Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Has anyone imported a bike from the USA before?

How was that experience? What are the do's and the don'ts of the excercise?

Are the bikes specs different in the States to here in OZ? Who to go through? Cost? Duty ? GST? etc...

This is just a spur of the moment thing, haven't run it by the other half , but I really do fancy this bike for the road/off road. Suppose, I could sell the idea to her on safety alone, my R1 talks too dirty to me every single time I get on board....and I blush too easy

I'll have to take the time and test ride one first, after all it might be a bit like Bett Midler........looks great from a distance , all though all the people whom I talked to about it so far, have only good things to say, and that includes mechanics, current and present owners of current and recent models.

http://www.totalmotorcycle.com/photos/2 ... enture.htm

As you can see, the cost advertised is around the $17K over there which translates to $16.2K in our currency.

Dealer price here is over the $30K mark, for example this 2010 model :
http://www.worthingtonmotorcycles.bmw.c ... xframe.asp

Thanks guys in advance,


ps. by the way feel free to give me your honest opinion on the bike choice as well.

Pete problem is you will be the importer so you would have to deal with compliance

been watching Long Way Round/Down?

damn that's a big price difference considering our money is worth more

I am sure the red tape/BS/etc will eat up a lot of the savings tho

As long as you don't intend to get it registered it shouldn't be too big a hassle, it would just have to pass quarantine so make sure it's VERY clean! If you want to register it then forget it seems to be the general consensus. Oops just looked at your bike choice ... I think you would be in for a few problems, I was thinking you wanted one for Track/OffRoad race use

I think from memory it goes along the same lines as car imports. If you have not owned it O/seas for a certain period, then it is determined to be imported for sale and the import permits are granted subject ot the vehicle gaining ADR compliance within a certain period. Otherwise it's impunded. A mate just did the exercise with a Prowler from the US. With that one, there is already a guy here in Oz with an ADR process and he would ADR comply it for him for a fee. I doubt BMW Australia would offer the same!!

A few of us get blue slips done at a garage that does the sydney compliance work for imported vehicles - they'd be good people to talk to Pete.

http://www.completecarcare.net.au/

Click on the "PERSONAL IMPORTS" heading at the top.

Here's the application linked from their website:

http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/ ... ation.aspx

Can't remember the guys name, Glen, Rob you guys help out? They just know me as the guy who gets blue slips

Ususally there's porsche's exotic bikes etc sitting there.

Tim I don't know his name, & he just knows me as the guy with the trick bike stands
like you I have processed a few bikes there but never bothered to get too chatty.

jump on a google some importers,i think you would be looking at about $1200.00 from what i have read,email someone like these blokes it may help



http://www.allamericanimports.com/impor ... tralia.php

try these blokles
http://www.geezers.com.au/import-post-8 ... cycles.php
http://www.geezers.com.au/import-pre-89-motorcycles.php

my old man used them to get a 67 rs/ss camaro into oz as a retirement gift to himself. pricey but really good service and honest in what they can and cant do

Thanks guys, that's really good information .

At a quick glance, based on dickfabers contact, adding up the various costs the saving should be around $10K+ which is HUGE for the same item.

The downfall of it, is if you wanted to sell it, since it's a "grey import" , you get substantially less for it. The other and maybe more important , since I wouldn't be looking at selling it, is that if there was a recall or some major thing needed to re fixed under warranty, there wouldn't be any in OZ, since it wasn't purchased here.

Tim, I'll also talk to http://www.completecarcare.net.au/ , thanks mate.

Once you get a GS you won't want to sell it, i have had mine 3 months and love it, one of the best bikes owned and ridden.

Pete I am not sure it is as simple as that. If you can get the attached link to work it outlined the issues http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/ ... index.aspx At the moment their server is down.

I looked at getting a KTM 690 superduke as a friend was importing atv's for half price and got me a purchase price of just over $7k for bike worth $17,500 locally.

In short if the bike has blinkers and brake lights they ream you,in fact it is near in impossible unless you have owned previously or is pre 1989. If it can't be registered or is a boat no problem.

However if you find out otherwise let me know. Also BMW warranty is meant to be worldwide.
Nick

zxsixr03 wrote:Once you get a GS you won't want to sell it, i have had mine 3 months and love it, one of the best bikes owned and ridden.

thus far, I haven't heard of anyone who had one and didn't love it

Naked Twin wrote:Pete I am not sure it is as simple as that. If you can get the attached link to work it outlined the issues http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/ ... index.aspx At the moment their server is down.

I looked at getting a KTM 690 superduke as a friend was importing atv's for half price and got me a purchase price of just over $7k for bike worth $17,500 locally.

In short if the bike has blinkers and brake lights they ream you,in fact it is near in impossible unless you have owned previously or is pre 1989. If it can't be registered or is a boat no problem.

However if you find out otherwise let me know. Also BMW warranty is meant to be worldwide.
Nick

Thanks Nick,

Yep, I'll find out the world wide warranty issue.
Having had a chat to the BMW dealer at Worthington's (Ian) , he had made a mention of two potential compliance issues. one is the head light, having to point to the left rather than right in the USA and athe exhaust pipe's emmision thingy.
He also mentioned that the USA version has less by 2-3 ponies than the OZ version......could be just sales spill.

I'll keep you guys posted as I get closer to it.

Having made a mention of it to the mrs, we are a lot closer to painting the house.......funny how things work

Regardless of how many past or present GS owners tell you how much they loved their GS, and they probably did, I loved my R1100RS too, they are fucking fun bikes to ride. But, they are a maintanance fucking nightmare! They all tell you on first ask that they are reliable. Then when you delve deeper you find that..."Oh..this was replaced last service ($500 part) and this was raplaced too ($400 part). A service which costs $450 on a Jap bike is more like $1000 on a Euro. That's the realities regardless of the bullshit people will spill you. If I were spending that sort of coin, I would be on a new 1200 Tenere. But hey, GS's are great till they break down or you want to service them.