Just manifesting the 1st thoughts of throwing a trip together for a couple months down in Colombia. I'm planning on being there around the 19th of November. From the sounds of things buying locally is out of the question. If anyone is looking to dump their bike around that time, or in the vicinity (I haven't purchased a ticket yet), please let me know. Of course I would be looking to unload at the end of my trip in mid Jan

Buying locally is not out of the question, last year in August/September my mate and I bought two bikes new, rode them around for 2 months then sold them without problems.

The police checked our papers like 50 times and there was never an issue.

Just remember that on the form where it asks for your Cedula number you can just put your passport number, the chick selling us the bikes verified this with transito whilst we were waiting to purchase, according to the numerous forum threads I've read this seems to be where everyone says you can't buy in Colombia on a tourist visa.

Actually I've only read of this happening once, with the rest being rumours probably originating from this occasion?

Anyway, if you're on a budget and you don't mind riding around on a China bike (the roads are excellent and we never had a problem, free services every 2000kms too), I can hook you up with the vendor, she added me to Facebook after I'd left to see how my trip was going. The bikes came with helmets, vests, numberplate stickers for the helmet & vest, insurance and a few other goodies like 12,000km guarantee. This is the vendor website, probably the largest seller in Colombia I would assume, due to the amount of AKT advertising I saw there and the fact that they had workshops in even the in-between towns.

Oh finally, obtaining the paperwork consisted of paying for the bike, filling out a couple of forms, waiting 20 minutes to verify then returning 5 days later, was quite a pleasant experience as I've also bought in Chile and Bolivia, both of which are a real pain in the ass, mostly due to long, long queues in government buildings. Bogotá is a great city to spend 5 days in !

Danny
I am presently in mexico heading south to columbia bolivia peru . Have rode down from Moose Jaw Saskatchewan and am toying with the idea of flying back because of time . I have a 2005 susuki vstrom 650. Rode across Canada last year and here I am now. Very nice shape . paniers skidplate etc.
It is either that or drive back to Huatulco Mexico an leave the bike there till spring . Then ride home.
Bill

Hey Bill, thanks for your response. Just curious as to your progress, there are a few borders between Mexico and Colombia. I'll be flying into Bogota on the 18th of November.

As well, if you could give me a ballpark as to what you were hoping to sell it for that'd be grand.

Cheers, Danny

New to Horizons, was just looking at the message indicator when signing in, and didn't realize you had responded.

Anyhow, thanks so much for the info. They had similar bikes available in India when I was there to accomodate the economical gas mileage. I just wasn't too sure how good they would be with luggage?