Buy or ship?/Best EU country to buy a used bike?

[mattyowen]

I am new to this forum and am looking around for some basic information to plan a first time long distance trip in Urope (Italy, specifically)

I am American with EU (Irish) citizenship. I have a Triumph speed Tripmle that I love, but I feel it might not be the ideal bike for touring Italy (and wherever else I may elect to go). I'm trying to determine what is the best way to have a bike over there for 6-10 weeks.
Renting seems like it will get prohibitively expensive for that length of time, so I either buy there and sell at the end of the trip or buy here and incur the additional cost of shipping.

Im sure there are more bikes in circulation in certain countries (Germany, I'd guess) and therefore better countries to seek out a used moto. Any thoughts?

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks in advance

[mark manley]

I am not sure about others but it is no problem for a foreigner to register a bike in the UK as long as you have an address, insuring it might be another matter but Irish citizenship should smooth this out somewhat.

[barothi]

Bike prices in Ireland are down, especially the big bikes are cheap. The only problem is insurance, you would pay hundreds or maybe thousands of euros depending on the bike... My bike is on Irish plates, I know. But you can try calling the big insurers there, Carole Nash, Quinn Direct or Adelaide. Look around on biker.ie, they are a good bunch of lads, they will help answer your questions.
If it was me, I would buy in Germany and get German insurance. You can get a bike on ebay.de, that's the safest option IMHO. Or get one of the UK bikes advertised here on HUBB and go from there.

[Stanleybobly]

best buy will be Germany (well preserved those Germans), and the insurance is cheap there. Especially a 1-3 months temporary licenceplates with insurance.

to find your bike:[list][*]mobile.de – Gebrauchtwagen und neue Autos – Deutschlands größter Fahrzeugmarkt..[*][url=http://www.motoscout24.de/]MotoScout24: Motorradmarkt - Motorrad, Roller, Motorr

[mika]

Hi there,

yes, I agree with Stanleybobly, Germany is the best EU country to buy a used bike in good condition. Best time to buy is October, end of the season, and highest prices are in March/April. Contact a HU community and ask them to phone for you ...

Good luck

Mika from Salta Argentina

[Marius356]

If you buy a motorbike at a german dealer, they have to give you at least one year warranty.

During the first six month everything that breaks will be repaired (some parts like brakes, clutch exclued). After the seventh month you have to prove that the fault was there when you bought the bike.

I think it is an EU regulation, but I am not sure.

If you are staying a few month you should try to get a german season licence plate (saison kennzeichen), where you select the duration of month. You will get an imprint on the licence plate like e. g. 4-7, which means that you have to pay from 1st of april to 31st of July.

I am 26 years old, living in one of the bigger cities (expensive) an I pay 16,00 € per month for basic insurance (at my personal salesman - internet contracts are down to 11 € per month). You will need to open a german bank account or pay in advance.
The tax is defined by engine capacity - very simple (unusual here).
A 742 cc bike costs 55,00 € per year.
([url=http://translate.google.de/translate?hl=de&sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kfz-steuer.de%2Fkfz-steuer_krad.php]Google

[nemesi]

Hi everybody,
i do not agree that Germany is the cheapest place to buy a bike but it is definitely the easier and chepest for insurance related problems. Italy is actually the place in europe where the highest number of motorbikes are sold and circulating park (9.7 mil in it) is almost double than germany (5.5 mil) and 6 times more than UK (1.5 mil), have a look at the figures from acem -association of motorcycles producers in europe - acem - Market figures
And normally prices are lower where the offert is higher.
nevertheless because of the favourable exchange rate between euro and pounds UK is definitely the chepaest country to buy a motorbike, (mainly european bikes, on japanese bikes the saving is not so huge) i have bought two motorbkies in the last 2 years (1 ducati and 1 ktm) in ebay.co.uk and exported to austria (where i live even if i am italian)
anyway drop me a line if you need help with italian bureaucracy i struggled a lot in past.
ciao
enrico

[Donmanolo]

Mmm yes, prices are Ok-ish over here but nothing particularly special. Only problem is that the clowns in power have made it impossible for foreigners to buy any vehicle at all without having a residence permit. (An incredible hassle that can take years)

Unless you can find an italian resident who will accept to have the bike put on his name then it's stupidly difficult to buy a bike here for a traveller.