Manufacturing Motorcycles

[akumabito]

Hi everyone,

I am wondering what the legal requirements are for small-scale manufacturers of motorcycles. I have a design ready for a very basic chopper/custom, and I am interested to see if it would at all be possible to turn it into a small business.

I have searched on the internet, but I have not been able to find much specific information on requirements for the automotive industry, bar for some information pertaining large scale operations.

Here are some of the ideas I am toying with; I would have the frame constructed locally according to my own designs (or I would fabricate it entirely in-house if possible), most other parts will also be sourced or made locally, with the engine probably being imported from China (Lifan engine, most likely). In other words; I would really be constructing my own bikes and NOT importing bikes and NOT trying to get bikes on the road hat are without proper registration. It will be an all-original and new design. Being a small business, production will probably be limited to no more than 5 to 10 bikes per month max.

Now for the important questions;

- What type of production and manufacturing licensing is needed for a business type such as this? I have found the BOI website to be less than helpful, especially since they’re mostly dealing with larger scale operations. Yet I do not believe small manufacturing companies are exempt from licensing procedures.

- What are the testing requirements for motorcycles before being allowed to be sold on the Thai market? I assume there is such a thing as a type approval scheme? Anyone know more about this?

- How about taxation? Does anyone have an idea what the total taxation picture looks like from workshop to dealer? Or reverse-engineered; how much is paid in taxes on a hypothetical motorcycle with a list price of 100,000 THB?

- What (if any) are the differences between a ‘small bike’ and a ‘big bike’, from a legal perspective? Is it just hype that the so-called big bikes command such higher prices, or is there a genuine reason they cost more? (e.g. taxation) There seem to be an awful lot of bikes up to 200cc, with pretty scarce options for anything over that. I have to assume there is a good reason for this, yet I have not been able to find out exactly why this is.

I suppose these are some pretty elementary questions, and I apologize if I’m asking ‘stupid’ questions. It obviously is very early in the planning process (Or rather; pre-planning process). I have no fixed plans as of yet, as I first want to know if it is at all possible before moving on to a proper feasibility analysis, so please don’t ask for a business plan, budget, etc. just yet.

Thanks a ton for any feedback!

[helitool]

10 months ago I moved to Chiang Mai and shipped my machine shop over as well. I design and manufacture disc brake conversions for antique Dodge trucks (www.uglytruckling.com). I also brought along Blue prints for basic choppers and we will start manufacturing them when I get back from the US in about 3 month. In the US custom cars and bikes are one offs that do not need to pass any sort of standards that I know of. There is probably a minimum number of the same design that needs to be made per year prior to them needing to pass any standards tests. I believe that for cars it is a hundred per year.

You will need access to a plasma table to cut out the blanks as well as a cnc mill for finishing the edges. Polishing and chroming is another problem, as well as finding wide tires and rims at a reasonable price, not to mention large cc engines.

[LivinLOS]

You need to speak to the Thai society of Automotive engineers.. It will need type approval and I dont see it working.

This is why kit cars cannot be done here and the westfield dealer is packing up shop. If he cant get westfields legally sorted when they are a known proven commodity I think your not likely to succeed. Contacting him will probably reveal the full horror.

[soundman]

- What (if any) are the differences between a 'small bike' and a 'big bike', from a legal perspective? Is it just hype that the so-called big bikes command such higher prices, or is there a genuine reason they cost more? (e.g. taxation) There seem to be an awful lot of bikes up to 200cc, with pretty scarce options for anything over that. I have to assume there is a good reason for this, yet I have not been able to find out exactly why this is.

Thanks a ton for any feedback!

There is a limit on engine capacity for any bike manufactured in Thailand. All larger bikes are imports.

Lots of stuff in the motor forum.

Soundman.

[gjones]

Thy are building the triumph rocket here and some of the lads that work there seem to live on soi bearing (sukhumvit 105 or 107) they seem to congregate at a place called evolution on bearing soi 4 Triumph International (Thailand) Co Ltd. No Picture. Address : 393, 2nd Floor, Moo 17 Bangsaothong Samutprakarn 10540 THAILAND. Phone : (66) 2 315-3283 I think the guy that runs the show is Welsh, plays golf and a local at the Dubliner I met him once a few years ago but i forget his name hope its any help and good luck

[Dave the Dude]

