where in Europe bikes are cheaper? and easier to register?
 

I am thinking Poland? or Turkey? or any place in East Europe - where?

cheap to buy?

cheap to register?

cheap to insure?

what else to consider?

I am thinking of flying in and buying something like KLR650 or DR650 to ride east Europe .. and then leaving it for next summer at friends house in EU or outside of EU for the next summer .. I have no idea where to buy/register/insure .. to save hassle and money ...

any advice is very much appreciated ..

thank you so much ..
(I am a US citizen & passport (if it makes a difference))

Hi InGearX and welcome,
I don't have a an answer to your question, I do know that second hand cars are a lot more expensive in Poland than the UK but as for bikes I'm not sure.
There are different rules regarding registration and insurance in all EU countries, it is difficult if not impossible for non-residents to register in some places, Ireland seems to come up as a particularly easy place to do this.
It would help if you told us where you are coming from, your citizenship can also make a difference.

thanks mate !

yes I have some homework to do :)

wow I expected Poland to be cheaper :/

I am a US citizen & passport (if it makes a difference)

I am off from work traveling the world for 1700+ days now ..

I can go anyplace in Europe to buy..

Ireland or the UK are easiest. Any address where you can collect mail can be used to register and insure the bike.

Now someone is going to come on here and spout about how that's arguably not totally legal or completely above board or some other nonsense. Thing is people do it all the time when in college, working away from home, coming back from overseas etc etc.And they never have a problem.

All you do is put your name and an address ()anything bar a hotel type address on the V5/log book/title when you buy and it comes back in the post a few days to a couple weeks later with your name as the owner.

Insurance is done online in the same way, you might pay a little bit extra for having a non-EU licence (like 50 or 100 pounds) but its not a problem, especially in Ireland.

Just make sure (in the UK especially) that you insure before you drive at all because there are lots of revenue collecting cameras in cars driven by disgusting people in uniforms (police) to try to catch 'offenders'.

No one is going to notice/prosecute you because you aren't doing anything wrong. I know this from years of experience of having no fixed address because of work.

Other EU countries are much more difficult with elaborate registration requirements that need lots of documentary evidence to back up your address. UK/Ireland require none of that.

yeesterday met Tom in İstanbul from australia on an irish registrated transalp and he said best country is ıreland...

he is on the way to stans so hopefully he will drop a few lines also for this thread soon..

Turkey, just a nightmare...

All the best..

"Turkey, just a nightmare..."

As the man said.

Second hand bikes are not cheap here. To buy one as a foreigner you need a Residents Permit. The actual purchase involves handing over quite a bit of cash to the Notary's office on top of the purchase price.

The UK or Ireland get my vote.

Cheers,

Dicky

Buying in the UK is very easy. Especially as you almost speak the same language ;)

Being able to understand the paperwork and the same information being told is by far the best advantage.

The UK is also bursting with very good second hand bikes which are even more easy to buy.

Sent from my XT1032 using Tapatalk

People still seem to come from all over Europe to buy used bikes in the UK. When they nationalize their purchases at home they go through all sorts of difficulties, which they deem worthwhile for the greater selection and cheaper prices. That must mean something.

Mark

Another vote for the UK.
I bought a bike there over 10 years ago and it was an absolute breeze to do.
I thought perhaps things may have changed but from the sound of comments on this thread ... it is still easy. bier

I bought from a private seller, could have bought from a dealer just as easily. I used a friends address, had insurance in 10 minutes on the phone with Bennett's. Got my Log Book in about 2 weeks. Two years later did an MOT, no problems (needed a bulb).

I re-sold eventually to British national. All easy.

The bike I bought I toured all over Europe on. Over 20,000 miles. Never a problem with the UK plate and American passport. In fact, I was never asked for bike's paperwork, only my passport.

Before I bought in the UK I shopped on German and French web sites. I thought they would be cheaper. NOT SO. (but this was 10 years ago!)
The UK had the best deals back then. Maybe it's still the case?
bier

I think the UK still has some of the best biking deals.

Lots of people come to the UK to buy bikes.

You get a lot of people filling containers of new UK un-registered bikes and sending them to the UAE, Malaysia , India etc.

The process is still one of the least bureaucratic. Which is getting to be rare in the U.K.

Spain is the cheapest, but the paperwork doh

Do you live in Spain?
That was not what I found. But been years since I was there ... so??
Back then (2003) 50cc two stroke Chinese made scooters were plentiful (noisy!) ... never saw many in UK at that time.
Probably are cheaper in Spain, dunno?

But big bikes actually seemed a bit more $$. (I shopped for bikes in UK a month before I bought one, so had pretty fair feel for prices)

But I only spent six weeks traveling around Spain, but I did make it a point to stop in at bike shops when I saw them. Shops in every major town. :thumbup1:

I Traveled most of Spain, North/South/East/West. After France it was nice to be able to communicate, even with my rusty semi-fluent Spanish. (7 years living/traveling in Latin America)

I fly n buy for a number of reasons, mostly financial! Dont tell me you hadn't noticed the global economy has had a few changes since 2003? When it does change (sadly for the worst) it's a good time to shop! Just get online and have a look, it's not rocket science.

Very good point!
I haven't shopped the on line Europe classified sites in years. No idea current market. No question things have got a lot tougher. :(

Several years ago, we (WA state residents) purchased our bike from a US Resident with a WA State title. The bike is located in Heidelberg, Germany and we are flying there next week to resume our ride. It was very easy to do, and I recommend http://knopftours.com as a place to store one's bike. We will be at the HUBB Germany meeting next week and I'm planning to give a short presentation on doing this.

Tim Bowman
Seattle, WA