Buying a Chinese Bike in a crate
 

Recently I stumbled upon this bike on ebay. The interesting thing is that apart from being cheap and Chinese, it comes in a crate. Someone coming to the UK could buy one of these bikes for not much more than the cost of shipping their own one here.
Leaving to one side whether these bikes are any good, It would be an interesting option for the budget conscious to go to your start country, collect one of these crated machines and use that.

The real question would be if you could actually get it titled? you couldn't in the U.S., where the bike would have to pass muster on emissions and other import requirements.

So, could you buy a bike this cheap in the UK, EU, and get it registered?

No problem registering this item: loads of them are being imported of course and they wouldn't do that if they could not go on the road ("full-on" offroading being a minority interest).

Dirt cheap sure enough, but read some other threads about the reliability of the Chinese imports: there is a growing dealer network in the UK for warranty claims however.
Spares? Who knows?

There will be massive depreciation and not much of a market for selling it on: I would think these cheap bikes will end up being dumped/scrapped early in their life - but, hell they are cheap to buy!!

Buy one, ride it into, say, Africa, without a carnet, and dump it when it breaks?? Carry-on backpacking/flying.

Putting aside the fact that it is not a good machine for touring the UK, after all it has 10hp. :) How would a foreigner register it in UK? You need an address to do that, and you wouldn't have one. This then brings insurance into the equation. However, if a tourist managed to get a way round the lack of address, I.E used a friends address for registration and insurance purposes. He/She would be better of buying a 2nd hand bike here. For a couple of hundred pounds more you could buy something like and old Diversion 600. That would be a better bet for touring anywhere.
Jim

In the US, these bikes are growing in popularity and quality (believe it or not!), but as far as touring on one, I wouldn't risk it, unless you have ready access to parts and are very knowlegeable about bikes, or can buy two examples of what I think might be worth a look (and as I state, are based on US situation/comparison to US available alternatives). I used to think these things would pass muster for such a use (short[er] tourist get around), and would make a good alternative to buying a used bike, but now I wouldn't really consider a used bike or many of these new Chinese bikes.

That being said, there have been a few high quality Chinese bikes lately, Skyteam has a nice enduro with some high quality bits, priced (new) far lower than equivalent Japanese brands (new). The bike one that I would recommend, and only if one was considering buying a new Japanese/Euro enduro/motard for short-term touring, and only if the price difference was similar to US circumstances, would be the Qingqi QM200 in motard or enduro guise. Qingqi is the OEM for Suzuki's DR200, and in the U.S., are priced near half what a new DR200 costs. Initial reviews on several US forum sites discussing Chinese brands are very positive and favorable (and comparing to other Chinese brands, very, very high quality), and the 200 engine/parts is interchangeable with the DR200's.

Keep in mind that both the Skyteam and Qingqi examples are based on US prices/comparisons to other US available bikes, and I am not sure how much an advantage either has in terms of price in Europe over similar bikes.

[quote=JimOD;186598]Putting aside the fact that it is not a good machine for touring the UK, after all it has 10hp. :)

I seem to remember Pirsig did his first trip, through Canada on 6.5hp.:mchappy: Not sure that a late sixties Nighthawk would have that much more than 10hp and look what came out of that trip
Friend of mind toured the UK on a Honda C70, he told me it had all the power he needed, in his weaker moments he lusted after a C90 which he imagined had all the low down grunt anyone could ever need. My Uncle, now in his seventies briefly traded his bantam for a 350. Nearly frightened himself to death.

[quote=rachyett;186679]
It took me about 25 years to read that book! Picked it up after so many years, and carried on from the bookmark (in the days when a bookmark was a bit of material instead of something on a computer). Now I can't remember how it ends:rolleyes2:.