Selling a European bike abroad
 

Hi fellow travelers,

I’m about to finish my trip from Cape Town to Mombasa on my Tenere 700.
I’m a Dutch citizen, on a German registered bike, moving permanently to the USA on a visa.
I’ve organized shipment in about a week, but recently found out I can only do a temporary import for max. 1 year. I probably should have done the research before, but it’s what it is, and I’m looking for an alternative solution. The options seem a bit overwhelming so I’m hoping to get some working alternatives from people who’ve been there before.

This is what I’ve come up with so far:

1) Shipping to Europe, have it picked up and stored by a friend, maybe have them sell it
2) Do a temporary import to the USA for one year. I’ll be able to use it there for commuting and weekend trips, and before the year runs out, I’ll ride it to south America. Maybe I could sell it there? Are there countries where this is more feasible than others?
3) Leave it in Africa, extend the carnet, and come back later
4) Ship it to another continent. Middle has good shipping routes but seems tricky now. Wouldn’t be able to ride back to Germany I suppose, but I haven’t done my research
5) Sell it in Kenya. I’m going to be here for about another week, I’m afraid this is not long enough to do all the paperwork, and it has to be done properly otherwise I won’t get my carnet deposit back

You see there’s too many things to consider, hopefully someone has been in similar situation!

Thanks,
Anne

Hi Anne and welcome to the forum,

You say "I’ve organized shipment in about a week" but to where? Either way I would say your best option is to ship it back to Europe and have a friend deal with it as all the other options carry a certain risk.

You would need to find out if as some sort of resident in the US rather than a tourist you can temporarily import there and it will need to be dealt with in a year and my understanding of US vehicle regulations is that if you are resident in one state you have six months to register your vehicle there although you might get away with that.

All of the others are only temporary fixes which will require time and money to sort out later.

Thanks for the quick reply! I’ve arranged shipping to Savannah, GA. My idea was to import the bike as household goods, which can be done tax free when you’ve owned the vehicle more than a year. But the big caveat is that only vehicles designed for the US market with proper EPA certificates are allowed for import, some exceptions that don’t apply to me. Bottom line is I can only do a temporary (tourist) import, I can’t keep it there for more than a year or I will be blacklisted by customs.

I really would have liked to keep the bike but it just seems too complicated..

I think you can do a permanent import by just paying the US customs import fees on the bike, and perhaps swapping over some parts like lights and turn signals for US-spec ones? The T700 is sold in the US, so the EPA certification should be valid?

It’s not so easy, you cannot do this yourself, this is what my customs broker says:
The whole getting it compliant is a massive can of worms

To do this you need to find what they call in the USA an IPI, This IPI actually imports the bike for you, it goes to them and they make it compliant, its very costly and takes a long longtime, even if they will do it as it depends if your bike type is on the list, the costs normally out weigh the actual value of the bike by 3 or so, so unless you really really want you bike and want to pay like 3 times its value to be allowed in the USA then its really not worth it.

From what you say it doesn't sound feasible to ship it to the US.

If you have a carnet and you don't return the bike to the country of issue it's considered permanently exported and your deposit is forfeit. That's exactly what a carnet is for. I suppose you could sell it locally and leave the problems with import duties to the buyer. You'd lose your deposit but be able to offset the sale proceeds against that.

It would be cleaner to ship it home and store it or get a friend to sell it, but any approach has inbuilt costs. Maybe you need to work out what they are for each option.

The problem is not with the carnet, I can get the deposit back with a proof of temporary import in the states, ADAC has promised me.
My issue is the temporary nature which cannot be overcome in a reasonable way, even though emission settings for EU are more strict. It’s pure bureaucracy, and I’m not inclined to spend my energy and money on that subject however unfair it is..

That's *not* correct! :thumbdown:

That's correct.:thumbup1:

Of the options you describe in your original post, shipping back to Europe to a friend who stores or sells the bike, or store in Africa with an extended/ valid CdP until your return there to continue with your ride look like the most feasible options. (And buy a bike in the USA so you have something to put a smile on your face while you're there).

Definitely! I’m already scouting ads for Tenere 700 in Colorado:)

Before committing to buy in the USA check the requirements for registering the bike/ vehicle in your name in that state. Some, for example, require a local state driver's license. I know from first hand experience that buying in Arizona is straightforward for a foreigner/ non state resident. I've still got the XR650L to prove it :D

It used to be straight forward in Washington state too, but I've heard it's now getting more tricky. No idea about CO.