Buying a bike in Uzbekistan/Kyrgystan

[JoeSheffer]

Does anyone have any experience of buying a bike in Tashkent or Bishkek. Looking at the usual Honda CD100 sort of thing or similar. Something honda'ey and small CC'ed. Has anyone tried to drive home on Kryg or Uzbek plates.

Does anyone see any problems with ripping about central asia/possibly trying to drive one home?

It's another possibility im looking at for this summer!

[Henn]

I have no direct experience, but given the love of bureaucracy in these countries, and the known difficulties buying a bike in Russia, I'd say it would be very hard to do legitimately. Lots of paperwork and hassling people and getting stamps. Crossing borders they always closely check your registration and temporary import papers.

On the other hand you could try winging it. Just buy a bike and ride. See how far you get before you get stuck at a border or checkpoint.

Hen

[MotoEdde]

Originally Posted by JoeSheffer

Does anyone have any experience of buying a bike in Tashkent or Bishkek. Looking at the usual Honda CD100 sort of thing or similar. Something honda'ey and small CC'ed. Has anyone tried to drive home on Kryg or Uzbek plates.

Does anyone see any problems with ripping about central asia/possibly trying to drive one home?

It's another possibility im looking at for this summer!

There is a HUGE car market outside of Bishkek that deals with folks that drive cars from Europe into Kyrgyz and sell them on the spot there.
Thats pretty much how cars get into Kyrgyz...Pretty lucrative...but I didn't see any bikes there.
There is a biker club in Bishkek where a few of the guys own F650s, KLR, etc. They meet once a week locally. IF you're dead serious about this, I will dig up their email address.

Relative to Tashkent...there is a BMW car importer, but that's all I know...did NOT see a lot of non-Chinese bikes there.

HTH

[glasswave]

Originally Posted by JoeSheffer

Does anyone have any experience of buying a bike in Tashkent or Bishkek. Looking at the usual Honda CD100 sort of thing or similar. Something honda'ey and small CC'ed. Has anyone tried to drive home on Kryg or Uzbek plates.

Does anyone see any problems with ripping about central asia/possibly trying to drive one home?

It's another possibility im looking at for this summer!

As mentioned, there is a car market near Bishkek on Sundays and there was a few bikes out there when I went.

There is also a dealer that sells new Chinese bikes that I found. You'd likely be better off with one of these than a used bike, as the Kyrgyz seem not to do much maintenance.

I ended up w/a jeep, but getting across the borders is no problem if you have a power of attourney for the vechicle.

For bigger enduros, the closest place is Almaty.

[motoreiter]

Originally Posted by glasswave

...getting across the borders is no problem if you have a power of attourney for the vechicle.

+1, should work fine, just find out if it has to be notarized, etc. Might want to have it notarized anyway, because a few extra stamps never hurt when crossing borders in that part of the world.