Nice to hear that TonyBKK take care of You so my advices are maybe late already, but maybe they can help somebody else.
I have received many bikes even more dismantled than yours. At the old BKK airport I put together many bikes, using tools that a local moto taxi driver went to buy on my behalf. He also went to buy oil and gasoline and helped me together with 5 other taxi drivers to put the bike together.
Remember that the Carnet is not valid in Thailand and even if You can receieve a stamp that You have entered Thailand be careful because maybe You can have problems getting an exit stamp. Then if You are missing an exit stamp it will take long time to receive the deposit for the Carnet. Best thing is to make a T2 form, Temporary import paper which will allow You to stay 1 month. This is possible to continue at any custom office for one month each, up to 6 month.
One time I have got a stamp in my passport where i guarantee 2 million baht for a KTM640,Suzuki DR650, and Dr4oo. I was very proud about the fact that the Thai Government gave me such a gentle credit limit. In 1990 or something I cleared my DR750S at the airport, it took me 8 hours, I had to fill upp 14 copies of a 3 page custom declarations in thai without any copying films available and then I had to pick up the neccessery stamps, totalling to almost 900 pcs!!! It was an experience....
So good luck at the airport. Maybe You can find some info from my friends Blog
http://www.moto1.fi/blogB.htm who cleared a bike at Suvanbhurmi two years ago.
When I saw the picture of the crate I got nostalgic. Those metal crates I have dismantled a few thousand when I was a MC-dealer. Even if we tried to reuse the crates most of them went to scrap. anyhow more than 100 pcs 6mm and 8 mm coated bolts were left and reused from each crate. The sides were also made of thin metalsheets.
I worked in 1968-1969 at the Honda importer in Finland as a mechanic. At that time we assembled new bikes in night time to earn som extra money. The bikes came at that time in wood crates. In one crate came 3 Honda Monkey (GORILLA) or 2 Honda CB350 Twin, or one CB 750 per case. To Finland the bikes very often came through Siberia via Vladivostok. Many times the train wagons were lost and found months later and the bikes were already rusty when they arrived. Later the bikes came through Hamburg by ship. Even the Honda Sportcars S600 and S800 came in wooden crates. We liked the wooden crates, the left over wood was very dry and we used it to warm up our Saunas.
At that time the Japaneese factories had hundreds of motorcycle crate carpenters working at the factories, I, ve seen them working and they were very talented.Slowly the japaneese started to use metalic crates. One reason was that wood became expensive but another reason was that many countries didn't accept shipment in wooden crates due to risk of some ants and animals. That is why the wood nowadays must be pre homologated for transport or the crate has to be smoked at the airport. That is why I was a little surprised that tido had put Plywood on the crate. That could have been enough for the customs to put the the shipment in qurantine. From Us bikes still came in wooden crates, same from factories in Europe but they use stamped pre homologated wood. Some manufacturers use nowadays special paper crates, that are very strong and not so heavy.
Everything this was a little off topic, but maybe somebody could find it interesting.
And I continue off topic. The crate tido uses is for/sea transport. If you want to send by air you normally have to take into account that one cubic metre is (was) 155 kg. Tidos crate is approx 2 cubic metre and the shipment approx 250 kg. Therefore you have to pay for 310 kg because of the volume. In order to diminish the size of the crate, take away the rear suspensions bolt (easy to put back) and the rear end falls down. Together with taking off (or supress) the front fork you, loosen the meeter makes more than half cubic metre. Then take away the oil, tools, battery everything that you can get at the exit port, every kilo counts. Nowadays you are allowed to send the bike with battery, oli and even gasoline but the bike musta be approved when packed by an IATA certified agent. He check for example that the battery cable is loose and secured by a tape into the frame. Sending bikes by air is a little of "special sience" if you want to do it in a cheap way.
I can tell you some other stories that I remember about the item. In the early 1990 we wanted to send our DR750 and KLR 650 from Darwin Australia to Timor. This was the year the Indonesia/Timor problems errupted so the safety check at the Darwin airport was tight. We had booked the bikes on the flight the day before, the plane was a Fokker and the freight door was 90x90 cm and we were told that we don't have to make a crate but no parts can be bigger than the 90x90 cm. So there we stood in the heat at Darwin airport, dismantling the bikes in max 90x90 pieces. Then every part was weighed and the personel was very "favourable" towards us.
Then we had the battery issue, The batteries were style 12N12 open type. We knew that in Timor we cannot find batteries so we thought that we take them as hand luggage. We packed them very well in several plastic bags so there was no danger. What we didn't know was the xtra security due to thew Timor situation. We checked in att one terminal, were transported to another terminal with tens of army security. We had to walk through several metal detectors, on the walls were plenty of huge brochures telling us that any kind of batteries are not allowed not even dry batteries. So there we stood in the security, two guys with 1.5 kg lead together with 0.4 l battery liquid, airport security personel, the Aussi army, The Aussi Police some special agents. But they let us go on the plane with our cargo. My respect for airline security got a blow....
In Timor we got our bike pieces and with the little help of som hundred Timoreese we got the bikes working.
Story number 2 is actually not a airfreight story but anyhow. I was travelling alone from Thailand to Australia and in Singapore I wanted to go to Indonesia. The shortest way was to Battam Island, only a 30 minutes ride by a hydro boat but theyid that they cannot accept the bike. When complined telling tht I see that the locals carries tremendous cargos on the boat, they said that Ok if you can carry the bike on they will accept it.
So I went to buy a tool set and 10 big bags, and in 8 hours the bike was packed in bags. I remember it was quite hot at at Fingers Pier (?) but I got to Batam Island, the local Customer Office invited me to stay at his house were we put the bike together and he even showed me most of the whorehouses on Batam Island. My Journey then continued Island Hopping to Bali where I put the bike on a plane to Brisbane, only using two woodstocks where the wheels where pressed together by big bolts and the front and rear suspenssion compressed by stripes. Garuda airline accepted the cargo and the Brisbane customs accepted the Carnet in the middle of the night.
Then the last air cargo story. Some english readers maybe remember The Bike Super Bike Team run by Howard Lees. They were quite succesfull in endrance, Bol Dor, Daytona etc. They were 100% privatee, financed by Howard. The riders were among others Howard, Matt Oxley and finn/swede Vesa Kultalahti. They were very sucessful and they got semi factory bikes. Howard got married to a friend of mine who was M.D. in one of my companies. They got two boys together but unfortunally Howard died in a small acrobate plane accident 15 years. My friend still owns the bikes, a Factory Bol Dor Honda, a RC30 Honda an OM1 Yamaha racer among others. The bikes are partly in England partly in Finland. The Team still aranges memory races every year.
Anyhow the Bike team was a low budget team. They didn't have any big money. Then there was the Suzuka Endurance in Japan and the Team wanted to go there. Howard got a cheap freight for the bike (I think it was the RC30) by lying the weight. Therefore he couldn't put any spareparts or any tools in the consigment. Any how Howard had many "mechanics" and friends travelling on their own expenses to the race and everybody was equipped with spareparts and tool bags. At that time the airlines didn't check the hand luggage very well and anything you could carry on was accepted. So there they stood in the check in 10 guys with two hand baggages, each weighing 40-50 kilo tools and spare parts everybody smiling like this is not so heavy...
They made it to the race and they were 20th.
If You are interested in the Howard Lees fantastic racing story on a 100% amateur basis pls go to
http://www.howardleesracing.co.uk/index.htm. Howard was a very nice guy but he couldn't live up to Finnish drinking standards.
Sorry for this long and off topic answer.
HIKO
