Hello everybody, we are two french guys that used to travel through Eurasia with a 4wd.

We are now in French Guyana and our next objective is to cross and travel along south america with motorbikes...

We want to buy two bikes in Brazil ( Belem ) and travel with it.

We already know that we need a CPF to buy the bikes, but very easy to have...but we were told that we might be blocked at some borders like argentina borders because even if Mercosul rules apply with a brazillian bike for Brazillian people, it may not work if you are a foreigner travelling with brazillian bike ( and u will have to let the bikes at the border ).

Does someone have info about that regulation and the difficulty to cross south american border if you are french travelling with brazilian bikes ??



Second question we are beginners with bike ( more used to 4wd...) , don't have bike permits... peolple told us one of our best solution is to buy Honda 125CG that we can drive with our classic permits and is very common and easy to repair...

So which bikes will you buy in our situation ???

Cheers,

Simon and Jordan

Hi, in my country Chile, doesn’t matter how many cc you have , you must have motorcycle licence to drive it.
Sorry but this is the chilean law. I don’t know if others foreign travelers drive with other type of licence...


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Yes bad news...

It occurs that it's the same in brazil,

i plan to past a test to drive a 125cc in france using my car permit, but it's not a real permit equivalent to the A permit in brazil so it seems they will not allow me to drive a bike in brazil and other countries...

i have a 4wd to sell in Brazil. Write me a pm if you are interested!

In Peru you can ride 250cc+ motorcycles on your car license as their A-1 license for cars is also the requirement for larger motorcycles.

This sounds like a very appealing plan.

I'm also interested in buying a motorcycle in Brazil and taking it to Argentina or else where on the continent.

I'm looking forward to the related comments.

Cheers,
Wauschi

__________________
One life - live it

If you are already in South America with your European licenses and no motorcycle category, you're probably out of luck, unless you want to actually go to a Brazilian license exam and get a Brazilian bike license (how's your Portuguese?).

However, in many EU countries these days, having a regular Category B license automatically gives you an A1 category - they just stamp in on the back of your license card by default. At that point, the Brazilian/whatever authorities ought to have no further questions about you riding a 125cc. (Ironically, my license has a full Cat A stamp with no Cat A2 stamp - but the Cat AM 50cc and Cat A1 125cc stamps, which Estonia now gives for free with a Cat B!)

That said, of course you are best off getting full Cat A training.

I just received this process description on how to get your bike registered in Brazil:
https://zenmotero.com/how-to-buy-a-motorbike-in-brazil/

Can anyone confirm this is still valid? (it's from 2017)
I'm not sure I can spent a month in Brazil to deal with bureaucracy.

And the article does not refer to leaving and selling the bike else where.
Maybe someone has done this before and can share the experience.

Wauschi

__________________
One life - live it

In my experience travelling internationally most border officials are pretty chill, and do not assume that you dont have proper paperwork, they are also often not familiar with foreign documents, so if you are calm and polite it will usually work in your favour. Technically it would also be more likely for police or transito officials to be more concerned about things like what class of license you have and the migration and aduana are more concerned with stuff like ownership papers, your passport validity, and perhaps insurance etc.
If you do have an accident not having a proper license will probably complicate things and make it very improbable to get any reimbursement, but honestly you can probably manage with just about any type of license. After I lost my physical license I managed by presenting an old ID card that was actually expired. I explained to them that the replacement was being sent to me, but would require some 4-6 weeks to arrive and that the ID card was all I had for the moment. You can also mock things up with photoshop and save as a pdf then explain you don't have the original but here is a picture of the license, etc.

Welcome to South America! The part that not many have seen.
Your second question about a 125, well it depends on your ambition,Sure its easy to ride and fix but gutless and pretty much a Moto for running around town.
If you have a lot of time sure this moto will take you to where your heart desires

First Question, Can you insure and plate a moto in your name without a moto licence I think No.
Its hard to say if you will be asked for your drivers licence at a border crossing, To be honest and prepared is the way to go
Your are in a foreign land
I do a lot of traveling in Colombia on my moto and I can assure you that you will be asked for your drivers license There are check stops every where
You have Policia National , Transito Police, Military Police and Regional Police
The check stops May or Maynot be lenient to tourists
The thing is you may think that you are a obvious foreign tourist traveling on a small or large moto with all your gear but in there reality you are not
There are many Colombian Nationals with Small and Large motos on a Adventure traveling everywhere in Colombia and the cops wouldn't know the difference Because they dont see your plate when you are waved over and asked for Documents
this is probably the same in many places in SA
Do yourself a favor and get a Licence

I have a 2004 KLR650 for sale in Belem in early June. $1200 usd. Please refer to my post. WhatsApp if interested +1 530-558-8463