buying bikes in central america - heading north (mar-apr/17)
 

Helloooo HUBB Community,

i've been digging through old posts for a while now, and decided to open a new thread.

Here's the advice/info I am seeking:

What - in your opinion at the moment - is the best way to get from central america (preferably panama, but not neccessarily) up north to either Mexico or California. If - lets say - 2 europeans (british & german) wanted to buy 2 bikes (200 ccm would be fine) in said southern destination and ride them to max. San Francisco within 6-8 weeks(End of Mar/17 to early May/17)?

Selling the bikes at the end of the trip can be an option, but there is also the possibility of storing them with friends/family.

Anyone here who's traveling the opposite direction and needs their bikes to be transported back, feel free to contact me.

Cheers
Ricarda

Interesting plan , but it has several drawbacks . You can buy such small bikes sold new in Central America and get them put in your names of course. ,but for you as European tourists to get them across the border into the USA could be a problem. Such CA_market bikes will not be approved for use in the USA and as European tourists it might raise alarms at the US border to the point where they might prevent you from taking them in to California. If you do get them across you would not be able to sell them in California , except perhaps to a collector because they would not be approved or up to the standards for air pollution controls and model certification in the US market.
Selling such bikes in Mexico should be a bit easier, if you can find interested buyers.
The other option would be to locate bikes that come from the USA with the certifications and then have those legally registered in your names on the USA paperwork.I don't know how that would be done .
It is improbable that you would be able to ride someone else's USA reg. motorcycles back to the USA for them because to cross borders in Central America they want PROOF OF YOUR OWNERSHIP
Storing them with friends in USA would present the problem the next time you come back as to how do you get illegal foreign plated bikes insured in the USA? , you will not be able to ride them.

santa cachucha! Why does this have to be so diffcult?
Thank you very much for your quick response, that what the answer I was hoping to get around or avoid. Well it looks like a roundtrip in central america makes more sense then, and sell the bikes where we buy them or perhaps even rent.