issues and the shipment is not released to you on the same day.

In my case, I was told by the CBSA agent that the VIN on the bike had to be verified, and an inspection carried out to ensure that the bike was not contaminated with foreign soil. The process takes 48 hours. It was Thursday. This means the bike will not be released before Monday and I will incur storage expenses every day between now and then. I basically accepted that, although this might mean close to $1000 in extra expenses, it was completely outside of my control. As I turn around to leave, the CBSA agent stops me.  To my complete and utter shock, he stamps a release form right in front of me, tells me to ride safe, and sends me on my way!

Whether or not this is an easy process or a stressful nightmare is obviously up to the full discretion of the CBSA agent. The fact that I didn’t have the original ownership wasn’t even brought up as an issue. I think it helped that I showed up prepared and organized, making the agent’s job easier. He told me he was seriously impressed with my level of organization and documentation, because in his experience with motor vehicle imports, people will just show up with the bill of sale and nothing else.

The documentation that I brought were as follows:

• Driver’s license
• Passport
• Original bill of sale
• Ownership (the copy)
• Insurance certificate for the shipment (provided by the Forwarder)
• eManifest House Bill (provided by the Forwarder)- this basically outlines the itinerary of the shipment and identifies the contents of the crate)

Sometimes I worry that the fact that this process was so lengthy might be off-putting to others who   have ambitions of importing a foreign motorcycle. But the honest truth is that the process was botched because I didn’t know what I was doing. Once I started making the right moves, everything just literally fell into place effortlessly.

So here we are, finally at the end of my Japanese motorcycle journey. So many amazing people helped try to make this happen for me along the way, and I am eternally grateful.

Now the fun begins and I can start tearing things down and swapping in shiny new parts- stay tuned!