Taking a bike out of the UK for over a year
 

I am planning on touring in Africa for the next couple of years on my British registered bike. This means that both my MOT certificate and road tax will have expired. How does one get around this short of travelling back to the UK at the end of the first year, and what are the implications for insuring the bike?

FYI: mot and road tax are required for the pleasure of using uk roads... so won't be much use in the africa. an african wouldn't know what you're talking about. you won't find any uk bike insurance valid outside europe and definitely not in africa.
ChrisB

Your best bet is to write to the DVLA to let them know what you're doing. They probably won't respond and can't really cope with the concept because all of they're not used to people taking vehicles out of the country for more than a year. Having had several conversations with them, both before and during our trip, their stock answer is that you should keep your MOT and tax in date to keep the vehicle road legal.
MOT's are hard to come by in India, so I just wrote to them and explained what I was doing and that I couldn't tax/MOT the bike on the way.
Whilst I was away they sent me a letter asking why I hadn't taxed the bike, etc and I simply referred to my letter, which placated them.
On return to UK, I MOT'd my bike and got it taxed with no problems.

Hope this helps,

Harvey

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