Hello guys, I have been really interested in going to South america and picking up a drz400 or dr650. Literally slapping a long range tank on it and get lost on it.

But wondering if its possible to pick up a gas tank in south america or would I have to bring one with me? Easy to ship one in?

I would like to buy a local bike somewhere so I can store it easily within that country if i left the continent for work for 6 months or so.

Thanks in advance

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I can't give specifics but generally most luxury things are hard to get and have a lot of import duty attached to them.

With a DRZ or DR it sounds like you'll be buying one off another traveller ??

I think it would be cheaper for you to carry one on the plane as bulky luggage than try to find and buy one.

Better still just buy a fully equipped bike from the 'For sale' section on here.

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Why do you think you need a big petrol in South America? If you think there's a long stretch between gas stations (quite rare), fill some cola bottles or an oil container as spare. Or buy a KLR650 that comes with a 24 litre tank as stock.

A fuel tank that has had fuel in it won't be allowed on any passenger plane. Period. So you'd have to buy new in your home country. It's a stupid amount of money so that you'll think you look the part.

Good luck with trying to get lost in South America.

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CURRENT RR WITH REGULAR UPDATES: The Wife Takes on Chlamydia: A South American Retrospective

Cheers for your input ted!

Yeah that's what I thought in terms of luxury items and tax and stuff...

With regards to buying off another traveller, yeah that sounds good and I'm sure there is good stuff to be had too. But I think I have read somewhere here quite recently it's hard to be able to store foreign bikes in certain countries for extended periods of time...?

Hence thinking of buying something off a local...
My information may be wrong though.

Cheers

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Chris has got a good point. (And he's JUST come back from a trip there)

There is petrol EVERYWHERE.

But I'm in the camp that I'd rather have 250 miles of fuel than 150. Just because in the remote areas fuel can run out between deliveries or maybe you get the occasional protest (They do love a good road block) and the trucks can't get through.

Is it worth paying a fortune for the luxury though !! Probably not.

If you get a FI bike your range on a 15L tank will be what the carburetted bikes are getting from their 23L tanks.


If you're flying in and out then it might even be worth you just buying and selling bikes in the countries or trade zones that you travel in on that specific trip.

Buy something cheap that the locals use, throw a roll bag and jerry can on the back and ride around until your trip is over before selling it on.

A bit of a pain when wanting to cross borders on a bike but you can't have your cake and eat it..

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Yeah fair point, I just don't tend to respond to negative comments which is how I read that. I may be wrong.

But question answered and food for thought... Thanks guys

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Without appearing negative, many of the questions asked by the op have been asked and answered by others a multitude of times already.

Investing some planning in order to browse and search the relevant forums before asking creates a better impression and makes busy people more inclined to give of their time freely.

South America is very developed and you can get most stuff everywhere. If it's imported it'll be very expensive, but you can still get it with a long enough lead time.

Klrs are 50% of the locally available travel bikes in South America. Either gringo bikes or locally sourced. Everything else is expensive BMW or Chinese/Indian little stuff.

ADDITIONAL INFO: This and the other response I posted below is based on a reply by the OP that he seems to now have deleted... Go figure... I could also delete my replies, but I'll leave them up as somebody may appreciate them.

To to OP: If you might not like the answer, don't ask the question. I followed this mantra once when I needed to do an oil change in a Mongolian hotel car park after I had submerged the bike in a river the previous day. Had the hotelier said no I would have been stuffed. So I just did it without asking.

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CURRENT RR WITH REGULAR UPDATES: The Wife Takes on Chlamydia: A South American Retrospective

I also like to have decent sized tank with good range, I like my options open if I want to go exploring without worrying about finding fuel.

We encountered major fuel strikes in Argentina on our trip with line ups for petrol over 2 hours around a street block - and the locals would not let motos jump to the front of the line, it was handy having a big tank to skip filling up at every city we went through, it got so bad that we ended up crossing the border and rode in Chile as we would spend half our riding days queuing for fuel.

This is not normal though and as the guys have mentioned you can usually get fuel most of the time. I would probably try and find and buy a bike first in South America and ride it around before splashing out on a big tank - I would maybe buy a new Rotopax fuel can and take it with you, use that for your first trip and then go from there, if you really need a bigger tank then its easier to find something locally after you have networked and talked to dealers and scoured the local Gumtree/ Kijiji websites

The DRZ400 is quite an expensive bike in South America, not so many used ones for sale and if they are, they hold their value, there are more DR250 and 350's around and more DR650's in Colombia. As Ted says, buying a popular smaller bike that locals ride will save you a bunch of cash over a bigger bike and if you can find a KLR then its a lot better bike (in stock trim) than a DR650.

If your Spanish is not too good and you don't have any contacts in South America then I would try and contact a HUBB community and see if they can help with accommodating you and the paperwork.

Here's a DR650 in Chile for about $4000 USD, expensive for the km's it has on the clock - you can find well modified DR's in the USA with low miles for the same money. By the way, the stock DR650 seat is like sitting on a 2x4 on its end


Suzuki Dr650se Dual Sport 2010 - Año 2010 - 23000 km - en Mercado Libre

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Grif

'11 KTM 450 EXC
'09 Suzuki DR650
'00 Discovery Series 2 V8
'95 Defender 90 300 Tdi Overlander
http://gipperstravels.blogspot.ca

A (very long...) post script.

From my reading of South American ride reports and observing traveler bikes in South America, most do not have oversize tanks and of the minority that do, they rode all the way from the USA where "farkles" like this aren´t extortionately expensive or the riders are on US BMWs and they usually have indefinite cash reserves anyway. Maybe the OP doesn´t read the RRs here or on Advrider.

It is easy to park a foreign bike long term in several countries. There are regular threads regarding Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil. A browse and search will give all the answers you me.

You could also park long term in Colombia if you don´t intend on returning again once you've ridden out having let your TVIP expire. I can explain how via PM. It isn´t legal, but in South America everything is possible.

I also know someone in Peru who can store bikes (for a fee) and knows how to officially "pause" the TVIP.

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CURRENT RR WITH REGULAR UPDATES: The Wife Takes on Chlamydia: A South American Retrospective

Sorry if I have upset you. But I simply don't have the time to scour forums all the time, when I was at home in England dreaming of an adventure. I was up to speed with everything having been on the forum daily, now I have other things to do.

Being on the road now for 18 months I'm not up to speed and rarely get use wifi.

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Not upset in the slightest, but thanks for checking on my mental state.

You don't have time to type a few relevant words into the search function at the top of the page and do a bit of reading... Others may no longer have time to respond to your questions. Newton's Third Law.

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CURRENT RR WITH REGULAR UPDATES: The Wife Takes on Chlamydia: A South American Retrospective