We woke up in our tilted cube this morning and checked the weather. If the report was sour, we would explore Rotterdam all day and postpone the trip to Hoek van Holland until Friday when the weather improves. If it had improved since we checked it last night, we would go.
The weather report was not good. We decided to wait it out. This now gave us time to contemplate the other question, how do we get Sally's battery and bike home?
When we purchased the bike, we considered all manner of possibilities, European to US electrical adapters, 220 current in Europe vs the 110 standard in the U.S., internationally available components and more. We thought we had all our bases covered. But, while buying a torx tool in Duisberg I was discussing our bike and flying it home with one of the sales people. He questioned how I would get the battery home. I said I was just going to throw the bike in a box, put it on the plane and go home. He blanched, expressing real consternation at the thought of transporting a Li-ion battery on a plane. He sited the rules and restrictions regarding the transport of these batteries. I had no idea they were so regulated and restricted regarding transport.
Over the next few days, I casually looked into it further and found there was quite a bit of hub bub out on the Internet regarding flying these batteries on commercial airliners. I let it rest while we cycled over the next few days, making our way here. With our free morning, it seemed a ripe time to pursue the issue.
As we dug into it this morning, the picture got more and more bleak. After reading UPS's and FedEx's manifestos about battery transportation requirements, I thought it best to call them. We were thinking we could transport the bike on our plane and ship the battery via another carrier, such as UPS.
I got through to them and made my inquiries. I was told the only way they would ship them was if they were packaged by a trained hazmat specialist. I could take the training and package it myself, or I could hire a hazmat company to package them for shipping. Either way, the cost was prohibitive.
Sally found a company that specializes in shipping bikes. We called them, got a quote of $480 to transport it, but they would have to get back to us about the battery. They did via email later in the day. No. They could not shop the bike with the battery.
Hmmmm. If we can't ship the bike with a battery, what if we left the battery in Europe and bought one when we got home. No bike shops were open in the U.S. yet, what with the nine hour time difference. I cruised Amazon, Performance Bikes, REI and other U.S. websites. No one listed the Bosch system or its parts. Curiouser and curiouser. I texted Andy and Jeff, asking if they would do a little stateside research into the availability and price of battery replacements, when they woke up.
It was now 11:00 am, and checkout time. We moved to the diningroom/lobby, set up camp and continued our quest. By this point, we were changing goals. Instead of bringing the bike home, maybe we could sell it in the Netherlands where bikes are king and ebikes are popular. I Yelped bike shops and began calling. I got no's from the first three, then a yes on the fourth call. We negotiated a price over the phone, site unseen. It was less than we wanted, but at least we could recoup some of our original outlay. Further calling resulted all in no's.
The predicted rain was now falling. We discussed our possibilities. While we worked the problem, one of the girls cleaning up the hostel starting talking with Sally and was soon apprised of our situation. She suggested a Facebook group in Rotterdam that acts similar to Craigslist. She friended us, and invited us to join the group. It did not go through, so after monkeying around a bit we let it be.
We decided we should go to our new hotel, drop our bags, and then visit bike shops. I went out to get our bikes from the locked storage room and attach all our bags. Sally was a long time coming out. When she did emerge from the hostel, she invited me back in. Somehow (you know Sally) she got into a discussion with the manager of the hostel about our issue. His best friend runs a shipping company. He was sure he could figure a way for us to transport the battery. He was on the phone to his friend for 15 minutes. When he got off, he took our text phone number and said he would text us when he found something. He mentioned a bike shop down the street and suggested we stop by. Suited up in our rating gear, we hit the streets, headed for the shop.
The bike shop said no to buying the bike. But he did suggest a shop at the main train station. We thanked him and headed for our next shop on the list, the one that had agreed to buy it. As we rode across busy downtown Rotterdam, we realized the shop we were headed for was the same one the last shop had suggested.
The Rotterdam central train station is another piece of architectural art. It is also big. We were told the shop was below the station. It took us 15 minutes to find it. In the process we discovered the largest bike storage area I have ever seen. It was reminiscent of the last scene from the first Indiana Jones movie. Vast and full of bikes. Thousands of them.
We brought the bike to them. They were very kind and truthful. We agreed on a price, but told them we had to finish our ride to the Hoek van Holland, which they happily agreed with. We told them we would try to find a better price by selling it via the Internet or our friends, which they again said was fine. Just give them a call a day ahead so they could get to the bank to get the money. We said we would.
We rode to our hotel, checked in, locked up the bikes and walked back to a couple Chinese restaurants we passed earlier. We shared a meal, then walked the outdoor shopping plaza, stopped for groceries and then headed back to the hotel.
I decided to phone AirCanada to simply ask about the battery. The woman I got on the phone, very helpful and friendly, did some cursory checking and said it would be fine to fly the bike on the plane! I asked her to email me documentation that verified her claim. She balked, then put me on hold to do more looking. After 35 minutes she had not returned. She either forgot me or was so engrossed in her reading she didn't notice the time? Anyway, I called back, got a different agent. She put me on hold for 5 minutes, then came back on to say no way. We could not put the battery on the plane.
So tonight we go to sleep with the 600 pound Gorilla running loose in the room, uncontrollable. We will most likely sell him to the bike shop, along with his attached bike, on Monday or Tuesday, but will try some Internet postings first, to see if we can get a better price.
No comments:
Post a Comment