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