information on details of swapping bikes
 

has anybody out there done a bike swap, i am about to and would appreciate any advice on what needs to be done or any generalexperiences
thank you ken

Hi Ken,

I've done that a couple of times now. It depends pretty much on the country and the kind of insurance the owner has. In the UK, the owner is the insured, the bike is not so you'll need to get insured to ride the bike. As far as I know this problem does not exist in other countries in Europe where the insurance normally applies to the vehicle. However, in Germany for instance you can limit the insurance to cover only the owner or owner and family, only drivers with more than 25 years, etc... So you'll need to check if you're insured or not.
You'll also need a declaration of the owner stating that you're allowed to drive the bike and cross borders if necessary.

Cheers,
Joe

bike swap details
 

thanks joe
i am interested in any experiences people have had with swaping, posative or negative in order to make the transaction as good as it can be, and avoid any pitfalls. obviously there is a large degree of trust involved and given my posative experiences of motorcyclists all over the world in the last 44 years there is a very good basis to work on
ken

Swapping 101?
 

I have swapped 3 times in order to tour Europe, New Zealand and Australia.
All my swaps have been positive experiences and I made some good friends along the way. When I swap I have always taken at least 5 weeks to tour abroad. There have been minor incidents with each trip such as:
My Euro tour was done on a 2004 ST1300 and the bike began to run on half of its cylinders. After about 3 days of trouble shooting and stopping in dealer shops in Italy, I was able to fix the problem on my own, it was only a loose coil wire on one bank of cylinders. Easy fix when found.
When my Aussie mate came to the states and picked up my bike, the first day out a lady backed into two bikes in a parking lot. There was only minor damage and her insurance covered it all. It didn't even slow the Aussies down and they repaired a broken mirror a few days later.
If you swap there are most likely going to be some issues arise. If you covet your bike like your first child you may not be comfortable swapping it. You have to be comfortable with the arrangement but I have been pleased with all the swaps I have done so far and I'm still looking to get back to Europe if I can find a suitable mate there.
Good Luck!!

details on swap bikes
 

thank you for that it is always nice to hear posative storys

Ushuaia and Germany
 

I am looking into this option as well after having travelled on a canadian registred bike to Ushuaia, having two Africa Twins in Germany. My dad has some Honda CX 500 Cs. So we are talking about several "indestructable", reliable bikes.
I have not talked about this with my dad yet but could imagine that he is willing to offer at least one as he received the same offer in Canada and this was the starting point for an unforgettable father/son-trip. Thanks again to Tom (rockymountainman), will never forget this! To be continued...