Selling a foreign registered bike south of USA?
 

If I was to ship my bike into North America (probably USA) from Japan and ride around North America then south through Mexico and perhaps on further can I sell rather than try bring back to Japan as 2nd hand bikes a few years old have almost no value here.

Is there any country south of the border better than others to get rid of a bike this way or countries that it is impossible to sell and bike must be checked out of country through customs etc.

I apologize if this has been answered already, I have read some related questions that suggest I could sell it in Mexico for parts or to another traveller although the registration could never be changed. If someone in a owners club for the bike in USA wanted it for parts can it be sold there for that purpose.

Yes, you can sell it, but there are some kinks involved with that. It is not very practical to do a "legal" sale in a Latin American country because the taxes are enormous and in my experience you do not want to sell it to a Latin American person because car sales down there are a major PITB. The way Latin Americans do business is in the "Manana" fashion and time is not something you can afford to waste.

How come you do not just buy a bike in the USA and then ride it South through Latin America. That would be a lot less expensive then having your bike shipped from Japan.

Many western travelers ride motorcycles down to Latin America from the states and then sell them at a low cost to another foreign motorcyclist who wants to instead do the trip from South to North.

There is a thread titled "2 Dakars for Sale in Costa Rica," that is a few listings down from your thread where I talk about how it works.

This question gets asked a lot around here. It has been answered ""many''" times so with a little digging you can find it. It is kind of frowned to talk about around here, even though a lot of the members here do it.