I'm a US citizen living in the USA. After my last South America trip I'm planning an extended Asia/Middle-East/Africa trip. I am not interested in the cost of shipping a home-bought motorcycle.

I plan to purchase a used motorcycle, preferably a Japanese 100-200cc, perhaps different bikes for different legs of the trip. My route is flexible but my budget is tight (plenty of money, but I hope to be gone for at least 2 years). So this excludes certain countries like China (expensive guides) and certain passages (air-freighting the motorcycle over Burma).

My start point is completely flexible, I want to start somewhere where I can manage to get a motorcycle in my name that I can ride across borders.

Malaysia seems fairly easy, but I can only go as far as Burma/China before I have to ship the bike at great expense.

Nepal is possible also, but a the high price of Japanese motorcycles make it less appealing

Are there any other countries anywhere in Africa/ME/Asia that it is possible to legally register/title a motorcycle in my name as a US citizen?

Somebody asked a similar question on advrider a few weeks ago so I have copied and pasted most of my answer from the one I gave there, I don't have a complete picture but here is an outline.

It might be useful to have a sticky with a list of where foreigners can register, any takers?

It is possible for a foreigner to buy a bike in South Africa or Namibia and travel most of Southern and East Africa from there, I know somebody who went as far as Kenya on a SA registered bike with no carnet.

The same in most SE Asian countries although if you particularly want to go to Vietnam you have to buy the bike there as foreign vehicles are not allowed in but you can take that one out to the rest of the subcontinent.

India you cannot technically buy there but there are ways around it involving it being registered to a local or you can rent.

South America you can buy in some countries, I am not sure which ones and then take it to others, no carnet needed there.

Australia it can be done but I am not sure if all states allow it, bloody expensive at the moment as well.

The UK and I believe other European countries allow foreign ownership, finding insurance in the UK is not easy but possible, once in Europe you can travel to Central and Eastern Europe from there.

RTW on native bikes? - ADVrider

Have a look at Hearts & Tears Motorcycle Club


And their rx135 package, that's what I'm doing in 5 weeks time,



Ben