Motorcycle shipping from South America , sell the bike, blow it up or ditch it…. That is the question…

So I’ve officially been in Buenos Aires for the past 2 weeks. In that time I’ve been posting up my bike online to sell on horizons unlimited, ADV rider and other places, I figure now is the time to start. Although I want to make it to Brazil, it seems it may take a while to sell, or not at all, the sooner the better.

Shipping a motorcycle from South America to the United States or anywhere else is darn expensive from all my indicated research.

I was quoted $2500 US from a cargo company here in Buenos Aires, which would take 23 days to arrive plus all the customs unloading and stuff in the US. I even used some connections to try and lower the price but it went down a mere $500, still not a good option for me.

I was quoted by Dakar motors here in Buenos Aires $1700 dollars to ship my KR to Houston Texas by air freight. Lowering the total height of the bike I was told would only save me $200 or so, but I wouldn’t know until I did the shipping and packaging on a pallet. So again, not a good option for me.

I also tried getting a container to share with people, I’ve heard that bring down the cost to $700 or so, problem is it’s the low season and you need at least 7 bikes to make it that cheap for everyone. Found 2 people interested, but not enough. So again not a good option for me.

I also looked around  shipping from Santiago Chile. With Gaston Company, it would cost $1300 or so from there, but driving it down there again, storage fees, the cost of fuel and food would be the same as shipping from Buenos Aires.

There are lots of other options I researched, too many to write, but this may help my fellow riders in their own research.

I even looked at selling the bike to a local here. Because theres no paper documentaion to hand over except fo the title, you basically need to pay import taxes to ship the bike in, wait lots of time for it to get processed, in order to legally sell it in Argentina, so nobody wants to deal with that.

So I even offered it for scraps or parts, I only managed to get it up to about $1000 Dollars. So again not a good option.

The research will continue, I was even thinking about building a boat and ending the motorcycle trip to start my new adventure of circumnavigating the globe on boat. Ha Ha.

The bike is still in the shop; apparently they are definitively on Argentinean time. They tell me to call them back over and over to tell me just to call back again; this has been going on for the past 2 weeks. I even make my daily visits physically to Kawasaki Mondial on Av Libertador, to talk with the guys, where I’m given lots of nice talking, then sent on my way to just have to call back. So what can I really do nothing, they are fixing it with no cost to me, so not too picky, just get more time here in Buenos Aires.

For the fellow riders: the Kawasaki dealership in Buenos Aires on the streets Libertador, is not a place that has parts they have to order them which takes a long time, your better off going to Cordasco cycle center, Dakar motors or anywhere else that sells parts for motorcycle. But if you need an entire engine rebuild like I did, then go to Kawasaki Mondial.

Until it’s fixed I’ll have to wait patiently to see if I can sell it or find better shipping prices.