Hi all.

I've been looking for information about buying a bike in Germany and riding it through Europe.

I have spent considerable time researching this.

As far as I know I cannot buy a German bike with German plates if I am not a resident of this country. But I was vaguely told that I can have some kind of export plates, valid for a year.

I wonder if someone has info about that and prices. I mean registration prices and also insurance. What happens with the bike afterwards would be good to know. Say I want to sell it to a local, is that possible?

So, the first thing I need to know is:
Info about the tourist plate
Costs
Insurance costs
How to do it.

There is another option. My girlfriend is a German resident, so she can have the bike in her name. But she does not have a driving license.

So the second thing I need to know is:
Could I ride a bike throughout Europe that is registered in someone else's name?
And to non EU countries?
Could someone else be the owner of the vehicle and myself the user, with insurance to my name?

All these complex questions.

Look forward to any insightful answer. Kindly substantiate your sayings.

Bests

Hi
Yes that is easy to do! i'm from Holland Europe , live in Panama now, and did this several times with a car in the past
If you wane drive Europe on temperal plates Germany is the best place to start.
If you proof that you take it out of Europe, than even you can make a deal with dealer you get your VAT back ( 19,00% MwSt.) you need to provide name of shipper and paperwork custums and after a check they give you back the tax

Bud as a start to keep it simple, if you buy a bike , ask for a kurzzulassung this registration , you must buy a insurance and of you go

If you are from Europe or not, give your name and an Europe country address , they register it temporal!

In Europe they won't stop you to match, bud make sure you can show correct paperwork. bud you do , as insurance is connected to temporal registration, you are good to go

Have a nice trip!

Hi XTrovert,

I´m German. Might be able to help you with some of your questions, but some I can´t answere, since I never had to cope with the perspective of beeing a foreigner in Germany.

Depends on the insurance. I had some, where they asked me in the appliance form, if the person, who get´s the insurance is the person that rides the bike. Premiums are a bit higher, if another person rides the bike.
If you can find an insurance, that allowes an owner, who has no driving license, it´s easy. Insurance is mandatory to get the bike lisenced, but it´s definitly legal to own a bike + get it lisenced if you don´t have a driving license.

Pay special attention to the "grüne Versicherungskarte" = for which countries the insurance is valid. Especially for cheap online insurances the insurance is often limited to EU-Countries. For a few EUR more your insurance is valid for many countries. For some countries you have to purchase an insurance otherwise at the border. Extreme example is Serbia, where you have to pay a three digits amount.
On the contrary Kosovo or Turkey insurances are cheaper for example.

By the way: where do you want to go?

For ex USSR-countries the answere is defenitly NO!
You need a power of attorney of the owner THAT IS VERYFIED BY A NOTARAY!
In Ukrainia we made it twice by stubborness. Bribing would have been possilbe, too (5 EUR).
In Russia, they denied entry, though I was the owner of my girlfriend's bike and I was with here. But forget commen sense regarding this issue. This ex communistic custum´s guys stick stupidly to their rules, no matter if that make sense or not.
In Albania it´s the same rule.
Haven´t heard of any other country in Europe with a rule like this.
For EU-countries it shouldn´t be a problem at all.

greetings from Panama

Panny

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Thankyou Panny for the great info.
Also Rene.
The question that remains to be answered is that once the kurzzulassung expires if I can register the bike in Germany or Europe, or it is like I undertook an obligation to export it.
Cheers!

xtrovert, as far as I know you don't need a driver's license to have a car or bike registered on your name in Germany. They don't ask for it, no big deal.

Btw, I'm not sure you can actually get the "Zollkennzeichen" (the one valid for up to 360 days, the "Kurzzeitkennzeichen" is only valid for up to five days) for a motorbike. At least when applying for it online (Strassenverkehrsamt.de) you can only get it for cars.

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