Hi

First of all, sorry to start again a new thread from topics that might already be in this forum, but I wanted to give some background information before going into the questions.

I’m planning a trip for six months to Americas starting from September 2016 including North and from there to South America. The initial plan has been to ride trough South-America on a motorbike. I’ve been in South-America twice before. First I drove from Sao Paolo to Montevideo and back in 2012 and last year we rode from Osorno Chile to Ushuaia Argentina with four motorbikes (BMW F800GS).
The initial route in the upcoming trip would be from Columbia-Ecuador-Peru-Bolivia-Paraguay-Argentina and Buenos Aires would be our final stop. We have about two months reserved for this route and it can still be modified. I’m riding together with my girl friend meaning there will be some extra weight on the bike.

The challenge is the following: Where can we get the motorbike and what options there are?

1. Rent: There a only a few rental shops that I found which rent bikes that you can leave to a different country and it is really expensive (150-200$ a day plus pickup/drop off).

2. Buy from Columbia, Ecuador or Peru and continue from there? For some reason the bikes that are sold in those countries are really crappy, old and expensive. I’ve tried to look them from some web pages but haven’t exactly found anything but some old Japanese offroad bikes.

3. Buy the bike from US (San Fransisco) and transport it to South-America? Yes, the bikes a cheap in the US. You can get a 2010-2013 BMW F1200GS Adventure with just a few mileage for somewhere between 7000-12000$. It would be possible to ship the bike to Finland where I live from the end destination and sell it even with some profit (considering that it’s still in one peace). There are some but’s never the less. Should I ship it or thy air cargo from San Fransisco and what are the costs? Do I need to build a cargo grate for the bike for both of the transport options and how can I do that as a tourist? Do I need to register the bike and can I even do that if I’m in on a holiday in the US? Where should I transport the bike, Columbia, Ecuador? What other costs would there be?

As you can see I've really tried to think all the options available because this would be a dream come true and would really make our trip even more memorable. But the challenge with the bike is something I would need some help with and would really appreciate some tips and guides from more experienced travellers. I've read many of the threads in this forum, but still haven't found an answer to most of my questions. Anything related to buying the bike from these places mentioned above, transporting it, tariffs, rentals etc. would be helpful.


Thank you in advance
-Mika