Buying a bike in the US

JON12A · May 1, 2011

I want to buy a bike in the US and keep it there for 2/3 years.
Does anyone know if I can get insurance for the bike or indeed a licence plate as I will not be a resident. I am hoping to get 3 month over there each year on holiday so as to tour .After this time I hope to bring the bike back to the UK and avoid import duty. Any advice appreciated.

mrsroynie · May 1, 2011

Hello Jon, I don't think you would have any difficulty at all. Roynie and I bought bikes the first time we toured in the US (three and a half months) and simply used a friend's address to register them. Likewise, insurance was no problem. (Roynie even managed to total his first bike, claim on the insurance and buy a replacement so as not to have to cancel our trip.)

Having bought it in the US, keeping it there should not pose any problems - unlike a temporary import.

The only areas where I would advise caution would be unscrupulous dealers who might palm you off with last year's model or fail to offer any manufacturer rebate that might be going (as happened to us). And, in terms of insurance, make sure you take out the 'uninsured driver' cover to protect you in the event of a mishap - a large number of miscreant cagers turn out to be uninsured.

We actually intended to sell our bikes after our 2001 trip, but got it wrong and found that, in Oregon anyway, biking is a strictly summer pastime. Roynie's bike eventually sold after a year 'on consignment' at a Portland dealer, but we ended up shipping mine home to London. Since then, we have preferred to ship our own bikes to the US and back, but a Michigan-based friend is determined that we should keep a couple of bikes with him ... so we may end up doing the same as you.

Good luck. If I can be of any further help, ask away.

Schtum · May 1, 2011

JON12A said:
I want to buy a bike in the US and keep it there for 2/3 years.
Does anyone know if I can get insurance for the bike or indeed a licence plate as I will not be a resident. I am hoping to get 3 month over there each year on holiday so as to tour .After this time I hope to bring the bike back to the UK and avoid import duty. Any advice appreciated.

I've been considering this as well, recently. I have a friend in San Jose who said that he'd buy the bike, register it and insure it and all I'd have to do was pay for it.

What are you thinking of buying and where?

Commuter · May 1, 2011

JON12A said:
I want to buy a bike in the US and keep it there for 2/3 years.
Does anyone know if I can get insurance for the bike or indeed a licence plate as I will not be a resident. I am hoping to get 3 month over there each year on holiday so as to tour .After this time I hope to bring the bike back to the UK and avoid import duty. Any advice appreciated.

Hi there,

Bought my bike in US, shipped it home to UK 1 year later, needed to get it inspected and registered in UK, took around 2 weeks in total.

No other problems to report.

Nick

JON12A · May 3, 2011

Hi NICK

Thanks for the reply.
Can you tell me how you insured your bike without a US drivers licence as i am told it cant be done.
And did it cost much to have the bike transfered to a UK plate (customs ect).
Cheers John

mrsroynie · May 3, 2011

JON12A said:
Hi NICK

Thanks for the reply.
Can you tell me how you insured your bike without a US drivers licence as i am told it cant be done.
And did it cost much to have the bike transfered to a UK plate (customs ect).
Cheers John

That's nonsense. Who told you it couldn't be done? Neither Roynie nor myself had US drivers' licences when we insured ours (bought in Brockton, Mass and Plano, TX) and I have a couple of Irish friends who bought Harleys a couple of years back (Chicago, IL) with no difficulty. May make a difference what state you intend to buy in, but I wouldn't have thought so.

When we brought my F650GS back to the UK from the US in 2002, Roynie paid £25 for the registration. There was no duty because we had owned it for more than 6 months. (Sorry should have made clear, we only moved to France in 2007.)

Rushy · May 3, 2011

I just bought a bike with a valid tag and rode it like I stole it for 3 mths, no registration or insurance. Depending on who I spoke to and what state I was in I was told that cops wouldn't give a monkey or would lock me up and throw away the key.

