After almost 2 years waiting for a window of time that never comes to go on a northamerica to south america motorcycle trip, I considering changing tacks by dividing the trip in smaller segments and putting the bike in a storage before continuing months later.

A first thought has been to do a first leg East Coast to West Coast, then West Coast to Colombia or Peru, then Peru to Chile/Argentina and then back up to Rio/Sao Paulo/Brazil. From Rio I would ship the bike back to the US.

Is this something common that has been done before? And are there good reasons forget about it? The first reason for me to try it is cost reduction (as opposed to shipping the motorcycle back and forth) and the fact it could enable a longer trip in shorter legs separated by stretches of time.

The first thing that concerns me is the amount of time that one is allowed to leave the bike in a certain country (e.g. in Brazil I think its 3 mo extendable to 6 mo the most). Do you know the country-specific restriction regarding this?

Another thing that concerns me are the storage conditions and safety. Do you have specific places you know/used before that I could use to store my bike. I may be willing to adjust the trip to take into account the best storage locations. Places I am interested are California/Mexico, Colombia/Peru/Panama, Chile/Argentina.

Lots of questions, but hopefully more experienced travelers can chip in and shed some light here.

Thanks in advance,

-- lemao

Dakar Motos in Buenos Aires offers bike storage as well as a hubb to meet fellow travellers, do repairs, arrange shipping etc..

La posta in Azul (south of argentina) may let you store the bike there too.

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

I do the same thing, although my bike is in Europe. It is a great way to vacation.

I've been able to find places to keep the bike in all the right places (Heidelberg, Southern Spain, Morocco, Milan, Istanbul...) with a bit of internet research. Hopefully you'll get some ideas of where to keep it from members here, but I would also post in the relevant subfora on ADVRider.

You can always contact the local communities through Horizons Unlimited. They may have some ideas. In Tucson, Arizona I came across someone at Iron Horse Motorcycles (BMW, etc dealer). He has a side business storing travellers' bikes. He keeps the batteries charged and the bike is stored inside. This is for a fee but I remember it being fairly reasonable. If this is something you might be able to use, I can scrounge up the contact information.

Certain countries in Central America stamp the bike entry right into your passport and you may not be able to leave the country (if they check your passport carefully at the airport) unless the bike goes with you. Guatemala, Panama come to mind without looking at my passport. All of them have time limits on their temporary vehicle import permits, ranging from 30 days to 6 months (Mexico). Take that into consideration when planning.

...Michelle
www.scrabblebiker.com

You can leave the bike at my place at no charge.

www.garryhostel.com

I had the same plan to do South America in three stages but ended up doing it in two units, first six week then fourteen weeks. You do need to check on how long you can leave your bike in a country as they all seem to be difernt. Argintina is 8 months but Uruguay is 12 months. I think Pannama is one that you could store in. I would take up the offer in above post and leave in Mexico. You could store at my shop in Southwest Washington if you wanted.

Bob

I have room in western canada should you come this way.

I did a lot of miles by storing my bike in Colombia and Ecuador. Over 4 years I did about 27 months of travelling. Sometimes, for some people it makes sense to do this.