World Trip: Swiss dude wants to start in Chile
 

Hello Guys

As the title tells, I am a guy from Switzerland and I want to go on a trip around the world on a motorbike. I have to work until November before I can start, but then it's winter in Europe and therefore I am planning to start somewhere in Chile. First I wanted to ship my BMW F800 GSA there, but as the shipping is quite expensive and the bike is too heavy for me anyways, I decided to sell it again and now I am thinking about buying a new one directly in Chile.
I saw that there are already many threads about this topic and I read many of them. But here I would like to ask for very specific tips for my own trip.
So my first question would be the following:
1. If I get a chilean licencseplate and insurance, ist it also possible to drive the bike to different continents with that plate?
2. I am thinking of buying something like a crf 250L or DR650 and build it up as adventure bike. Does anyone have a contact of someone with skills and garage to help me buy & build up the bike?
3. Is this whole idea stupid and should I just buy a light bike here with swiss insurance & license and just pay the price for shipping?

Again, the plan right now is to just buy a ticket to Santiago (or similar) and stay there for maybe 3 weeks to learn spanish and organize the whole material for the trip etc.

I would appreciate any kind of help :)

P.S. I recently made a test trip to the UK on my BMW and I really struggled with some light offroading, therefore the whole Idea of selling and rebuying a light bike came up. If you like you can watch a little video about my trip and my learnings here -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct1pPNEKXRY

The information is in the threads
 

Hi You need to read the threads on here which contain all the information you are requesting. Particularly the second thread on buying a bike in Chile. A honda 250 would be more than adequate and you can buy from Colvin & Colvin in Santiago. Also in the thread you can read about Casa Matte as a place to stay and do any work on your bike. Enjoy Chile:

Yeah Dlyttle pretty much summed it up mate, all the info is just a search away. I'll second colvyn y colvyn, good blokes, and casa de matte, Christian is a legend, I stayed there 2 months and he bent over backwards for me. Also check out the honda XR190L, much cheaper than the 250 (which is also fairly rare in south America, so are the parts) its fuel injection and a 10L fuel tank, 400km range. The 250 only has a 6L tank which is a bit too small for some of the stretches with no fuel available.

Yup... what I would do if I were you is fly down there - maybe Chile, maybe Peru or Colombia where the paperwork is even simpler - buy an XR190L, throw some soft luggage on it, and just go. I rode around elsewhere in the world on an XR150 and loved it - the 190 is the same bike but fuel injected, which makes a big difference. It'll be local and serviceable by any mechanic, cheap to get parts, etc. And reports from people who have sold them on the HUBB have been positive.

You don't *need* to do much offroading if you don't want to.

I've got an XR150L in Perú, I've done 10k kms so far and love it! I started the trip on a KLR650.... To be honest I was glad to see the back of it and jump on the the 150. I'm not afraid to take it anywhere, I wouldn't have done Ruta Lagunas on the 650 on my own, but on the 150 I took my time and enjoyed nearly 2 weeks doing the loop. Dropped it around 15 times but hey, I can lift it fully loaded without any strain! People seem to be of the opinion you need a big bike to have a "real" adventure... Maybe for their instagram photos they do.... But I met a group of "big bike" bikers on ruta lagunas, they were in a 4x4 tour, because they were too scared to do it on the big bikes. I can't remember who said it, but they said "you'll never wish you had a heavier bike, only a lighter one".

Thank you guys for the replies! Thats exactly what I was looking for, people empowering me to go light and buy local :)
I'll definitely check out Casa Matte

Here is another idea for you
 

I shipped my bike from New Zealand. There were never any problems with crossing borders. Once the bike arrived by air then I could ride it within a few hours. The downside is that the bike must leave Chile within the 90 day TVIP period. If you want to leave the bike in Chile during these 90 days you need a "traspaso" which is available from Customs. You need a Chilean resident to guarantee the bike while you are away.

If you buy a bike in Chile it is possible either new or used but it will take you a few days in Santiago to find the bike and get a temporary RUT. Then you need to wait up to 30 days for the Patron (ownership papers) but you can use the bike meanwhile and with the right papers cross borders. But you can only ever cross to Argentina. Not Peru or Bolivia. You can read my post on this in the Sticky. Even in Chile the laws are not always applied correctly at the border. Its not corruption just laziness or lack of knowledge maybe. If you do buy in Chile a foreign plated bike is a good option if you get the documents right.

One shipping agent in Santiago told me that from Europe there are about 400 bikes arriving in Chile each summer and returned to Europe a few months later. The shipment is in full containers with the bikes not boxed. Also the shipment is direct to Valparaiso so you know the ETA of your bike. The cost is reasonable and you can pay for the return freight in Europe. You can take your own bike. Not need to transfer funds to Chile. No need to waste time on getting a RUT etc and most importantly no problems going from one country to another. And you are not stuck with a hard to sell bike in Chile.

As for the bike well others have commented and know more about it than me. People seem to do well on the smaller Japanese bikes.

In summary taking your own bike is the best solution by far if you have a bit of money. The buying in Chile is probably not worth it unless you are on a tight budget or have the time and flexibility.

