Buying a bike in Europe, touring on it, shipping it hom

[Qualdoth]

My wife and I are at some point planning on doing a 4-8 week bike tour through several countries in Europe and are slowly researching some logistics of doing so. We'll be evaluating the usual choices of shipping our own bikes over as well as renting bikes. Ultimately, both of these options would likely end up being quite pricey.

However, while in Europe for the last 3 weeks, my cousin made an interesting suggestion; buying bikes in Europe, touring on them, and then having them shipped home. With cars for example, BMW and MB allow you to do something similar where you buy a car, use it in Europe, and they ship it to a local dealership once you're done for pickup at home. The other alternative is obviously shipping it yourself but then you got to deal with the regular import stuff.

For what it's worth, I don't think it would be hard for me to register and insure bikes while there as it's a little known fact that I'm technically also an EU citizen. Has anyone ever looked into anything like this?

[Brian P]

The bike that you purchase over there must be a Canadian-spec model so that it is legal for import. As you have noted, some manufacturers have a program like this, so that you can buy a Canadian-spec model in europe and ship it home, for exactly the purpose that you describe. Your citizenship doesn't matter. Transport Canada only cares about the declaration of conformity for the vehicle, nothing else. I believe you have to organize things like this through a dealership here.

BMW appears to have such a program, so your best bet is to ask one of their dealers about how to do this.

[Skurj]

I priced shipping a bike one way to the UK... at $1800 it hardly seemed worth it.

I have thought about buying a bike in the UK and leaving it with family, for when i visit though.