Barcelona to Istanbul end of 2019 into 2020
 

I am an 27 year old American male look for fellows travellers for a trip from Spain to Istanbul including a lot of time in Italy and at least getting a few days in the Alps. I would like to see a lot of Greece as well. Looking to do On and offroad, I'd like to do parts of the trans euro trail

My start date isn't important, I can start in October 2019 at the earlier (I make most of my money in the summer months) and then if have to be back home by May at the latest to begin work again.

I'm not super duper experienced, this will be my second trip. My First trip is through Thailand and Vietnam which I am absolutely loving. If I've learned anything in this trip its that a road trip by motorcycle is really the best thing in the world.

For accommodation I anticipate mostly hostels and cheap hotels with some tenting a possibility as long as the campsite is reasonably safe and not completely in the middle of nowhere.

I don't currently own a motorcycle so I am planning to buy one in Spain or France. I'm looking into KTM, but I think most adventure or dual sport bikes will suit my my purposes. My budget for the bike itself will be around 7000 USD maximum and I'd like to sell it for at least half of what I buy it for.

Looking for travel buddies for all or part of this trip. I'm still in the early planning stage so everything is flexible and I'm happy to receive advice, suggestions and constructive criticism. I definitely need to research what to do to make sure I can own a legal and insured bike while traveling on a US passport.

Thank you

I'm heading over to Europe now with my motorcycle. I'm American and the best I can tell is we need to go to the AAA office pay $15 for an international driver's license after that everything is A-Okay on the motorcycle

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Right, I'll totally get the IDP, but what about buying and registering a motorcycle? Would i need an address?

No clue. I'm shipping my bike over right now. I would imagine whoever you are buying a bike from would let you use their address to have the new title shipped to.

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I think you are severely overestimating the southness of Southern Europe. (Madrid is about at the latitude of New York City.) You can ride all year in an inland coastal city like Barcelona, but the Alps are going to be snowed in, as will the Balkans, and IIRC Istanbul is not a very pleasant climate in the winter either.

Spain and France are a bit more difficult, I think. There are countries where it's easy, and the one with a big market for used bikes is Germany, where a foreigner can buy a bike on export plates (they come with insurance until their expiration date, up to a year).

What do you intend to do with the bike after you get to Istanbul? Come back to Europe and sell it there? In theory you could sell it there, I think the EU/Turkey customs union should allow it, but you'd have to do some research in advance.

Yes....that, plus a tax registration number as well as a residence permit according to the country you want to buy in.

You might want to check on the local laws before you just land in Spain hoping to buy a bike and register quickly. I recall that someone here did a write-up on registering there as a foreigner, assuming you know the language it's more or less doable, however there are easier options.

One is Germany as AnTyx mentioned, the most popular one is in Ireland ( look for motofeirme) and finally in Croatia there is "Lobagola Moto tours" who will help with buying there.

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to register a motorcycle in spain, you will need your NIE (Foreigners ID number) and an address (which you will need to get your NIE anyway). I suspect thats the case for most EU countries, since you will need to register the bike to an address, so they can send you any fines that you pick up etc.

If youre not working in Spain, getting your NIE is a pain, you will probably need to take out private health insurance, which is much cheaper here than there (ASISA - approx. €50 pcm), and you will need a local bank account with around €5k deposited