jamtartmart

Hi, I plan to ride my 2011 Triumph Bonneville from London to Madrid in September as I am moving to Spain.

My insurer will cover me for 90 days fully comp there so I figured I will ride it there and then start working out the process for re-registering the bike.

Whilst the road trip in itself probably makes the experience worthwhile, I wanted to check how much hassle it would be to re-register vs. maybe riding it home again towards the end of 90 days, sell it and then buying a another bike down there.

i.e.
- costs for importing
- paperwork
- time taken for processing applications etc

I've seen a few second hand Bonneville's on the market around similar age for over 6500 Euro which is the best part of £800 more than I paid for my bike anyhow so I figured if the costs are less than this then it'll be worthwhile doing the import process.

Any advice anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated.

lurchio

Done that! My own feeling is that unless you are really attached to the bike, or it is a rare or unavailable model in Spain and you want to keep it, sell it in the UK and get a Spanish reg bike here.
The cash difference you mention will be burned in Engineers report fees, inspection and matriculation fees, plus legal / local tax / Gestor fees. Plus a LOT of running around, possibly a new headlamp and possible language difficilties at the ITV station etc. Have a read over some examples in the forum.
Honestly regret all the hassle when I did it, and my bike is branded an import, just to add insult to injury at sale time!

tebo53

Fully and totally agree with Lurchio

VEDShappy

/\ /\ What he said /\ /\

Dxf

Hola

To answer your question as opposed to tell you what to do:-
Have you got a certificate of European conformity? if not the cost is 120€ for a Spanish engineer to make a form for the ITV test.
Do your lights conform to Spanish headlights with a continental cut-out that rises to the right to light up the kerb further away - a straight cut-out usually will pass
Is the bike completely standard without any repeat any alterations as an imported bike must be as per manufacturer's standard.
The paperwork needed is an NIE (pennies comparatively) & padron (free)
Now to costs;- the headlight may be necessary - rear lights usually conform on bikes as do indicators
The (import) ITV test from memory is around 100€ for a bike
The road tax depends on the town hall but from memory should be around 50€
Trafico will require minimum of 90€ to prepare the Ficha technical (log book) ITV record and Permiso de circulacion (log book)
It normally takes about three weeks due to the pre-booking systems used in the various places.

Any questions - just ask

Davexf

lurchio

Agreed, thats if you do it all yourself, and are able to speak reasonable Spanish. Other than that, 350 Gestors fee. My extended test was 135 euros and my local tax on a 1000 cc Honda was 78 euros. I had owned the bike for 2 years, but was billed by the tributaria for 200 euros, I queried it with the Gestor and was told this was a 'new tax'!

missile

As others have said it is a hassle. There are companies who will re-register it for you for a fee in the popular ex pat spots. Not sure about Madrid, check local papers.

Loco Pedro

I went to England to buy a Virago 750 and brought it down about 9 years ago.
Import duty was 78 euros, inspection 100, headlight 100, etc. etc.
Didn't find it that difficult to do myself - with very limited Spanish.
My reasons were that I couldn't find anything similar here, everything way more pricey, tons more mileage - and the £2500 I paid for it was worth a lot more euros back then.
But, importantly, I knew the bike was sound and had been serviced religiously.
I found that going through the process was useful in many ways, not least of which was the discovery that the Hacienda were extremely helpful and tolerant of my poor Spanish. In general, they were a pleasure to deal with.
So its not all negative as others might have you believe and its the sort of thing that you're going to have to learn to cope with when living here permanently - unless you have tons of cash to throw at a gestor for every little bit of Spanish red tape that crops up.
Plus, your ride back after 90 days has to go on the bill for buying a bike here.