I plan to ride some of Chile and Argentinia with my father next January and February. It's most likely his last chance to go for a big ride before his back problems become too bad to make such a trip possible. Originally we were planning to do it once he retires in 3 years, but as it stands right now he might not be able to ride at all in 3 years, so we better do it as fast as possible.

I am 26, I have travelled the world for about two years, most recently I drove a 150cc bike 15.000km troughout south east asia (you can have a look at our experience here: South East Asia on Motorbikes ). I speak decent Spanish.

My dad is 61, he has been riding motorbikes his whole life, but never outside Europe. We know roughly where we want to go, and (think that we) have the necessary budget, the big question is how to get the bikes.


It would be GREAT if you HUBB members could help us out here! Anything that takes us across the Andes will do, so 250cc up to 750cc is our range. It should be sturdy and easily repairable.
As it stands, our options to get some motorbikes are:

-Rent them:
But it seems crazy expensive. The best option we found so far is charging about 5000 Dollars for two bikes for 4 weeks. Are there any decent renting options? Does a HUBB member rent out his bikes? we could provide a decent security payment just as long as the daily charge is low.

-Buy them:
There is a great sticky here about buying bikes in Santiago, but even in the best conditions it seems to take at least a week before we could get started, same thing goes for selling them for a decent price. We have only about 8 weeks, being stuck in Santiago for 2 weeks would take away a lot of our time.

-have them bought for us:
a) A good friend of mine lives in Iguazu, Brazil. He could buy two bikes for us and "hand them to us" for the time we ride. afterwards he would sell them. I guess the big question here is how easily we could take his bikes out of Brasil, into Argentinia and Chile. Would they have to be in our name?

b) I met an architect from Chile a couple of days ago here in Europe. He is a fellow biker and invited me to come and ride with him. Such a nice person! I could ask him to find two bikes for us, but it might be a bit much to ask, given that i hardly know him.

This is so important to us, I am more than grateful for any response leading us in the right direction. Go HUBB!

Basic requirement for getting any vehicle across borders on S America is that all details on the vehicle registration and title must match the details on the person taking it across OR if they are not the same, then a PODER drawn up by the legal owner in favour of the driver must be submitted as well.

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Tony
Click here for Travel Photos & Travel Map

Buying a large bike in Chile is expensive, even old ones, flying a bike (return) costs approx £3500. Renting 2 bikes for 4 weeks (1 x 400, 1 x 750) costs approx £3500.

Buying a bike and then selling it makes it much cheaper, however you have to budget time to buy and then sell and do all the paper work.

So, back to renting, try Ride Chile (based in Santiago) Ride-Chile.com | Home , they will do a sell/buy back deal, so worth checking with them.

As has been mentioned paper work is important, I got it wrong in 2012 after buying a bike and was refused access to Peru (after being able to get into Argentina and Bolivia).

As it is your dad's last chance to ride, go for the easy hassle free option and rent them. Then you will get maximum use and piece of mind that there is some form of help in case of issues/breakdowns. In the grand scheme of things after the cost of 2x return flights to SA, it is not that much more to fork out :-)

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http://www.ytc1.co.uk

Bruce and Tony have covered the many options out there. IMO, if your Brazil connection can secure bikes for you ... do it. Just make certain the paperwork is in your names (as Tony states). Perhaps he can register them as "dual ownership" titles with both his name and your name on one title? This is possible in USA, not sure about Brazil. Explore all options.

Also, seems to me your biggest (self imposed) limit is TIME. Without Time, plan to spend a lot more MONEY. If me, I'd extend you TIME, spend less and have more relax time, less frenzied.

Also, contact the HU community in Colombia. From what I read it's possible for foreigners to buy and register bikes there in a more timely manner than Chile. Fewer Hoops to jump through.

Other possibility is to buy in USA (get any bike you want for less than UK or EU). Either sell off at trips end or loop back to USA to sell ... or store abroad for future travels.

Good luck! (in the meantime I'd be looking for alternate therapies for your
Dad's back issues)

There are always travelers selling bikes at the end of north to south trips. Usually they advertise here on the Hubb. A search will find several. I think that's your best bet, and you help fellow travelers as well.

Come to Peru! It has everything (coast, Andes, Amazon) and is MUCH less expensive!

I purchase new Chinese 250cc bikes for HUBBers, go all the way thru them so that they will hold up for the road, and when you come it only takes 3 hours to get it into your name and off you go!!

I even buy them back from you at the end of your trip to pass it on to another budget rider!

HEY! My son said the same thing about me (last trip for my Dad..) in 2007! I'm 56 and riding every week to 16,000 feet... and plan to do so until 70 years old or more!

We are in central Peru (HUANUCO) and paperwork is SOOOO much easier than in Chile or Argentina!!

Toby

Toby is right. Peru is much cheaper than Chile and Argentina. I liked Peru a lot as the mountain roads were stunning. Muchu Pichu was a true wonder. I have seen the prep Toby does on his bikes and it is top notch.
Peru is also small than Argentina and Chile and will seem more foreign to you. You will need to ride carefully as they drive very much like in Mexico where I live.