Hi, so long story short my friend and I shipped rebuilt 1984 Yamaha TT600's to England earlier this year to ride them back home to Australia over the next 10months.

Unfortunately we haven't had the greatest start with 1 bike deciding enough is enough... In Germany.

Now to continue our travels we are looking at purchasing new or 'newer' bikes.

Purchasing a new bike in Aus, registering/carnet then shipping over is possible but would require a lot of time and money. Already looking like we wont be making some VISA entry dates

We are looking into ways of buying in Germany and going from here. Speaking with ADAC, as a foreigner we can only register under exportation registration valid for 3 months. We can however be granted a Carnet under those plates. We would be technically riding unregistered motorcycles after the 3months though.. Not ideal..

Another option is to register under a friends name from Germany, ADAC can still issue Carnet as it's based on the 'owner' of the Motorcycle. We have heard it's not recommended though.

Just wondering if anyone had any information or experience with any of the above, especially riding under a carnet on a vehicle registed to someone else?

Thanks for your time, hopefully we can get back on the road soon!
Luke

Just fix the bike, your in Germany (stacks of used parts) what’s wrong with it anyhow?

Mezo.

Some countries will give you a lot of grief at the border if all the paperwork is not in the same name, and you do not have other valid documentation explaining the reasons for the different names. Morocco was one and Turkey another. Neither require carnets but they did query me because the vehicle was registered to a German company (because as an Australian, I can't register and insure it in Germany) and I only had a receipt for the purchase written on the company letterhead. Had to do a fair bit of fast talking for them to accept it and let me in. In Turkey it was only luck that one of the customs officers walking past could speak English and I could explain the situation and he smoothed the way.

Not a lot of vehicles driving around overseas for a year or more are legally still registered back home. Any vehicle needing a safety inspection can't be reregistered so there goes half the vehicles on the road. British vehicles have to be SORNed and the MOT isn't valid so that is another whole lot. Any vehicle from NSW too. And California and several other states in the US

Obviously the problem is generally ignored by officialdom, but it does raise the real problem that most insurances are conditional on the vehicle being legally registered. Maybe travlers don't have many serious accidents.

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Tony
Click here for Travel Photos & Travel Map

Thanks for the advice! Ended up going the easy path of getting new ones from Aus and sending over. Keep it easy with Paperwork.. Was turning into a headache with export plates and insurance in Germany. Would have cost a heap as well.

Safe travels then.

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Tony
Click here for Travel Photos & Travel Map

Luke:

Be very cautious if you go that route. I am a Canadian, I had a Canadian plated bike in Germany a few years ago. I loaned it to a friend of mine (Austrian citizen resident in Germany), he was stopped in a routine police check, and the outcome was that he was fined over 2,000 Euro for riding a vehicle on which the import tax had not been paid.

The rationale was that it is fine for the owner of the bike (me), being a bona fide tourist, to temporarily import the bike into another country for the purpose of tourism. But, if someone other than the owner is riding the bike, then things get tricky.

You might be able to dodge a bullet provided that you can prove that you are also a bona fide tourist... but, like I said, it's tricky, it all depends on how the customs guidelines are written, and how the authorities interpret them.

Michael