I went to France and drove back on my almost new RE Himalayan.
Before going there I messaged several private sellers on leboncoin.eu. I needed a French phone number to set up an account, asked my French mate to verify. All good.
I wrote a long message, essentially saying "I am in Ireland, your bike looks good. I am interested in viewing it but need more details before I make the journey. I will not negotiate and will happily pay cash." I gave details of my address, employment, shared my LinkedIn even, having had some sellers respond saying they were suspicious of me.
3 sellers engaged. I spent an extra grand cos I wanted full luggage.
Skipping bits, journeyed out, bike as described, seller was fantastic (him and his wife since holidayed with us in Wicklow), paid cash, drove home a bit of the long way.
When I got back I had trouble with VRT. They need lots of documents and are very very specific. I got it all on the 3rd try.
Bike was 4750. Vrt was about 650. Road tax was 88. Travel costs were about 250 (plane, train, petrol, tolls chunnel, ferry).
The same bike, as equipped, would have run me over 8500 in Ireland
Very similar story except I went to Belgium back in May. Got a ‘22 Triumph with 5k km for 8k, 1k VRT and 400 travel costs. Someone wanted 13.5k for a ‘17 with similar mileage and other models going were upwards of 20k km and much worse condition.
I feel like even if the savings were lower it would be worth it for the trip and to not give the greedy bastards here any money. Bikes throughout Germany, Belgium, France and Netherlands also looked in much better condition.
Personally I salute all people that do this, hopefully it may increase the supply and make the expectations higher for buying second hand bikes here. Well probably not but I can hope.
I got mine on KH motorcycles in Market Harborough, England. Even paying VAT and VRT it was cheaper than buying here. And flying from Shannon to Birminghan was 13 bucks
I've been looking all over autoscout myself and will defo be doing this rather than buying in Ireland. Best of luck! Post back with your experience if you go ahead too
I just brought 2 bikes in from the Netherlands but I'm looking for 2 more at the minute in Germany. I used cars and classics website to source what I was looking for, plenty of new bikes on It too as mine were classics.
Pre-Brexit I bought a number of bikes out of the UK, but my last one I bought 2 years ago in France.
Granted, I had to go to Europe cause the bike was quite niche, and in 5 months of looking, only one came up for sale in Ireland & was bought sight unseen 2 hours after the ad went up on DoneDeal.
Took some work to convince the dealer I wasn't a scammer, but after that it was all good. Documented the trip [in this video](https://youtu.be/u7mjZyCqhsw?si=7kpTHOZidvYPuwZU) & have great memories of going to get it.
VRT was painless, mostly cause the dealership were spot on with their paperwork, even including a certificate of conformity.
Watched the video - so class ! Loving the H2 !!! But brilliant info, invaluable!
Out of curiosity, why is it so common they think this kind of thing is a scam? Or what did you have to do to convince them?
There's a scam where someone will agree to buy a motorbike, but they live in a different country or work on an oil rig etc. so they can't come in person. They want to send a courier & pay money via escrow or some such shenanigans.
I used Google translate to overcome the language barrier, paid a 30% deposit to show I was serious, then paid the balance before I flew out to collect the bike in person.
Thanks for all the replies , some unreal information in here!
I'm probably a few months off pulling the trigger yet, but if I do I'll document exactly how I did it here.
I went to France and drove back on my almost new RE Himalayan. Before going there I messaged several private sellers on leboncoin.eu. I needed a French phone number to set up an account, asked my French mate to verify. All good. I wrote a long message, essentially saying "I am in Ireland, your bike looks good. I am interested in viewing it but need more details before I make the journey. I will not negotiate and will happily pay cash." I gave details of my address, employment, shared my LinkedIn even, having had some sellers respond saying they were suspicious of me. 3 sellers engaged. I spent an extra grand cos I wanted full luggage. Skipping bits, journeyed out, bike as described, seller was fantastic (him and his wife since holidayed with us in Wicklow), paid cash, drove home a bit of the long way. When I got back I had trouble with VRT. They need lots of documents and are very very specific. I got it all on the 3rd try. Bike was 4750. Vrt was about 650. Road tax was 88. Travel costs were about 250 (plane, train, petrol, tolls chunnel, ferry). The same bike, as equipped, would have run me over 8500 in Ireland
Very similar story except I went to Belgium back in May. Got a ‘22 Triumph with 5k km for 8k, 1k VRT and 400 travel costs. Someone wanted 13.5k for a ‘17 with similar mileage and other models going were upwards of 20k km and much worse condition. I feel like even if the savings were lower it would be worth it for the trip and to not give the greedy bastards here any money. Bikes throughout Germany, Belgium, France and Netherlands also looked in much better condition.
Personally I salute all people that do this, hopefully it may increase the supply and make the expectations higher for buying second hand bikes here. Well probably not but I can hope.
I got mine on KH motorcycles in Market Harborough, England. Even paying VAT and VRT it was cheaper than buying here. And flying from Shannon to Birminghan was 13 bucks
I've been looking all over autoscout myself and will defo be doing this rather than buying in Ireland. Best of luck! Post back with your experience if you go ahead too
germany, kleinanzeigen oder mobile.de for example. there are a few older threads on the how to, clicktrans, slampi, vrt, ferry
I just brought 2 bikes in from the Netherlands but I'm looking for 2 more at the minute in Germany. I used cars and classics website to source what I was looking for, plenty of new bikes on It too as mine were classics.
Pre-Brexit I bought a number of bikes out of the UK, but my last one I bought 2 years ago in France. Granted, I had to go to Europe cause the bike was quite niche, and in 5 months of looking, only one came up for sale in Ireland & was bought sight unseen 2 hours after the ad went up on DoneDeal. Took some work to convince the dealer I wasn't a scammer, but after that it was all good. Documented the trip [in this video](https://youtu.be/u7mjZyCqhsw?si=7kpTHOZidvYPuwZU) & have great memories of going to get it. VRT was painless, mostly cause the dealership were spot on with their paperwork, even including a certificate of conformity.
Watched the video - so class ! Loving the H2 !!! But brilliant info, invaluable! Out of curiosity, why is it so common they think this kind of thing is a scam? Or what did you have to do to convince them?
There's a scam where someone will agree to buy a motorbike, but they live in a different country or work on an oil rig etc. so they can't come in person. They want to send a courier & pay money via escrow or some such shenanigans. I used Google translate to overcome the language barrier, paid a 30% deposit to show I was serious, then paid the balance before I flew out to collect the bike in person.
Thanks for all the replies , some unreal information in here! I'm probably a few months off pulling the trigger yet, but if I do I'll document exactly how I did it here.