Bert:
I sell stuff to your countrymen all the time. My biggest customers are where you live. It's nice because when it's winter here it's summer there and I sell motorcycle related accessories so when my domestic customers have their bikes put up for the winter, my Australian customers are getting out and need parts. Most of my stuff don't weigh that much. my heaviest shipment is 12 pounds and most are less than 3 pounds and I use USPS flat rate shipping as much as I can. I have a Geneva distributor and he got me wise to shipping stuff. he once told me "it ll comes in on the same plane so you might as ship the least expensive way and USPS has been the last expensive way fot a long time.
Yep. USPS is what I get all my suppliers to use.
Post takes 8 to 10 days
UPS take about 3 weeks & cost twice as much
DHL is a disaster, take 3 weeks then put the parts into bond , charge a customs clearing fee on everything regardless of weather it is a duty free item or not.
Ebay parcel is by far the worst but I can not complain about them because about 1/3 take so long to arrive I get a refund then 4 weeks latter I get the goods.
The problem with all the freight companies are they are run by clots who walk around with silly smiles on their faces , both hands in side the pockets of their $ 2000 shinny suits .
None of them has ever delivered a single item and they are all hooked on technology that they do not understand and actually impeeds the flow of the freight.
Then because the technology is so fool proof they employ fools to deliver it , most who can not read English who navigate using their smart phones because they do not know the roads in the delivery area.
If there is no 10' sign reading "Bert's" they can not find the place regardless of all of the dead mowers sitting in plain view in the front yard.
When they do find the place they pull up out the front, see the chain on the gate , key a "no access" into the data terminal then drive away.
The fact that the gate has a slip latch never occurs to them.
Because this is an outer metro area by the time a delivery is attempted it is usually with a 4PL or 5PL who gets paid $ 4 to drop the package so why bother.
As to seasonal riding, the weather is fairly well the same as CA so we ride all year round except the HD posers.
The only time I do not ride is when the gusty westerlies hit, some where between July & September, usually go for about a month, direct off Antartica and gusting up to 80mph
This weekend is the Girder Fork Rally, around 3000km, 2 weeks latter will be the BSA International , around 4000 km