A couple of friends and I want to tour Mongolia by motorbike but the shipping from Australia is prohibitively expensive.

Can anyone please enlighten us on the legality and practicalities of a foreigner buying and registering a bike either in Irkutsk or in UB? - and then returning/selling/dumping it a few weeks later.

Thanks!

...anyone? please?

We are here in UB and have run into someone who has done just that. Only the cheap Chinese bikes though. I will ask if she can post up the relevant info later.

Hey Chinggis- Yep we did this last week and it's easy. One of our bikes broke, we couldn't hire because hire bikes here are rubbish ( no sevice in between hires, crap bikes, no maintenance etc) so we bought brand new for £500.00. Don't bother with second hand ( unless its another traveller selling a bike on) because bikes here are not well looked after. The place to go is the street that runs down the side of the Black Market, near to the Royal Irish Pub. There are two bike shops there - the one we bought from was called Motorcycle Expo ( or something similar). It doesn't look like a bike shop as its got about 10 steps up to it ( which is the only way in and out). You can only pay cash and the crucial thing is to ONLY BUY SOMETHING THAT HAS THE FULL CUSTOMS DOCUMENTS ready to go. They will try to sell you something without various papers BUT DO NOT BE TEMPTED because you will have problems later. You then need to register the bike with the local traffic police, and that's where you get the plates from - they cost a fiver each. In the paperwork, you should get the rego document with your plate number on it, insurance, and proof of payment. Make sure you get all of these. Some bike shops will do a buy back scheme but that entails you leaving the bike registered in their name - which is a bit of a risk because you then have no claim on it should you get into any trouble.Also don't know if you can register it as a foreigner - we registered ours in a Mongo friend's name, but you could try and see if the Austrian woman at the Oasis would do that for you, although she would probably charge you a fee, but it might be a means to an end. Think her name is Cybille.You might also have trouble getting across the border with a locally bought bike - can't help you with that as we haven't tested it. We bought a 150cc Chinese job which sounds horrible but is actually a cool bike - very capable off road, great fuel economy and not as horrendous as their reputation suggests. What we would have done, had we had time, would have been to take the bike to pieces and go over the nuts and bolts with locktite, change the oil and check the wheel alignment. We did the nuts and bolts but nothing more and it was ok. Pictures of the bike are on our blog - Scooters Ride the World. Give us a shout if you want more info. Cheers.

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There was a couple from the UK trying to sell two UK registered DR 650s at Oasis Guest House in UB about 6 days ago.

Not sure if they succeeded but might be worth a go.

Callum

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Callum, Iker is missing when will you arrive.

Wow! Thanks for the great info.

We won't be travelling next year but thanks also for the info re the DR650s anyway (which would have been ideal!).

Nadsicles, what paperwork did you need to register the bike - you got the document with your plate number on it (from the police was that?), insurance, and proof of payment - were all of these from the police and were there any others which you needed from the bike shop in order to register it?

For those who are looking for the exact link it's here: Scooters Ride the World: A new bike!!!

I've emailed Cybille before, I wouldn't want to get her into any trouble - if anyone knows whether it's possible to register bikes as a foreigner in Mongolia that'd be great.. Failing that I'd be happy enough to register in the dealer's name and accept the risk of losing it if something went wrong (if it's as cheap as the one you got). If it was a more expensive one like a new DR650 I'd be much more reluctant!

The topic seems to be resolving itself towards UB & Mongolia.

However Irkutsk was in the title, so for completeness to assist others searching -

In Russia, foreigners cannot register vehicles in their name unless they have Residency or a long term visa, such as for Work or Educational purposes. Transit, Tourist and Business Visa holders cannot register vehicles in their own name.

One 'work around' solution is to get a Russian friend to register the vehicle and he lets you use it - carrying his written permission, preferably Notarised.

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Thanks Tony - that resolves it further to UB for us!

You may want to have a read of this link

To Mongolia: Motorcycle


There is the details you need to buy a bike and or rent

Cheers
TS

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It's looking more and more like we might be able to go ahead with this plan... it fits the timing and the budget so far