Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB - Selling a USA BMW Motorcycle in Europe?

o-livier

What you are proposing is to import your motorcyle to the Netherlands for a period of use while working in Amsterdam and then selling it , correct ?
In that case you will be dealing with the RDW , the Dutch equivalent of a department of vehicle registry and also with the tax department.
Rather than asking for input from other travellers it may be more useful to go directly to the official entities who you will wind up dealing with in Nederland , that is RDW and ministry of finance and the like .

Following is the link to their specific page on importing a bike .

https://www.rdw.nl/over-rdw/informat...hicle-with-you

Note that it is directed at a Dutch citizen or legal resident , and not at a foreign tourist who is moving in .
YOU will be permitted to ride your bike in Nederland (NL) and the rest of Europe while carrying your USA number plate without issue for a certain period as a tourist .
If you wish to keep the bike longer in Europe you will have to get the registration changed over . If you sell it to another party it will be their problem to get it registered in NL .

In NL it is clearly possible to get a bike imported because there are hundreds of older model originally USA-registered motorcyles running around in NL still sporting MILE-odometers , and they are traded in and re-sold at genuine motorcycle dealerships .
These for the most part are the cruiser-style Japanese models which were not sold in NL or in Europe generally . For a time when there was a glut of used motorcycles on the USA market a number of Dutch buyers scooped them up by the container-load and sold them to enthusiasts who were in the mood to go cruising " the American way " .
The cost of getting them accepted by RDW apparently was not excessive and they are still being re-sold over and over .Perhaps that is because they are older bikes.
So, your GS 1250 is now an OLD BIKE which might qualify to slip in under the level of overly expensive, BUT the rules may now have been adjusted upward in consideration of new ecological strictures and laws about technical conformity.
The only way to find out is to contact RDW . And that in itself can be a tricky problem because they deal in request email only by way of "social media" and you must fill in a form on their website .

RDW is not much loved by the Dutch because of the excess of bureaucracy it entails .

As others have suggested , if your stay in Europe is not overly long it may be possible to work some scheme where you manage to keep your USA registry and plates while also getting valid European green card insurance for that time . You do need to have proper public liability insurance .

Selling your BMW in the USA and then buying in Europe is another option , but that brings its own problems of registration for you, a foreigner with no residency in the NL. Because to register a vehicle in your own name requires proof of six months of residency in one of the "Schengen accord" signatory countries . Having a valid Schengen-member passport (France ) will not help you. Even a Dutch passport holder who lives elsewhere beyond Europe cannot get a bike just bought in NL registered under his name unless he has achieved NL-resident status again . A way around that could be to buy the bike and have it registered under the name of another Dutch resident person , a friend or relative.I have actually done that a number of times , but it requires a total trust of your honesty on the part of the other person that you will not rack up multiple traffic violations and then leave them stuck with a fortune in fines and a ruined license .
Perhaps if you are working at a company in Amsterdam you might find a way to register it to the company ,with you as primary operator , until you establish six months residency ?

Upon reading that linked page I find that there may be room for some optimism ,as I see it contains a list of the fees to get a bike brought in as personal goods ( "removal items) which totals around 200 Euro .

If your question is meant only to find a way to unload that USA model of BMW then you could probably accomplish that at some of the bona fide motorcycle dealerships . For instance this link https://www.terbraake.nl/ is for a big operation in a small village in Overijssel province with whom I have done business . His website actually advertises as selling , buying and trading of all brands and his current inventory list has a number of the USA-imported models. He ,or other similar business , may be willing to buy it and to take on the job of getting it imported . Just don't expect to get some high valuation on the old bike .