Searching for a Bike in La Paz, Bolivia - Offers / Advice?
 

Hey,

I arrived in La Paz a Week ago and tried to find a decent possibility to buy a bike since then. I just was at this one pretty nice guys shop, who had some pretty nice bikes, but sadly they were out of my budget. He also told me that it wouldn't be possible to go to Peru (which is something I really want). Any advice on that?

And on the other hand I would gladly take any advice for where and how to buy a bike in Bolivia. Or if you want to sell your own bike, that's just great with me as well ;-)

Thanks a lot,
kekx

Hey mate,

You will have to buy first hand, I recently had someone come here to buy my bike and there was a new law requiring an 'informe tecnico' for which there was a 3 month waiting list. Thankfully the director of police felt sorry for my friend and let him in early at 2 weeks.

If you buy a bike here you can certainly enter Peru, I've seen Bolivian plated bikes in countries as far away as Colombia. I've also crossed into Chile just a couple of months ago, not a problem, worst case scenario is a small bribe at the Peruvian border.

Also the best city for buying motorcycles is Santa Cruz, you can also check tumomo.com to see whats in your area though.

For some example of price, I recently purchased a new DR200SE for $4600 inc. all papers. The GN125 is half that, the DRZ400 is double and the DR650 is about 8.5k. An XR650R is about 8k at the local Honda store here.

Hi,

Thanks a lot for your fast response!

could you maybe explaine the 'informe tecnico' a bit more? Is it about buying 2nd Hand vehicles? And does it make it really impossible?

At the moment I'm thinking about either buying a Bike of tumomo (2nd hand) or trying to go to the Market at "el Alto" where they have a wide variety of 2nd hand stuff.

Thanks for the Tip with Santa Cruz, maybe I've got to fly there to find something decent.

kekx

Hey again,

It's not impossible, just a very long waiting list (here in Sucre it's 2-3 months), I imagine it's the same in La Paz or Santa Cruz but you should ask about it at the local transito (who may then direct you to the FELCC police station), they'll tell you how long the waiting list will actually be in that city. The informe tecnico is a piece of paper that says that the vehicle is safe for the road and has been checked by an official from Diprove, this is why it takes so long. They will look over your bike and tick some boxes etc.

Anyone selling a second-hand bike will not yet know about this new law as it came into place 1 1/2 months ago so don't listen to them, again just ask at the transito and/or FELCC. There's is a slight chance it may not yet be in place in your location as usually these things take a while to trickle through the country but I imagine it would have been introduced into the larger cities first, prior to here.

Also what's your budget and what sort of bike are you looking for? I can offer some recommendations from what I've seen around if you like, pm me if you don't want to share this info in public.

Alternatively, where are you traveling to? You can buy a bike and receive the power of attorney document on the same day but this will expire after 3 months, at which point you either have to put the bike in your name or sell it again. If you are traveling under 3 months in Bolivia I would recommend this as the best method but I'm unsure how well it works when crossing borders as it would be very easy to forge.

Whatever happens, make sure you have all the correct papers before handing over the cash. Also you mentioned the 'El Alto' area of La Paz, personally I wouldn't trust anyone around there and I certainly wouldn't walk around there with enough money to buy a motorcycle.

Okay, asking about the list length is probably a very good idea, I'm gonna do that as soon as possible.

Regarding the Budget it isn't that much about not being able to afford it, but rather about not wanting to travel with such an expensive bike through South-America. Best for me would be a bike between 1 and 1,5k because it wouldn't kill me if it get stolen or breaks down. If you understand what I want to say. I mean, sure I can sell the bike at the end of my journey so when I buy it for 4,5k and sell it for I dont know 3,5k it's essentially the same. It's just I'm insecure about a) somthing happening to the bike and b) being able to sell it in another country (like fe Colombia).

Which is probably something I would like to try because my plans are about heading North through Peru, Ecuador to Colombia.

Yeah, I won't go to el alto with all the cash, for sure. Just wanted to look a bit because so far I haven't really found any motorcycle shops in town.

If you're not planning to ride off-road too often then the Honda CGL125 would be a good option in my opinion.

Today I finally found a Motorcycle shop. They had only one brand "apollo". I did never hear about it before BUT a "Apollo AXR-250" Enduro machine costs only 1600$ new. I guess it's this model: http://apolo-motors.com/Xr250cc.aspx

The guy also told me where to find a Honda shop but it was closed today, so I'm gonna go there tomorrow. And check out what they have to offer. If they have something similar in this price range I'll probably choos Honda over Apollo ;-)

Still right now I find the Apollo-machine or a new machine in general pretty apealing because its not that expensive and still its new. I think knowing that everything is fine is really an advantage over the 2nd hand option.