Getting ready to buy a Tenere in Tanzania
 

Jambo! (hello)
I am in Dar Es Salaam right now and will begin tomorrow negotiating with a local man who owns a good-condition Tenere in hopes that I will have a bike to ride in TZ for a month.

There are LOTS of honda XR/XL/XRL 125s and 250s here, but they're all in pretty bad shape and I wouldn't want to take one out into the countryside where I'm certain Murphy's Law would come into effect.

So I'm looking for some advice on how to make this transaction as safely and as legally as possible. The man owns a successful local electronics store and seemed very honest with me, so I do trust him.. enough to enter negotiations. His bike was parked out front and I went into the store looking for the owner of the bike.

Aside from registration and insurance, what will I need?

If any of you have some sound advice, please advise a novice negotiator and world traveller:

I plan on paying with Traveller's checks, but I don't have enough to cover what I'm willing to pay the man, so I plan on getting a cash advance on my MasterCard.

My plan is this:
1) Test ride the bike, check to see that it'll last a month.
2) Negotiate a price, hopefully a lot less than what he's asking.
3) ride with him to the Amex office and get my checks out of the safe
4) Cash checks at big, safe hotel across the street
5) go to MC office and get cash, with him again
6) go to Dept of Motor vehicles and do paperwork to get it signed into my name. Hmm, or should I do this first after negotiating a price?

With this plan, I never walk the streets with a big wad of cash. I've already had all my valuables stolen here last week, so I learned the value of that the hard way.

Thanks,
Wright

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Wright Bagwell
http://www.geocities.com/wwbagwell/

Don't do it!!

Hi Wright, are you renting this Tenere for a month or buying it? It sounds like you've already had some early bad luck so don't compound it until you are back on your feet. Until you have some experience in making such deals in Africa there is a good chance you will get financially shafted again, otherwise we'd all nip out to East Africa, buy a bike and ride around. This is hard enough to do in any western country let alone Africa - although some successfully do - see p.39 of the book.
If you really want a bike out there, I'd go for one of those XLs bought from a bike shop - if they're common all over the country then that must be a good sign - a (probably) ex-overlanders Tenere bought privately is asking for trouble. Why arent they all riding XT600s - probably because the insurance/tax/whatever on an over 250 is massive and a 250 does the job.

Work out the whole new ownership details well beforehand and if you want to go ahead then stick to a price which you are prepared to pay for a bike (but which you are unlikely to get) that you want to 'last a month'

Being a novice traveller is tough - I should know! Me, I'm unusually paranoid abroad until I get a feel for a place - it saves a whole lot of grief.

Chris S

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Author of Sahara Overland and the Adventure Motorcycling Handbook, among other things

http://www.sahara-overland.com

Chris,
Thanks for the advice. Turns out I couldn't get the cash I needed on my credit card anyways, so getting that bike was out of the question.

So I have travelled back to Arusha and talked to some local people here I know pretty well. I did manage to find an XR250 (apparently an ex-overlander's bike - has rally computer and corbin seat, etc) in good condition that I managed to talk the guy into renting to me for a few days, and I plan on renting it from him again after I do a safari here. I'm paying 25,000 Tsh a day ($28 or so I think) which is pricey but it's the only bike I've seen around town that looks like it's safe for getting around on the back roads at anything above first gear.

I had some doubts after getting here that riding would be as fun as I imagined - I'm having a lot of fun figuring out the proces of catching daladalas, taxis and buses all over town to reach my destination, and talking to people on public transportation is always fun. But yesterday my suspicions that two-wheel travel is the best way to go were confirmed when I took off around Arusha National park and around Mount Meru.

Well, I suppose a few days of riding here and there beats no riding at all!

Cheers,
Wright

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Wright Bagwell
http://www.geocities.com/wwbagwell/

Hai,

I would like to add some advice. I saw in the plan that your would transfer all the cash to this guy and only after that go to the dept. to get the bike registered on your name.
If you would do so chances are that, once you leave the office where you got the cash (and gave it to him), he suddenly does a diapering-act. Since you are the stranger there, no one will believe you when you say you gave him money. So (if you ever should dicide to buy a bike in a remote area), give him a little money (realy a little), then register the bike first, and only when this process is completed, give him the full amound.
Better safe then sorry.

Maarten