Ship or Ditch in South America?
 

Looking around at all the threads it seems that trying to ship a bike home after a ride down to South America from North America is a total hassle. Are people just telling their horror stories, or is it really this much of a pain? It seems like it would take all the fun out of the trip. If bike is worth less than $2500 it seems the best option is to sell it to another traveler, or just ditch it somehow. Am I just overreacting? After all those miles on the road together it seems like you'd want to bring the trusty steed home to pasture.

i am in the same dilema
 

i am riding my klr to south america at the moment and next year hopefully riding from capetown to london so it seems like i have to work out to either ship it to capetown or sell it ,and buy again in cape town ,bikes seem to be expensive over there so i am leaning towards shipping it ,the other alternative is rent it to some one to bring it home for you ,i am sure you could do some buy back type deal ,where they pay you money and if they lose it or break it they pay and when the give it back safe ,you give them half there money back ,like a cheap rental i have become a little accustommed to my trusty klr so i can see what you mean about hanging onto it

The more I look into it (and after some sound advice from other hubb members) it looks like shipping the bike is the best option. Getting the bike from Brazil to the US will probably cost around $1000 (US). That's worth it when you think about the hassle involved in trying to find a buyer or someone to ride it home.

As far as getting the bike to somewhere other than the US, I can't say for sure, but it seems like there are options and it has to be worth the hassle and red tape to know that a bike you can trust, and that you know inside and out is waiting for you. Keep poking around the hubb and you'll figure out how to get your bike to South Africa for a reasonable rate. If you want something bad enough, you find a way to make it happen.

Hi
I road my Tenere round South America and then shipped it back to the UK from BA Argentina with Lufthansa cargo ( see shipping ) I just turnned up at the cargo area at the airport and every thing was done in a couple of hours no hassel no problems. the bike was not worth the $1200 it cost to send it back, but no way could i just ditch it after all the fun, pain, good and bad times i'd had with it. Its now rebuilt and ready for another trip. Skip

Difficult to Sell
 

Selling a bike in Argentina that is registered in the US is very difficult at best. Just had a traveller here who was trying to sell his (KLR 650) and failed. He even tried to sell it to an American who was coming down here to ride it and that turned out to be just as big a hassle and he gave up. He ended up shipping it back to the US.

Shipping the bike on a boat is where most of the horror stories come from. Shipping by air seems to be pretty safe, besides being much quicker and better for the bike.

Bikes here are quite expensive. A 12 year old Transalp can easily go for $8k. We paid $14k each for two new '06 Transalps.

Steep

South America to Cape Town is easy to ship
 

Hi there...if you are looking to ship from south america to south africa it is really easy with CSAV. They have a car service (not containers) from Valpariaso/Chile to Cape Town. You won´t need an agent at either end... the process in SA is easy and no corruption and you literally hand the keys over with proof of ownership in Chile. I think their website is shipping line worldwide, since 1872 we transport your shipments

There is a similar service from Buenos Aires with Grimaldi.

Mike