I'd really love to take my motorbike on my next trip, regardless of where I go. I've been looking for a very long time for reputable and reliable companies that do international shipping but cant find any. I don't care if it takes over a month, but I'd really prefer it to take less than three. I'll just ship it in advance.

I've looked into the prices of good motorbikes overseas and to make it worthwhile I need to be able to ship it for less than $1,000. Any ideas? Know any good companies?

FedEx ships motorcycles. However, they "misplaced" a friend's bike for over a week.

Alright I've looked in to other options but now I'm considering the most basic: Bring it on the plane with me. Qantas allows sporting equipment for free up to a certain weight, anything over this needs to be paid for per kg. I think it's a 20kg allowance and it's $10 per kg after this. So if my motorbike weighs 98kg dry, and the allowance is 20kg, that's only $780. Even if they made me pay the full amount I'd be okay with that.

But more importantly, would an airline let you take a motorbike on the plane if you're cool paying the excess fees?

Nah they won't let you, they do have excess limits.

Fuuuuck. Okay so that method is out.

Would an airline allow you to purchase a SECOND ticket purely for the motorbike?

no, they will not.

Then how the fuck do competitive riders take their bikes with them to international competitions?

That's a good question. Maybe UPS freight? I don't think they have the standard weight and dimension regulations standard packages are subject to. Double check that, though.

However Googling "shipping motorcycles international" reveals multiple apparent shippers of such. The reliability of such companies though, I'm not sure.

If you're good with mechanics, maybe break the bike down into several parts? Fork, tank, tires, frame and motor block?

They freight them. Along with support vehicles and other gear.

Plenty of couriers will freight a bike overseas for you.