Importing a bike

Frank Bullitt · 10-11-2017 10:23pm #1

Hey guys,

I had mentioned it before in here a while back in a separate thread but doing a thread more streamlined to the query.

I am moving back to Ireland from Canada at Christmas. I have a BMW Rnine T that I bough pretty much brand new from a dealer here and its a bit special to me (first big thing I bought etc, and I just flat out love it).

I got it with 175Km on it and its just around 3,000km now, so its still immaculate. Air Canada ship bikes now for a reasonable cost but my main enquiry is when the bike lands, what would I have to do about getting the bike on the road once its in Ireland?

I am aware of going through the licence stuff again (British Columbia licences are eligible to be swapped over to and Irish now, but I still have to do a road test), but I am wondering what the bike has to get done to it?

Are there tests for the bike? Or is it a few forms and my proof of ownership and I am good to go?

Thanks

Tommy Ferguson · 10-11-2017 10:25pm

Sell the bike save the hassle and buy a bike here. Saying you love your bike is a bit disturbing.

Frank Bullitt · 10-11-2017 10:27pm

Tommy Ferguson wrote: »

Sell the bike save the hassle and buy a bike here. Saying you love your bike is a bit disturbing.

Relax, I am not in love with it.

I also just want to ship to back.

Del2005 · 10-11-2017 11:33pm

Gintonious wrote: »

Relax, I am not in love with it.

I also just want to ship to back.

Details below. Contact Revenue for the definitive answer on whether you qualify for a full exemption or not. Check with insurance companies if there are any issues with an import from outside the EU.

https://www.revenue.ie/en/importing-vehicles-duty-free-allowances/guide-to-vrt/reliefs-and-exemptions/transfer-of-residence.aspx

CJhaughey · 11-11-2017 6:12am

You'll need a cert of conformity to register it here, I don't know if these can be got for NA market bikes that easily but it might be worth asking your BMW daler if they can supply one for your bike to import it here.

Bluefoam · 11-11-2017 7:27am

In the UAE you have to get an export license for the bike... May be worth checking if you require one in Canadia

D3V!L · 11-11-2017 10:55am

Tommy Ferguson wrote: »

Sell the bike save the hassle and buy a bike here. Saying you love your bike is a bit disturbing.

You've clearly never owned an RNineT

Frank Bullitt · 14-11-2017 5:36pm

D3V!L wrote: »

You've clearly never owned an RNineT

Finally! Another one who shares my pain!

Frank Bullitt · 12-12-2017 11:20pm

Dropping it off at the freight company this Thursday, should arrive sometime after Christmas.

Its been fairly straight forward so far, hopefully no snags when I get to Ireland.

Frank Bullitt · 22-12-2017 8:59pm

So...it landed today and is in the garage.

Had a little bit of a wait at customs today, but once I showed I was moving home and all that, they signed off on it.

Pretty easy in the end.

See you guys on the road!

CJhaughey · 23-12-2017 7:35am

Gintonious wrote: »

So...it landed today and is in the garage.

Had a little bit of a wait at customs today, but once I showed I was moving home and all that, they signed off on it.

Pretty easy in the end.

See you guys on the road!

Were you asked for a CoC?

listermint · 23-12-2017 7:41am

Any need to change over headlights etc?

23-12-2017 5:10pm

Gintonious wrote: »

So...it landed today and is in the garage.

Had a little bit of a wait at customs today, but once I showed I was moving home and all that, they signed off on it.

Pretty easy in the end.

See you guys on the road!

North American bikes do not have the same specification as EU bikes, they are usually de powered compared to their EU and Japanese brothers and will run on worse quality fuel afaik. So if your selling this youll need to mention to the buyer.

Id check to make sure you dont need to make any adjustments to the ecu or anything, although im sure would be fine. Happy riding!

Frank Bullitt · 24-12-2017 5:39pm

Thanks guys.

Not asked for a CoC, but I may still be asked when I go to the NCT centre.

The bike is EU3 emissions compliant, from what I can gather the BMW bikes are in the North American market are to the same spec as the EU ones.

I am going to drop it into a BMW dealership to get a once over and do the oil. Thankfully the bike is for the Canadian market, and they are in KPH.

Del2005 · 24-12-2017 6:04pm

Aydin Agreeable Scarf wrote: »

North American bikes do not have the same specification as EU bikes, they are usually de powered compared to their EU and Japanese brothers and will run on worse quality fuel afaik. So if your selling this youll need to mention to the buyer.

Id check to make sure you dont need to make any adjustments to the ecu or anything, although im sure would be fine. Happy riding!

The US uses a different rating system for their fuel, it's the same as ours.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating

Only bikes from CA are affected by their smog requirements, my brother had a US import with the anti smog and it ran no bother. The French have only recently allowed full power bikes for a long time everything there was limited to 100 horses.

26-12-2017 11:44pm

Del2005 wrote: »

The US uses a different rating system for their fuel, it's the same as ours.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating

Only bikes from CA are affected by their smog requirements, my brother had a US import with the anti smog and it ran no bother. The French have only recently allowed full power bikes for a long time everything there was limited to 100 horses.

Its not just Cali, they do it across all states, they are hardly going to make a special bike for Cali with a different exhaust systems to the rest of the states. Its like the UK will still get the EU gen 4 and 5 regulations on their bikes when they fully leave the EU because the manufactures wont make a UK only bike for a market of 60m people.

The 2017 gixxer thousand has about 20 bhp less in the USA than the EU/Jap bikes, I watched a video of a tuning company based in Texas where he notes it with disgust.

I didn't know about France, interesting. I assume its just ECU restricted by the dealer. I know you cant make any engine mods to cars over there except change the exhaust and air filter.

Do they use any different parts is what im wondering..

I know in a car for example the Golf R in the US has 40 bhp less (or around that) than the EU model and uses cheaper components anywhere it can, interior plastics etc
Reason VW chief gave is, the US pay 40k dollars for the car, when they want to pay the equivalent EU price then they can have the same car as we get in Europe. I wonder is that true for bikes aswell considering they too are alot cheaper than other parts of the world.

CJhaughey · 27-12-2017 8:47am

Aydin Agreeable Scarf wrote: »

Its not just Cali, they do it across all states, they are hardly going to make a special bike for Cali with a different exhaust systems to the rest of the states. Its like the UK will still get the EU gen 4 and 5 regulations on their bikes when they fully leave the EU because the manufactures wont make a UK only bike for a market of 60m people.

Not sure about now but they did make special CA bikes for years, I know my 1988 Dominator has a different carb to the other 49 states, perhaps now they just make a standard 50 state model but for a long time they made CA only models.

Del2005 · 27-12-2017 10:40am

CJhaughey wrote: »

Not sure about now but they did make special CA bikes for years, I know my 1988 Dominator has a different carb to the other 49 states, perhaps now they just make a standard 50 state model but for a long time they made CA only models.

My brother's bike was a Dominator as well, think it was the same age also.

CA if it was a country would be the 6 biggest in the world. So if Australia can make vehicles specific to its smaller economy than CA is bigger so it's viable to make vehicles specifically for it.

Importing a bike

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