Thy are building the triumph rocket here and some of the lads that work there seem to live on soi bearing (sukhumvit 105 or 107) they seem to congregate at a place called evolution on bearing soi 4 Triumph International (Thailand) Co Ltd. No Picture. Address : 393, 2nd Floor, Moo 17 Bangsaothong Samutprakarn 10540 THAILAND. Phone : (66) 2 315-3283 I think the guy that runs the show is Welsh, plays golf and a local at the Dubliner I met him once a few years ago but i forget his name hope its any help and good luck

Hi gjones

I think you forgot to mention the last line off "Thailand exporters' website. I assume you are talking about a Bra called The Rocket because the fairly new Triumph Motorcycle Company factory that was opened by Prince William, is to make componants,have spray shop and latter possibly make engine componants (Triumph UK website refers). This way they (the bikes) can still be proudly called 'Made In England'

Company Name :

Triumph International (Thailand) Co Ltd. No Picture

Address : 393, 2nd Floor, Moo 17 Bangsaothong Samutprakarn 10540 THAILAND

Phone : (66) 2 315-3283

Fax : (66) 2 315-3299, 315-3295

Product Line : Women's Swimwear, Underwear, Brassieres

Dave

(sad ex-owner of many Triumphs)

[Tony121]

A lot of bikes like the Honda xr 250 are stripped down and imported to thailand to avoid high taxes but as far as i know you can't register them once rebuilt here,

For the time and effort it might be worth looking at designing after market parts for thai bikes maybe a good quality baby seat for the mopeds or some nice wheels i think this could be more easy or a harley lookalike kit for the Honda

[gjones]

Thy are building the triumph rocket here and some of the lads that work there seem to live on soi bearing (sukhumvit 105 or 107) they seem to congregate at a place called evolution on bearing soi 4 Triumph International (Thailand) Co Ltd. No Picture. Address : 393, 2nd Floor, Moo 17 Bangsaothong Samutprakarn 10540 THAILAND. Phone : (66) 2 315-3283 I think the guy that runs the show is Welsh, plays golf and a local at the Dubliner I met him once a few years ago but i forget his name hope its any help and good luck

Hi gjones

I think you forgot to mention the last line off "Thailand exporters' website. I assume you are talking about a Bra called The Rocket because the fairly new Triumph Motorcycle Company factory that was opened by Prince William, is to make componants,have spray shop and latter possibly make engine componants (Triumph UK website refers). This way they (the bikes) can still be proudly called 'Made In England'

Company Name :

Triumph International (Thailand) Co Ltd. No Picture

Address : 393, 2nd Floor, Moo 17 Bangsaothong Samutprakarn 10540 THAILAND

Phone : (66) 2 315-3283

Fax : (66) 2 315-3299, 315-3295

Product Line : Women's Swimwear, Underwear, Brassieres

Dave

(sad ex-owner of many Triumphs)

Ha ha ha, sorry about that i was in a bit of a hurry when i posted on this thread.

Triumph Motorcycle (Thailand) Ltd are in Thailand but I have just googled it and came up with no address .

but foud this pdf file which has some useful info http://www.tep.engr.tu.ac.th/files/Thai_gr...08_02_08_v2.pdf

and this is worth a look at

[gregchambers]

The triumphs are for export only and they now make whole Bonnevilles there (somewhere outside Chon Buri), relatively low tech design. However, the limit on engine capacity was removed some time back, so any engine size bike can now be manufactured and sold in Thailland. Any engine size bike can also be imported but taxed very heavily at the moment, which will change when free trade agreements are implemented in Asean.

As to the original question, you will probably need a large amount of registered capital before they will recognize you as a proper manufacturer (as well as employing loads of Thais directly) and thus allow you to actually register bikes once they have been sold. Thais can't get their heads around foreigners turning up in the realm and doing garage-start-up type businesses which sounds about where you want to be. Also have pollution testing and maybe type approval problems.

The only way around this nonsense would be to buy complete Chinese bikes in bulk to get them at a reasonable price that are registrable and not taxed too heavily (sub 200cc, I think) and throw most of it away but keep the reg doc's for the new machine.

I always thought a four wheel type Tuk-Tuk car and/or taxi would be much more suited to Bangkok streets but doubt if they would let me build or register them.

[gjones]

The triumphs are for export only and they now make whole Bonnevilles there (somewhere outside Chon Buri), relatively low tech design. However, the limit on engine capacity was removed some time back, so any engine size bike can now be manufactured and sold in Thailland. Any engine size bike can also be imported but taxed very heavily at the moment, which will change when free trade agreements are implemented in Asean.

As to the original question, you will probably need a large amount of registered capital before they will recognize you as a proper manufacturer (as well as employing loads of Thais directly) and thus allow you to actually register bikes once they have been sold. Thais can't get their heads around foreigners turning up in the realm and doing garage-start-up type businesses which sounds about where you want to be. Also have pollution testing and maybe type approval problems.