Thanks for your advice! Although I have to say, that I got plenty of time to stay in Santiago de Chile. Since I have no time schedule for my journey, I could easily stay there for 30 days before my travel starts. The goal then is to travel the entire world from there and finally drive the bike back to Switzerland (crossing the sea from Alaska to Russia)
The fact that my BMW is too heavy and I am gonna sell her anyways brings me to the point where I have to decide wether to buy a CRF 250L either here and ship it to south america, or buy it directly there....

Chilean bike?
 

I guess the same rules apply to other countries motorcycles (bike) as apply to New Zealand. That is you need to keep your bike registered and legally on the road in it's home country for it to be legally on the road in a second country. It is possible to keep a NZ bike registered by internet if you have a NZ drivers licence. Many people don't bother doing this as the authorities seldom check registrations. All they want to see is the ownership papers. This is fine until you are involved in an accident or similar. If you get insurance in say USA or Mexico you can be sure the bike will have to be legally on the road for the insurance to be valid. How do you keep a Chilean motorcycle registration up to date once you leave the country? It may be possible - I don't know. The next problem with a Chilean registered bike is that to leave Chile as a foreigner you will need to have a "poder" which is the legal document promising you will return the bike to Chile as mentioned here.
https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hu...tiago-45637-12
Then again you might get lucky and the customs will not ask you for it when you try to leave.
Don't forget that to get the temporary RUT someone with Chilean residency has to be your guarantor.
Chilean bikes are not supposed to permanently leave Chile but maybe no one cares and you can leave and never go back but you are still left with the registration problem if you are worried about that. Would be interesting to hear other peoples experiences.
And one last thought - Bikes are expensive in Chile. You might find you can buy what you want in Europe and ship it to Chile cheaper than you can buy in Chile or for a similar cost. Calculate your real costs of buying in Chile like money transfer and exchange rates. Chile is an expensive place compared to most other countries in South America

Buying a lightweight bike as a Crf250L or a Dr650 is a wise decision. Buying a bike in Chile as a foreigner without recidency is not. There are heaps of reports about all kind of foreigners who have bought a vehicle in Chile but they are not ablw to leave the country with their newly purchased vehicle - just check in the sticky thread in forum section and or google a bit.

Also as mentioned above - bikes are quite expensive in Chile and there arent a huge amount available and not so much aftermarket parts to buy either.
Usa are a much better place to buy a bike for such a trip. There are very many available, many are already quite well kitted for long distance travel, aftermarket and spare parts are readily available and the prices are in general not bad at all.
And in most states you will be able to register the bike in your name and by that eliminate all kinds of trouble at any bordercrossings around the world. And you will understand the language much better than in any spanish speaking country.

A spanish course is great to have and it can easily be done in Mexico or Guatemala on your way south.

Ok thanks for that information! This is what I was worried about...
So then it could be an option to buy a bike in California and go south from there. But then I have the problem of seasons. I wanted to be in Ushuaiha somwhere around march and then go north again to be in the USA around august... I don't think I will make it down there if I start in California in december.
On the other side it should be pretty easy for me to buy a bike in the US since I have a swiss/us dual citizenship :)

So, if you want to do a world trip on one bike you're better off buying American or taking your own bike. Me personally I find it crazy that people take their own bike. Purely because they spend my travel budget for a year just on shipping the bike. Then inevitably have a break down or two (or for some reason need parts) and end up stuck in a country which doesn't have the parts paying extraordinary amounts to get them shipped to them.

Your problem with buying in North America and riding south is crossing the Darien. You're looking at $2000 ish to ship the bike and yourself. For me, that's the cost of a bike. Which you can sell when you're done and recover most of the cost.

People are still buying and successfully riding Chilean bikes with a "decleracion jurada" which states that you'll return to the country within 12 months. Crossing the border with this if someone questions it will come down to your Spanish skill level and charm. Approaching the aduana as an extranjero with no Spanish and expecting a smooth ride with a sullen face will not go well.

I haven't heard of people having issues with Colombian bikes so it might be a better option. Again, the CRF250L is expensive. The xr150l or xr190 is much cheaper. Personally I'd suggest buying in south America (new) riding around and reselling in south America before moving to your next location and buying something there again. For example you might fancy coming to Australia after south America. Here we have an abundance of good second hand bikes. So shipping a dr650 here for example would be pretty pointless.

If you've got $100k to spare on a 4 year RTW trip then by all means buy a new DR650 in North America and go for it.

Buying in Chile
 

Here's the thread (sticky) about buying a Chilean bike. It's kept up to date and makes for good reading if you consider buying from there. Seems with the declaración jurada people aren't getting the troubles they used to.

https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hu...tiago-45637-12

And here's a link to a thread discussing how to buy a bike in Colombia

https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hu...colombia-95891

That's not really possible. There are no flights, and the one flight that sometimes operates in the summer, is a narrowbody jet that cannot take bikes in the cargo hold. Your closest option would be sea shipping from Vancouver.

Tbh the ideal option, shipping-wise, would be to buy an Alaskan-plated bike off someone in SA, ride it back up to Alaska, sell it there, then fly yourself to Tokyo/Vlad and continue on a local bike.

Problems over problems, but in the end, that is what it's all about! :)
Probably the best way to go still is to buy the crf 250 in switzerland and ship it to uruguay and then solve any problem on the way. I got plenty of time so there is no rush to pass any disance. I read that you can take some small ships to cross the distance from colombia to panama and I'm sure, there is a way too for USA/ Russia.