Buy Bikes in holland and ship them
 

Hi Gertjan and Tamara,

Why don't you buy bikes in the Netherlands, and ship them over. Shipping to a mayor ( hasslefree) port like Santiago or Buenos Aires. Shipping from the Netherlands is not expensive if you shop around (yellow pages, rotterdam) you can get a deal for two bikes under $500 dollar. The big advantage is that you can prepare youre bikes at home. I just did two South Americs trips 80.000 km's in total and I can recommend a XT600. Lots of cheap spare parts in South America for them and they never brake down. Santiago and Buenos Aires are the ports to ship too , no hassles or bribes.

Cheers from Amsterdam

Mark
www.trans-amerika.nl

Hi Mark,

I'd be very intrested on the shipping company you used. I intend to ship my bike (R1150GS) to Chile or Argentina in the end of this year, but here in the UK the cheapest company I could find wants £1000.00 for ONE bike. I wouldn't mind going to Holland and ship from there if it's cheaper.

Dank u wel ;)
Fernando

Buying in chile and crossing borders
 

The promised experience: We arrived in Peru, today. :D

The purchase contract and old registration card is enough to temporarily export the bike to PEru. PLus a lot of patience, about three hours at the border. Blue forms you need to buy (forgot what it was called and the police kept it. Got nine stamps, though...).

For a full description of the border experience see my blog

http://blog.hinrichs.eu.com

Go for it, it´s fun:wacko:

Jens and Kate