.......one cop turned around and chased me for excessive speed but let it ride when he realised I was numpty Brit tourist....i'd already jumped off the bike and was taking piccies when he caught up with me at the entrance to Badlands NP.

mrsroynie · May 3, 2011

Rushy said:
I just bought a bike with a valid tag and rode it like I stole it for 3 mths, no registration or insurance ...

The second bike that Roynie bought (after he wrote off the first one) was never actually registered in his name as we were travelling and the title would never have caught up with us in time. A Canadian insurance-broker friend scared us saying that his insurance would not probably not be valid in the event of a mishap, but this was later disputed by an American insurance-broker friend who said it wouldn't matter whose name the title was in as long as we had some form of Bill of Sale to prove ownership ...

Rushy said:
Depending on who I spoke to and what state I was in I was told that cops wouldn't give a monkey or would lock me up and throw away the key.

Both were probably correct. If you don't do anyone else any harm, the police probably don't give a monkey's ... but woe betide you if you injure someone or damage their property without insurance.

The driver who caused the accident in Grapevine, TX, which resulted in the loss of Roynie's Triumph Tiger 955i, was not insured and was promptly arrested at the scene.

Lamble · May 3, 2011

Which State will you be keeping the bike in when out of the US... register it there.
In the UK get an international license (post office/on-line), just for the look on any cops face when you show it, plus it helps with insurance in the US.

If it's a US spec bike, you'll need to VOSA it when you bring it into the UK and thats after customs and DVLA have done their thing which is a pain in the bum as they'll all tell you that one of the other two is holding things up, but, Customs, DVLA and VOSa and then DVLA again is the correct procedure. One other thing, when riding to the VOSA centre you won't have got permission from the DVLA to put the bike on a UK road, so the police can arrest you... it's ridiculous, but if you can get a trailer or van to get the bike to and from VOSA.

Here's a thought, buy it in Mexico, slip someone $20 and all the problems go away!!!

jamm13dodger · Nov 28, 2011

mrsroynie said:
When we brought my F650GS back to the UK from the US in 2002, Roynie paid £25 for the registration. There was no duty because we had owned it for more than 6 months.

Now that's very interesting - I am thinking of buying a bike in the US next year and I could garage it at a friends for 6 months. that would then mean I'd pay no duty?

scoobert · Dec 1, 2011

as far as dealers go try my dealer, i got a great deal and know someone who works there. name of the dealer is MAX BMW, the largest bmw dealer in the US.
salesman in Craig in the troy, ny store. i know for a fact he will not screw you. this was my first bike, and he didnt screw me, and could have.

dfhepner · Dec 30, 2011

If you have not settled on a State to buy the bike in look on line and find a state that does not charge sales tax or has a low sales tax. You should also consider the registration fees, they vary from state to state.

You will need to have a motor cycle endorsement on your drivers license to do a test ride. I was in San Jose BMW when a European couple was not able to rent or test ride a bike because the dealer could not make out any motorcycle endorsement on the drivers license.

Schtum · Dec 30, 2011

dfhepner said:
If you have not settled on a State to buy the bike in look on line and find a state that does not charge sales tax or has a low sales tax. You should also consider the registration fees, they vary from state to state.

IIRC, Montana has no sales tax - it certainly didn't when I was there in 2007.

However, there might issues registering a bike in a state in which it wasn't bought - particularly in CA. So it would be wise to make sure that you can do that before buying.

dfhepner · Dec 30, 2011

Schtum said:
IIRC, Montana has no sales tax - it certainly didn't when I was there in 2007.

However, there might issues registering a bike in a state in which it wasn't bought - particularly in CA. So it would be wise to make sure that you can do that before buying.

Mostly you will want to check the registration fees for the states. That is the one that will hit you each year. Most states will have a tool on line that you can figure what the fee will be.

Buying a bike in the US

JON12A

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mrsroynie

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Schtum

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Commuter

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JON12A

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mrsroynie

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Rushy

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mrsroynie

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Lamble

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jamm13dodger

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scoobert

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dfhepner

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Schtum

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dfhepner

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