US citizen buying a bike in SA. What are my options?
 

This basically drives my route planning in CA/SA. As a US citizen, what is the deal with buying a bike in Colombia from a Swiss traveler W/ Swiss plates? South African plates?

Should I stick to US plates?

Has this question been asked a million times?


As a dumbdumb, I thank you

Hello


I'd say no to the swiss bike.
In Switzerland the plates are prove of insurance and payed taxes.
The plates don't belong to the bike, they belong to the holder of the current registration of the bike.
The holder of the registration has to return the plates when he sells the bike to you, or pay the insurance and taxes.
Swiss cars often have fake plates in SA, too expensive to pay for the fees that are useless in SA, so they return the original plates but then they are technically not legal on the road.

You can not change the swiss plates / registration over to you.
You only buy a bike with no legal registration.

sushi

I am going off of hearsay from past posts here on Horizons on the topic, but it seems that the best registration/plates for most any country south of the US/Mexico border are those with US plates as far as selling the bike while in one of the countries down that way. I am guessing Canada registration/plates, too. Now, I don't know how one sells a US plated bike to another anywhere other than the US, and it is nice and legal, so you want to research it, but like I said, I do recall this discussion before and from what I remember, US plates are better than most to sell and transfer.

Selling a US plated bike to another US citizen is easy. Just make sure the state doesn't require annual inspections. The problem in most countries, other than in the EU, is the TIP.

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This is not true. Many states require that to transfer ownership the buyer must be physically present. Many states (often the same ones) require that the buyer prove residency within that state. Some make the previous owner turn in their plates; others allow the plates to remain with the vehicle. It goes on and on.

There are specific states which make transfer of ownership easy (including my own, Washington State). This is often addressed in threads which can be found by searching this site. One problem with failing to do things by the book is that insurance *might* not be valid in the event of an accident or other issue.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

I've been a fan of TLAs over the years but what is this TIP? Paperwork?

Tip of the day from me: don't eat yellow snow.....

OP I'd love to buy a bike in the US and ride south.......you can get crazy deals in the US on new/nearly new bikes so the difference with buying new in South America isn't that much...
Suppose it might be a lot different with second hand but the risk of buying a 'shed' off some conman would keep me awake at night....

You are somewhat correct. Yes, all of the UnUnited States have different requirements. I use SD to register mine as you don't need to be a resident to do this. I use a mailing service. I have done this twice in Europe.

As for the insurance, SD doesn't require that you carry insurance. Why would you anyway? The bike in not in country and insurance won't cover you anyway.

TIP is the Temporary Import Permit required in many countries. If the bike comes in with you, it must leave with you. It also has a time limit, usually 90 days. Sometimes you can fly out and return to get the bike within the 90 day TIP. Just like the states, all countries have different rules.

There are ways to sell in other countries but you need to do your research.

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In order to register a bike allowing you a title and registration, same as Passport, to cross borders, I thought you have to import the bike regardless, to the country you register it in? To import a bike, you have to pay taxes and tariffs, which are huge, usually the same $ as the bike is worth, and they determine what its worth, not you.

How do you cross borders, with Paperwork for the ownership/title and registration, not in your name/Passport?

FYI- There is no road from Colombia to Panama, you have to ship it or sailboat charter...