Here is the answer I got on advriders just today.
Quote:
Hi Microchoveur,
We are currently 4.5 months into our South America trip and wanted to offer some advice. We started in Colombia and are now in Chilean Patagonia on the Carratera Austral.
1) Don't buy a bike in Chile if you intend to take it out of the country. We were in Santiago a couple of weeks ago and met quite a few riders at Casa Matte Hostel who were unable to take Chilean registered bikes out of Chile - even if the bike was registered in their name. Apparently you need to be a resident for over a year and have an RUT # if you intend to do it. One guy had tried 6 different border crossings with zero success. Others had rented bikes with padrons and were also not able to take bikes out. Best I could gather Chilean officials have recently started enforcing old laws, but long story short there are lots of people stuck in Chile right now because of this. Don't be one of them.
2) Weather. The foremost consideration when planning around weather should be for Patagonia. Outside the summer/shoulder months it will be miserable if not impossible. Don't worry about anywhere else. We were in Peru for 40+ days during the rainy season and got rained on twice.
3) Buying bikes. We bought our bikes in Colombia and have had zero problems at the 8 border crossings on the way down here. Once they see the registration card has your name on it they'll stamp you right through. This was one of the reasons we started in Colombia and makes a logical starting point for a one-way trip. We bought our bikes new from a dealer and had the registration card and license plate within 48 hours of purchasing the bikes. You can also buy used bikes and get the registration card in your name - quite a bit more paperwork and hoops to jump through but people do it all the time and should take about a week.
Hope this helps.
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Since half of the Internet says the opposite of the other, I'm leaving next week and I'll head to Peru which seems less troublesome.
If anyone has any experience to share in Peru in order to buy a motorbike, feel free to share !
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