Honda Tornado $2700 USD

Depending on your travel plans, buying a bike might be the best way to go about doing a longer trip in South America.

If you…:

- Plan to travel for several month
- Want to cross several borders
- Have the money or credit enough to put down the cash to buy a bike
- Can spare up to a week in each end of you trip to arrange documentation

…you should be able to save money by buying a bike rather than renting.

Here are some pros and cons you should consider before making your decision.

KTM 640 Adventure 12.000.000 Pesos

Buying Colombian registered bike in Colombia

This is completely legal!

You need to register your passport with your digital fingerprint at “El Transito”. Once you’re in their computer archive called “RUNT” you can buy and sell vehicles as a foreigner in Colombia. Its free to register!

The good things about buying Colombian registered bikes are:
- The selection of bikes are big (both for new and used)
- The value of the bikes are mostly depending on the model/year rather than mileage, so bikes keep good value within the same year of purchase
- Once you have the ownership title (takes up to 5 days) you can freely cross borders anywhere
- When you want to sell the bike after the trip the market is big and buyers have money

Finally Motolombia offers a 50% buy-back guarantee within 6 month of purchase if the bike is bought through us and returned in same condition. Or we can help with storage and buying and selling through our network if you need something ready when you arrive or need to go home quickly.

The bad things about buying Colombian registered bikes are:
- Due to high import tax the prices of bikes (including used ones) are high
- You (or someone you authorize) need to bring the bike back to Colombia to re-register / sell it

Suzuki V-Strom DL1000 $4000 USD

Buying / Riding foreign registered bike in Colombia
(N.B. this is not a recommendation, just pure facts of what’s legal, especially what’s not and also what people actually do. Sales of foreign registered bikes happens directly with the owners of these bikes. Motolombia merely act as the connection link. Some of the bikes are stored at the Motolombia facility while being sold, for others the place of sale needs to be arranged. Motolombia are not responsibility for the sale or condition of these foreign registered bikes and availability is irregular)

Ownership change of a foreign registered bike is hard to do completely legal in almost every South American country, including Colombia.

Once a foreign motorcycle enters Colombia on a TIP (Temporary Import Permit) the owner (tourist) usually gets 60 or 90 days in Colombia. This can be extended up to 6 month per calender year in two ways. One, by leaving the country with the bike and returning later (minimum 24 hour) or two, by first extending the personal visa with emigrations (DAS) and then equally extending the TIP at customs (DIAN). They maximum give 30 days extension at a time and it usually takes 3 days. So don’t do it the last day of your permit.

(N.B. you can not bring a used bike into the country on any other visa than a tourist visa, as you are considered to have same rights or restrictions as a Colombian when you’re in the country on an investors visa, residency visa, student visa etc. It is illegal to import used vehicles to Colombia period!)

No matter how crazy your explanation is, family emergency, illness, you name it, you can’t not legally leave the country without your bike. Many people do this anyway and return within the given period of the TIP without problems (this is fairly simple, since nothing about the bike is stamped in your passport). Others with overdue documents scan the TIP and change dates and then ride straight to the border to exit the country.

So this is where a ownership transfer gets tricky. Most US states allow for a ownership change simply by signing the original title on the back of the document. Then the original document needs to be send back to the state of origin for the official title transfer. Many states allow non-US residents to register a vehicle, but they need a receiving address within the state to receive the new title (several states do not allow non-US residents to register – so do your research before buying!!).

Once the new title is received and forwarded down to the new owner, he can then ride the bike in the previous owners name with a written and notarized permission to the border where he hands in the TIP and exits Colombia. Once entering the new country (Ecuador or Venezuela) the new owner then checks in using he new title and everything is perfectly legal from this point.

The good things about buying foreign registered bikes are:
- The bikes are usually fairly cheap
- The bikes have different travel accessories mounted already
- Once you have the correct documentation you can sell it anywhere (to other tourists) or take back to the country of origin

The bad things about buying foreign registered bikes are:
- The availability is very random and its hard to plan you trip before you have a ride
- The hassle of doing the title transfer in another country and having to wait for the papers
- That it can never be done 100% legal and you’ll have to accept some risk in the process
- You can only sell to another tourist, not to locals, which limit the potential buyer base a lot and it might take time to sell

Our charges:
We charge $25 USD to publish a motorcycle for sale through our network (send all details – year, mileage, extras, price, picture and place and time of the sale). When the bike gets sold we charge a $150 USD commission fee (you do not need to be present for the sale, just authorize us and we’ll release the bike to the new owner when you give the green light that the money transfer went through to your account). Storage in our secure parking basement cost $50 USD per month.

See what bikes are currently for sale through us…

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