Your advice on where to start from......SANTIAGO or BA?
 

Guys,
Will be booking my flights in the next few weeks. I am still unsure as to where to fly to?

I will be buying a bike in my initial destination and intend to ride to USHUIUA then north, maybe even to USA. Where do you reccommend flying to? I want the easiest place to buy and register bke for border crossing.

I believe after much reading I should fly to SAN, but appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks

David

Read consistently that Chile is the easiest place to take care of the formalities but no personal experience unfortunately.

I also understand that bikes are quite expensive in SA. Why have you decided to buy and not ship? Interested to hear because I am planning and have just received a number of shipping quotes. One way from Hamburg to Valparaiso by boat should set me back around EUR 900-1000 including all taxes and customs fees.

Buy in Santiago
 

Yes, it is easier to buy in Santiago than BA.

And Groot is right, bikes are quite expensive here.

Depending on what you want you will pay a lot more than 1000 Euros extra for it.

For example my used R1100 GS that I paid $12,000 for about 5 years ago in Santiago I could of bought in Canada at that time for about $7,800.

But here it is still worth $10,000 while in Canada maybe $5 or 6,000.

So they are more expensive but if well maintained hold their value.

where to buy
 

Hi Guys,
thanks for the replies.

The reason im looking at buying is beacuse I dont OWN a bike. Crazy you might say i know! had experience on bikes but nothing to what im planning to do.

If and when I buy a bike, its not going to be the offroad/touring type. Ill b looking st something more like a 600 hornet etc.

Thinking about it. I could get myself an older 650 offroad type and ship it over. Would that work out cheaper?

My problem is I dont know what the right answer is!! Is it easier to cross borders with a bike i have purchased in the UK?

Of course, you realize a Hornet or similar would be a completely unsuitable bike for the trip you described?

Advantage to buying and shipping is also that you get a chance to test it, prep it adequately and get used to the bike before being in unknown territory.

And it is a little easier to cross borders than with a local registered bike, though this is not a show stopper.

You might want to check prices on Emol.com El sitio de noticias online de Chile (look for Auto classifieds and search motos) and on Portal de Motos - Ventas de Motos - Foro - Clubes - Actualidad y Noticias

If you do buy in England just remember that they drive on the right hand side of the road here in SA, and you will be bringing a left hand drive motorcycle.

Had to make the same choice and for the wallet Santiago would have been way better. I'm from Aussie, so shipping would heaps easier and less flights as well. But the romantic side of me took over and am still glad it did. BA is a heaps nicer city for a city break.

[quote=Dmwbmw;326242]Of course, you realize a Hornet or similar would be a completely unsuitable bike for the trip you described?

quote]

I am aware of that, hence why I have not considered this option. However, if in the long run it is far easier, maybe I should consider. I guess I could buy a bike in the UK for the trips purpose and have it sent over. I could get my hands on a suitable bike for about £1k.

It wouldnt be much use to me when i am done tbh. I huess I could sell it on to another UK traveller?

I will now think about this option i think. How much we talking for flying a bike across? About a 1k?

Air freight is usually prohibitively expensive. The 1k figure would give you a good shot at getting it shipped by sea freight, but this requires a lot of time. Typical is 4 to 6 weeks and it is not unusual for the date to slip by a week or more after the fact.



If you dont have that kind of time you are pretty much stuck to buy locally.

But a lot of people go into shock when they find that a 15 year old 250 Honda dirt bike will be listed at $2200.

I bought in Santiago - a 2008 Honda Tornado 250 for 2,000,000 Chilean Pesos - about 2,600UKP. I figured that I'd spend that amount shipping any bike back and forth so it made economic sense. So far it's done 9,500km and still going strong, I'd recommend it as an option.

If you buy over here make sure you leave enough time for it - the entire buying process took me about 6 weeks and I've heard worse stories...

Thanks for your advice there Mark. Weighing up the options, i think following you is my best.

How did you find the whole process of buying and registering?? Also, howhaveyour border crossings been?

Hi
Im doing something similar in November and my research is turnning up the Honda NX400 falcon as the best bike to buy in Chile. Goes next for around 3000 USD

You'll have a hard time finding a good falcon for less than $4000.

Next step down will be a 250 tornado for about $3000.

finally, the chinese bikes are about $2000 new.

In response to your question on air freight costs: same company that quoted me around EUR 900/1000 in total for boat from Hamburg-Valparaiso informed me that it would be around EUR 2000 by air from Frankfurt-BA (both one way).
Still a lot cheaper than the Dutch agent that quoted me EUR 5.500 one way by air with Lufthansa...

I have read reports of air transport around EUR 1000 but have not managed to find that yet. Not sure that is actually possible, unless someone could point me to specific recent experience and details.


[quote=loadsaaaTOP;326302]

No worries! Most of my bike buying/border crossing experiences are written up on:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...xplained-34081

The postscript to this being that I did get across the Chile/Bolivia border (with a frown or two suggesting that maybe it wasn't quite 100% ok) and had no problems with Bolivia/Peru or (on the way back) Peru/Bolivia.

PM me if you'd like more detail!

Matt