rental vs buying
 

Hi, I want to do a 2-3 month tour of Australia Jan-March 2011 In that short time would it make sense to buy a bike and try to sell it back or is a long term rental better. Thanks, Mike

Mike

I rented a bike in NZ for two and half weeks, any longer than that it would have been cheaper to ship. We are shipping two over to OZ for a six week run then maybe back for a couple of weeks before we need to ship back. If you can get to Portland Oregon Get Routed is loading a container in Sept.
Bob:scooter:

The biggest pro in my mind is not having to deal with shipping and immigration of a bike...

It's expensive, time consuming and stressful.

Another pro is that you don't need to worry about prepping the bike yourself or paying for servicing and repairs.

On the downside, rental prices can be pretty steep, the bike is an unknown quantity (has it been looked after?) and you wont get to put your own luggage on it bar throw over bags.

I guess you need to talk it over with a few rental companys.


Have you considered buying a bike in Aus then selling it before you leave back to the dealer you bought it from for pre-agreed price.

Maybe find a hubber who will sell/lend you a bike for the right money ?

Buy would be a better deal, but then you need to prep it as mentioned. Then you have to sell it again before you leave, which could also take time. And you don't want to be spending travel time doing paperwork

The other idea is to rent a HUBBers bike as mentioned. This is a pretty good option if the bike is prepped up and set up correctly.

You could buy a bike through a fellow HUBBer, and get the sale done the same way. This would take trust, as the purchase and sale would be in the other HUBBers name.

As it is so far in the future I could not say for definite that I would be around, but if I am, then I can certainly put my hand up to help.

Cheers
TS

Hello,
If you check out the rental sites you will see that it rather expensive to do so especially if you talk about three months. Shipping to Australia is not all that expensive but the cost of custom clearange, quarantine inspection,dumping of crate, registration and insurance on a foreign bike more than double the cost of the freight bill (I know because it happened to me)
Then you want the bike to be set up for what you want etc.
I came across your question only because yesterday I listed my bike for sale and is ready to do whatever you want to do with it. Not a cent extra to be spent. I would rather sell it to a fellow world traveller than just someone down the road.
What I can offer you is this.
If you decide to buy the bike I will pick you up from the airport and you can stay with us. I will get you all maps needed and share my extensive Australian experience, I may even join you for short distance on my recently purchased F650 . After you have completed your trip I can help you sell it . We can clean up the bike again and sell it from here if you wish.
Two days ago I created this web site.
http://r100gspd.weebly.com
I have travelled the world on various bikes- in '97 I took an R80 Bmw from here to India and on the Europe doing the overland trip. I am now 60 years old and because of the onset of arthritis the bike is gettig to heavy for me old , I purchesed a f650 which has to do me for a while.
anyway enough said- it over to you
kind regards
Richard Wolters

Have you considered buyback schemes? Some shops will buy back the bike they sold you if you meet certain conditions. You would probably get a better price selling to another individual, but it is a better alternative than sitting around for weeks trying to find a buyer. For example: Offroad Touring Motorcycles For Sale - Australian Buy Back Scheme