Back in 03 we shipped my girlfriends KX250 to Brazil for the ISDE. I used a motorcyle crate from the dealership she worked at. We partially disassembled the bike, mounted it in the crate and then stuffed all our spare parts, tools etc into it. We had to have it fully enclosed so I sheet metal screwed 1/4 plywood to the frame, leaving about 3-4" open around the top of the sides so customs could see in it. The crate was shipped to Oregon so that it would go into the US team container, then Long Beach Ca. Where I was told that they missed the freighter by a day! It was then shipped to Miami and loaded on a ship there. When we shipped it back, it came into the states in the port of Elizabeth NJ, about an hour from my house. We werent allowed to get the crate and it was shipped back to Oregon then back to us in NJ. The bike was gone for 7 months! When we got it back, the top of the crate was ripped open and some couch cushions were stuffed in it. Nothing was missing but the bike was starting to rust and the chrome fork tubes started pitting, probably from the salt air. Cant wait to do it again someday!