To ship or not to ship to Australia from the UK

[mattcbf600]

I've gone from post to post on this one and whilst I have all the facts now I still can't decide if I should ship the CBF600 out to Oz or sell it in the UK and buy new here.

I need some advice.

I have a 2005 CBF600 - bought brand new and serviced by me since then - in other words no dealer stamps in the book. It's done 50K in those three years, and whilst it's looking fine, and running fine I don't think I'll get more than 2k for it - if that. That works out at about $4500 depending on the exchange rate.

On the good side. I know the bike inside out, I've loved it, repaired it and ridden it to Morocco and Russia - it's a good solid bike I love.

On the bad side. It's three years old now, so needs an MOT - but that may not have to happen out here - still don't understand exactly what I need to do to import it - everyone seems to know different :-/

So, do I ship the bike with all the associated costs (looks like it'll be around $5000 in total). Or do I sell it (possible $4500 in hand) and add to that to buy a new one.

New bikes - Triumph Bonnie is $10k - everything else is pretty much north of there.

So the money argument doesn't help - it's going to cost about the same to buy new as to ship over.

The time argument doesn't help because the time saved in just buying new is lost in the hassle of selling it in the UK :-/

HELP!!!!!