Shipping A Bike To Los & Riding It On Foreign Plates

[Kf6vci]

Hi All,

I used to ship a bike to the port of San Diego. This time, a bike would leave S.D. for Laem Chabang or come in a cargo plane. No import - just years of riding with the bike leaving the country every 6 months.

Just wondering - how good or bad is this working out for a few years?

www.cycletrader.com has some great deals...

Cheers,

Chris

[LivinLOS]

I have multiple mates who have done this, and have been so close to pulling the trigger on a UK bike myself.. Not only as its fairly simple, but becuase over time options to legalize by one route or another the bike might appear.

The big consideration is, how friendly is your local customs officer? Our one of Phuket seems to think this is fine, doesnt ask for bribes, and is happy to continually extend the 2 month 2 month extensions for years. It would only take a grumpy local guy who interprets the rules to be 'this isnt for long term use' and you have big problems.

Also can you do the required border runs with your lifestyle ?? One guy whose done this has started to work offshore.. Now hes not here all the time this has become much less easy and fun. Another guy I know is doing a spell in a south american prison, so now you have a bike thats illegally in the country, tho thats probably the least of his concerns.

However the overstay on a bike is max 2000 baht.. I know a couple of guys who simply gave up visa running after a while and nothing bad has yet happened to them.. Of course one day maybe it will but if you get a few years riding first, well maybe its paid for itself.

I wouldnt ship it in the way your suggesting.. I would send it to Malaysia and ride it in.. The Malay border is wide open and its not that hard to simply ride in with no paperwork and no 6 month clock ticking.. Could go horribly wrong but its not impossible.

Edited June 21, 2010 by LivinLOS