The only way around this nonsense would be to buy complete Chinese bikes in bulk to get them at a reasonable price that are registrable and not taxed too heavily (sub 200cc, I think) and throw most of it away but keep the reg doc's for the new machine.

I always thought a four wheel type Tuk-Tuk car and/or taxi would be much more suited to Bangkok streets but doubt if they would let me build or register them.

mmm, Not a good business advice, I think, if you are serious I can put you in touch with some people that do know,, just pm me

[Dakhar]

A lot of bikes like the Honda xr 250 are stripped down and imported to thailand to avoid high taxes but as far as i know you can't register them once rebuilt here,

For the time and effort it might be worth looking at designing after market parts for thai bikes maybe a good quality baby seat for the mopeds or some nice wheels i think this could be more easy or a harley lookalike kit for the Honda

ya, like convert a scooter into a CBR. Oh wait that has been done.

[gregchambers]

I used to see some fake engine sideplates for the Honda Phantom that made it look like a Harley vee - not kidding!

There is a way of registering a bike made out of spare parts but you have to have all the invoices for the bits (I think they are taxed a lot less than whole bikes) to do it, and may not be possible in some provinces.

None of which is much use to the original post. There may be a way around it as one poster suggests but I would bet that it is dependent on the goodwill of our hosts and can be lost on their whim.

I did whine before, that in many ways Thailand is a great place to start a small business - for Thais that is!

[Dave the Dude]

For the time and effort it might be worth looking at designing after market parts for thai bikes maybe a good quality baby seat for the mopeds or some nice wheels i think this could be more easy or a harley lookalike kit for the Honda

ya, like convert a scooter into a CBR. Oh wait that has been done.

or a Honda lookalike kit for a Harley

[raro]

Triumph manufactures indeed whole motorcycles in Thailand and ships them to the UK. The engines are still made in the UK (and shipped to Thailand for assembly...) but this might change also in the future.

Back to the OP's questions:

- you will need for sure the factory license as any other manufacturer. Might well be that you have to become member of the Thai Automotive Association (not sure about the correct name of it). BoI is of help, but you should contact them directly. Form a 1 Mio Baht investment up you can receive BoI promotion!

- testing requirements: duuno....

- taxation: ask the revenue department...they should know that!

cheers

raro

[xbusman]

Triumph now manufactures the whole kit in asia and assembles in Thailand. The English name and corporate structure is little more than a marketing front.

I manufacture a raft of parts for aftermarket and specialty motorcycles. Tried to bring some to Thailand because the skill set is here and Triumph has built a great infrastructure (vendor base) for what I make. Unfortunately the baht killed the business below about 38 and it all moved back to Taiwan two years ago. Very little being done in Thailand now except for captive parts for Triumph and those are not much use to anyone else.

We manufacture specialty bikes in the US and are selling kits all over the world as fast as we can put them together. Australia has become a huge market in two years and about 200 bikes per year are going there. Thank you worthless dollar, the price of US motorcycles is painfully cheap.

I could arrange rollers or kits for you in Thailand, they can be registered and at current exchange rates should sell well. You might be able to set up manufacturing here on a limited basis, engine/gear box will be the key component though. Might be hard to get a hold of anything worth owning. To date I have not found a chinese engine that is worth owning at any price and the boys that make real engines are running at about 120% capacity, not interested in taking on new customers. We have engines available but I dont know how many extra we would part with, thats not my part of the business and I could not address that unless I had real buyers.

Taiwan is where you want to look for a majority of what you need. I know all those vendors so could help you get started. You could bring the parts to Thailand and assemble them here, would have to crunch the numbers to see if its viable. I know this, it takes very deep pockets to play that game.

[CTM]

Who is in Pattaya? Between South Pattaya and Jomtien on the hill is what looks to be a big bike shop. Never been in myself. The bikes look like high end customs from the road. Give him a visit bet he knows the whole scoop if willing to share info.

[monty]

Who is in Pattaya? Between South Pattaya and Jomtien on the hill is what looks to be a big bike shop. Never been in myself. The bikes look like high end customs from the road. Give him a visit bet he knows the whole scoop if willing to share info.

I think you mean"hot rod", this shop used to be on third road at the side of the bridge going over Thapraya.

Most bikes you see there are customized Harleys, and a few customized Jap bikes. Nothing much to do with local manufacturing of bikes.

They are just modifications on existing, registered bikes!