04/24:Looking for a bike in Mexico / Baja + short help with registration / insurance
 

Hello everyone,
we are looking for a bike in Baja California at the end of March or beginning of April.

I have searched the forum but haven't been able to find clear information on how the registration of the bike in Mexico works. Can I register it without any issues or transfer it to my name? I'm German.

What about insurance? We plan to ride from Baja southwards to South America. What should we consider in advance?

Thank you for your help.

Unless you have a really good reason for buying in Baja—say, a model not available in the US—it’ll be cheaper and easier to purchase north of the border. Better selection, too, and very often much better previous maintenance of any used bikes you find.

I’ve heard lots of contradictory reports on whether you can buy and register as a foreigner in Mexico. I don’t know what the truth is, but given all of Baja is within a few days ride from California or Arizona, it’s difficult to see why you’d want to try.

Hope that’s helpful.

Mark

Go to Facebook and find "Pat´s Plates". He knows. But I don´t have personal experience with him. There is a video with him on Youtube with JoGeek, where most questions are answered. Let us know what you found out!

@markharf

Thank you very much for your advice. We're not sure why we should purchase the bike in Baja. Could you provide guidance on how to go about buying a bike in San Diego? Is there a platform where individuals sell their pre-owned bikes? Additionally, what's the process for transferring the registration to my name so we can begin our journey southward to destinations like Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and beyond?

I apologize for the numerous inquiries, but I've been struggling to find comprehensive answers to my questions.

Many thanks!

I’m traveling now with uncertain internet capabilities, so I’d suggest a thorough site search (the results of which will certainly include this thread: https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hu...nals-can-58648), followed by Googling the state of California’s rules and procedures. And if it were me, I’d do the same re the state of Arizona, where rules (and cities) tend to be less complicated.

If you go this route, you’ll be doing other travelers a service by reporting how it went.

I can not add any significant mexican information, but:

In Guatemala, you can have a bike in your name as a foraigner.
It is not costly or cumbersome, and you can do it almost totally online.

With guatemalan plates you can cross borders very easily between ca-4 countries (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua), without doing any kind of paperwork for the bike. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centra...trol_Agreement


If you are interested I am selling a BMW G650X-Challenge (in Guatemala with local plates) and can assist you with the ownership transfer.

So you can consider starting your tour in Guatemala, then going north to mexico and baja california (do not miss it!), and the going south again...

I have a selling post in another form, but I am not sure if a can post the link here...


sorry, I haven't saw the date of the original post XD