Buying bike in Egypt

[Sleigher]

Has anyone ever bought a bike in Egypt? If so, is it possible to register the bike under your name on a tourist visa?
(Initially I was looking to bike from Scotland down the east coast to Cape Town but its looking pricey. One of my money saving ideas is to cut Europe out completely and so I was looking to start in Egypt.)

Any advice would be much appreciated,
Thanks.

[omar mansour]

Originally Posted by Sleigher

Has anyone ever bought a bike in Egypt? If so, is it possible to register the bike under your name on a tourist visa?
(Initially I was looking to bike from Scotland down the east coast to Cape Town but its looking pricey. One of my money saving ideas is to cut Europe out completely and so I was looking to start in Egypt.)

Any advice would be much appreciated,
Thanks.

yes no big problems to buy the bike and to register ,but the Carnet will be bit big problem you may try to check with Automobile club in Egypt
Here is the link of contacting them i hope you can find good news from them
ATCE-EGYPT
cheers

[Squire]

Maybe Omar is right, but as a foreigner having lived in Egypt until recently, and having had a bike registered, my understanding is rather that I needed a local ID card without which I could simply not register the bike, or the car for the matter.

While I tend to trust Omar's local knowledge, I would not hold my breath on the possibility to register on a tourist visa. It might just be some "lost in translation" misunderstanding on my part, or that I accept to pay for services but won't bribe as a matter of principle. If you succeed please post your experience on the HUBB, I mean if you succeed registering and then passing it to someone else once your trip in Egypt is over. Good luck in any case.

[Sleigher]

Omar;
Hey Omar, great to hear that you think this is possible. Do you know how a foreigner would go about this? Do you agree with Squire that I may need to get a local ID before buying and registering?

Squire;
Hey Squire, in your opinion is it a tricky procedure getting a bike? How did you go about getting a local ID? What sort of visa did you have while you were in Egypt?

Thank you both for the responses. I really appreciate the help as I cant find any relevant information online.

[Squire]

The ID came with the work permit/visa, drivers' license also took some time.. actually it took ages, and I had to hand over everything when I left. My stuff (incl. bike) took a full month to cross border control on the way out, and obtaining the authorization to export the bike took some weeks as well.

As far as buying goes, you may be able to find a used KTM Adv for example, other than that there are a few shops selling used bikes, not many, one in particular in Shoubra on the road to Heliopolis, and another one in Port Said that I've visited once. There's a Honda dealership on the ring road next to the Mubarak Police Academy (must have changed name by now), and some remotely located Kawasaki shops, as well as one KTM dealer in Heliopolis, with a shop in Sharm.

On the used market, apart from sport bikes in the vicinity of Maadi, they are not easily available, and NOT cheap in Egypt because of the hefty import tax. They usually are in very poor condition as there are no real bike shop for maintenance and mechanic, not even parts with tires, apart from the Harley shop and another one that I never tried.

Just be ready to face the worst possible bureaucracy, it's entirely arbitrary, costly, inefficient and painful. But riding in Egypt is worth every single penny and time spent getting the papers right.

[Sleigher]

Thanks Squire, that pretty much answers any and all questions I could have come up with. Looks like I'm going to have to cough up the extra money and just ride down from the UK.

[omar mansour]

well
if you can get 6 months tourism visa ( easy to get i think cause i sae few ppl got it here ) so you can register a bike 4 6 months
I'm thinking to start a project to rent bikes ready to go with even a carnet to go around specially if the road between Egypt - Sudan will be open soon )
so in 3 weeks can make it Cairo -Nairobi easy
problems i have no experience how it can work to get a fair price for renting , in case of accidents, insurance for riders , specially it will be expensive to get a clean good bike , and make it ready to go
if any one have experience in that will be great to feed me back

[Sleigher]

Thank you both very much for all your help. Sorry I took so long to respond but we've just been very busy looking into other options.

[Sleigher]

Just to give you an update in case you are interested. We decided to buy bikes in the UK and ride them down. Crossing from France to Tunisia, then through Libya, into Egypt and then making our way down the East coast hopefully ending in Cape Town. Just waiting on our Libyan visas and then we will be on the road.
Thanks again for the help.