Asaf:

Dirtpig raised a good point in his post (above) when he mentioned that the motorcycle needs to have a safety inspection before you can get a licence plate for it. However, "getting a licence plate" is not the same as "registering yourself as the owner". You have to be registered as the owner of a motor vehicle before you can get a licence plate for it, but you do not necessarily have to get a licence plate for a vehicle that you register.

What I mean is this: If your objective is simply to get a document that indicates that you have legal title to the motorcycle, you could probably accomplish that without having to bring the motorcycle to Canada. You would need to pay the sales taxes (the 12% of fair retail value) previously referred to, but you would not need to pay the licence plate fee, or get insurance. What you would have is a document that says that you have legal title to an "unfit" motor vehicle. The vehicle would be deemed "unfit" simply because it has not passed the inspection that is required in Canada whenever a used motor vehicle changes owners.

It might be easiest all around to get the moto transferred into your name and plated in one of the countries that you are currently travelling in. You might need to consult a local lawyer, but I am sure that the cost of getting legal advice from a local lawyer and possibly plating the bike with a temporary (meaning, eventually for export) plate down south would be less than the cost of paying the 12% sales tax in BC.

Michael

First of all the tax would only be 7% PST, since you do not have to pay the 5% GST on private sales.

Second, motorcycles DO NOT require any type of inspection to be registered in B.C., even when they are coming from another state/province. If it is from another state/province the only requirement is that the VIN # must be checked physically by the ICBC agent doing the registration. Since this is a B.C. registered bike already it does not require this to be done.

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\"Age Dangerously\"

We're Aussies buying an ST1100 in Alberta. It's being shipped to Halifax for us, so we can explore and cross Canada, eventually arriving in BC, where we have close relatives. The Honda dealer says we'll have no issues, but we're concerned that: a.) the bike has no number plate; b.) the seller says it needs no safety certificate and they "...don't require one in Canada...". So here are our questions: 1.) Will it be difficult for us to get a plate in Nova Scotia, given that we do have a BC address? 2.) As ST1100s do have some ABS issues... and replacing the computer is expensive, is the dealer correct that no safety certificate is required? We'd prefer that this _was_ checked out... . Any other advice, please? Touring Australia on a bike? Let us know... You'll enjoy our (free) chalet in one of W.A.'s top tourist towns. (Away July '09 - January '10)

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ozcan

Hi Oz,

I would recommend buying insurance in BC, the province where the bike is already registered. To obtain insurance in another province, you need to register the bike in that province which usually entails some hassle and potentially sales taxes, deppending on the province.

You will have to jump through some hoops to obtain your BC insurance as you will not be in the province to complete all the forms, etc. but you can plan around all that. Working through a dealer may be what has complicated this portion of it as they are following the letter of the law, can't say for sure.

There are also a couple of other easy solutions to this if they won't work with you to solve that. Feel free to email me and I'd be happy to help. Cheers.