Buying a bike in Mongolia.. riding to Europe
 

I'm new to Horizons Unlimited and had some questions regarding a trip a friend and I are planning. We've been traveling through Asia for the last 6 months and are headed to Mongolia the beginning of July. We are both experienced motorcyclists, both off-road and on, as well as experienced adventure riders. We would like to purchase bikes in Ulaanbaatar and ride west to Europe. We have been researching and slowly preparing for the trip, however just recently we were told that if you purchase a motorcycle in Mongolia you cannot take it outside of the country. Is this in fact true? Also, what bikes are available for such a trip. We were considering the Russian Planet 5, but have heard they not so reliable. Would they hold up for 7000 miles of changing terrain? Are there many used Japanese bikes available? Any information would be appreciated! Chris

Hallo,

can't really advise on whether its possible to get a bike out of the country but plenty of people have bought them within the country and used them there - not certain about the legalities regarding registration and the like though.

When I was there last year the Russian bikes were fading away very quickly and you didn't see that many. Nowadays the market is dominated by 200cc Chinese bikes. In the markets of UB these could be bought new for about $1100. The advantage of the Chinese bilkes (at least within Mongolia) is spares are available in every village.

I suggest you search the HUBB (or Mongolia Lonely planet) and get the email address of the OASIS Guest House. The owners Renae and (? sorry forgot the husbands name) are very knowledgeable on what can and can't be done and should be able to advise you better.

Hope this helps

Thank you for the response. I actually have already emailed the couple from Oasis and they were the ones that said motorcycles could not be taken outside the country. I was hoping there was someone who has done this and could give some insight as to how they did it. I guess Plan B will be to tour Mongolia (which isn't a bad alternative ;), but would still like to pursue our original plan. If anyone else has information on this please let me know. Many thanks!

I often wonder why people apparently avoid like the plague to ask the horse but will happily rely on hearsay instead. The horse in this case would be the Mongolian embassy. Write a nice letter, find out the official position, ask if an exemption can be granted and then only try to find some, err, unusual way of getting around the "roadblock", if any exists.

Cheers
Chris