Easiest place to get a cheap bike and travel countries

[BearJohn]

Hey guys

I've been reading alot about the difficulties in getting a bike in Argentina (and other SA countries) and taking them across borders.

I am from Australia and want to take a months holiday across South America.

Ideally I wanted to start in argentina and work my way up through Chile all the way to Colombia (a long stretch for a month I know).

But since I don't know anyone in these countries, getting a local to do favours such as crossing a border with me would be too time consuming.

So I'm after advice on where would be the best place to get a bike cheap and be able to take it across borders. Even if that meant lower US somewhere.

If the bike can be cheap enough (under $500) I wouldn't be concerned with selling it. Although with Rego I realise that's not an easy price to aim for.

But the idea here is simplicity. I don't mind doing the work to make it happen before I go, I just don't want to be wasting half my holiday getting the bike sorted out once I'm there.

Thanks,
Bj

[BearJohn]

Just an addendum

If there is no simple solution here, what country can people recommend for a good moto holiday. I am looking to stay out of the obvious tourist destinations on this one.

Somewhere along coastlines/beaches good towns to meet people and soak in the atmosphere.

The real thing here being the simplest place to buy a cheap bike and hit the road .

[kaiserkyhl]

It would be great if things worked like in Australia. I remember how almost all bigger cities had a tourist parking lot where cars and bikes set up for travel would be sold over and over again to new tourists.

But unfortunately that's not the case in SA. It can be quite a hassle here. Like in Colombia its illegal to buy vehicle on a tourist visa. But anyone will sell you a bike. I have even seen somewhere here on the forum someone managed to register it in their own name. But according to the law thats illegal, so I believe that to be luck or maybe not -I don't know if he was ever able to sell it again.

I have also seen that you have to do strange tricks to make a buy happen in other SA countries. There are several threads about Argentina/Chile.

Anyway, an option is to buy a bike of an other tourist or rent one.

The US registered bikes comes with two documents ownership/title and registration. You'll never need more that the title document which in several states do not have a name of the owner on it.

So all you need to buy a bike of a tourist is to ride to the nearest border with him, so he can exit the country you are in and thereby cancel his temporary importation and you then do get the title document between borders and ride into the next country and you get a temporary importation document in your name in the new country. You'll never need to show if the bike is registered as long as it has an original title document and a license plate. You can then sell to another tourist when you're done or ride it up to the US and register it in your own name and sell it there.

That said there are two Australian guys here in Colombia now that both want to sell their Suzuki DR650 with full travel set up, which they bought of a German couple. The bikes are registered in California. One of the bikes are here at my storage in Cali, Colombia and the other is still riding around Colombia until he find a buyer or maximum until Christmas. After that he to will store it.

I can PM you their emails if your interested?

And concerning where to go! When you're on a bike its easy pretty much anywhere you go in SA to stay of the beaten track. And every country is special in its own way!