Hi, wondered if anyone had any experience or information on bringing a single bike back from Japan?
I want an nsr mc21 or possibly mc28 sp or maybe se.
Been looking here and as some other threads have mentioned uk bikes are very expensive and are quite rare in vgc.
Been looking on goobike and prices are'nt bad and lots of choice.
Any idea who could help in this field and what guarentees could be given also price for shipping etc?
Thanks, Grant.

It would be pretty hard and expensive to bring one bike back by it's self.

Best way would be to find someone that brings bikes in for retailers, they have the resources to find, pack and ship the bikes a container at a time. Doing it yourself will cost the same or more and give you a brain tumor.

These guys got my MC28 for me and maybe a TDR250 to if don't make it to AU soon:)
http://www.trade.co.jp/ They only do New Zealand at the moment by the looks.

The charges you will pay are:
UK Import Duty at 10% and VAT at 17.5%, if you pay £3.5K for the bike, that's nearly £1000.
Then you need to arrange with the japanese seller / exporter / shipping agent to properly crate up and ship the bike to the UK, + shippers handling fees. If its not crated correctly the bike will be trashed when it arrives.
Expect you will pay up to £1000 for this, all in with the right crating.

So that's approx. £2000, taking your £3.5K NSR straight up to £5.5K!! This tallys with what that UK importer (bridgemoto) said in MCN last week on individual bike import costs.

The UK Grey Importers reduce this cost by shipping full containers of bikes. Hence lower shipping cost per bike. I'm not certain of this, but they may also have a commercial invoice stating value for the whole container, rather than for each bike, which could be a lower value than each bike added together. Hence lower duty per each bike in the container compared to an individually imported bike with a commercial invoice for the full value paid in Japan. As I said, uncertain of this, but its done sometimes this way for exports out of the EU.

Going down the single bike import route is not a bad idea as GooBike are listing over 200 SP + SE models up for sale in Japan. Good choice and possibility to find a great condition bike. I expect what you need is a damn good contact in Japan, to do the viewing & buying on your behalf and arrange the crating / exporting / shipping.

Bridgemoto in the UK say they will help source & ship specific bikes in Japan for UK buyers. That could be a solution, if they have regular containers coming into the UK, you will save on shipping costs, then it depends what their finders fee / admin fee is.

This link gives more detail on the process involved

http://www.epoi.com/faq.html

If I was doing this myself, I'd seriously think about flying to Japan to look at the bikes myself. OK, its going to seriously add to the cost, but what the hell Travelling around Japan on the Bullet Train, looking at bikes to buy, my idea of a cool holiday, compared to laying on a beach in the Costa del Crap for 2 weeks
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Rich
MC21 Track Bike / RS250 NF5 'Spencer', NX5 'Cadalora' & NXA 'Aoyama' / RS500 / Two Brothers Racing RC30


Last edited by RichG on Mon May 12, 2008 8:16 pm; edited 2 times in total

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Rich
MC21 Track Bike / RS250 NF5 'Spencer', NX5 'Cadalora' & NXA 'Aoyama' / RS500 / Two Brothers Racing RC30

Try this guy, his name is Drew. He brings in parts and bikes and should be significantly cheaper than quoted above, he can also tell you how to get around paying loads of import duty, VAT etc......

I have used him and can recomend him myself, say that I passed on his details:

nano@jg7.so-net.ne.jp

Or PM him through the Forum... "Moriwakiman".

Used him too - very satisfied.
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Andy.
NSR-WORLD.COM

Please keep all responses to Forum posts on the Forum so that others may benefit.

Please DO NOT PM me for technical advice. My time is precious, and you will probably receive a faster response on the Forum anyway.

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The thing to remember is the £5500 bike you end up with that you imported yourself, even if you do it the long-winded, completely by the book way, is going to be WAY nicer than any of the jokes the dealers are selling at that price. I know for a fact that one dealer who had a £4500 28SP a couple of years back before the pricing went even more mental paid considerably under £2000 for it...

The bikes over here priced at £5-6000 are not going to be the £3-4000 bikes we see advertised. They're not bringing them in out of charity remember! It would be far more sensible to import yourself at these prices, and get a decent 'MINT' bike. And the dealer warranties aren't worth squat. Have you ever read the servicing and maintenance regulations to keep them up to date! If if you're that concerned and not mechanically minded, you can still buy your own warranty.

The dealers are taking the piss, and the more people that start to import their own, without the resprays or crash damage that they're passing off as mint, the better, as they'll soon realise they can't get away with it. Trouble is, they're little gems of bikes and it's easy for someone who wants one to start dribbling and go all gooey and hand over their wad...
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NSR300R - Why did i ever have a 250...

Things i have found out include.

The bike has to be de registered. in Japan or which ever country.
You can do a personal import but its tricky as you have to own the bike in the country for 1 year. you then need proof of residency in said country and passport details before it can be shipped.

A mint bike deserves good crating so expect 2-£300 for this
asd shipping is on size of crate i dont expect more than £600

duty and vat.

the duty ect is worked out on cost of bike so if the reciet which you need. says £3500 then duty and vat is on this price.

if however you can get the dealer/ or friend to do the receit lower then duty and vat will be reduced.

also if it is listed as bike spares this only has a 2% duty levy so again would save costs but to do this you need to ship bike in bits.


There are cheap bikes in Japan and unlikely youd pay £3.500 as suggested

you need a contact like Drew in Japan
who has shipped goods but as i understand has not shipped a complete bike yet so you would need to speak to him and hopefully he can shed some light on how its done.

also
things here in the u/k at delivery port isnt plain sailing as you would need to make arrangement how the bike crate is being picked up so this means a small truck as itll need to be fork lifted on.

you then have to register it in the u/k

Right, I am going to stick my neck out here a bit...

I have a contact in Japan, that sends over one-off bikes and the odd container. He sources ONLY 2-strokes; predominantly 250GP bikes, but will source NSR's, and will make sure they are the best he can get for your budget. I'm not 100% sure on his "finders fee", but it's not stupid. He is however in business, and IS NOT a charity!

Here's the but...

I can't be bothered with anyone even remotely wasting my time or his, and trust me, I have had more than my fair share of time-wasters over the years! If anyone is seriously after an MC21 or MC28 (getting harder to find an original, or at least extremely tidy MC18 now) then I would want to see £1500 paid UP FRONT at time of enquiry.

Don't even bother replying to me if you are not prepared to invest an initial £1500 deposit. The deposit will be held until a suitable choice of bikes are sourced. £250 is non-refundable if you choose to cancel BEFORE the initial purchase of any bike is made. I think NSR-WORLD and myself have been around long enough to warrant asking this. If you do not, then walk away.

UK Titanium Subscribed Members only (for now), and I will want full and verifiable contact details at time of deposit.

Allow roughly £1000 for shipping to the UK. (Professional crating/shipping/paperwork/UK clearance etc.)

Beek's post is pretty much spot-on. You won't save a huge amount, but you will end up with a bike of your choice, not the importers choice. My contact has a bike shop/business in Japan, and makes most of his money IN Japan and from GP bikes, unlike the importers who are relying on bikes sales.

I reserve the right to remove this post/offer at any time without notice or explanation! I will NOT however leave anyone in the lurch!
_________________
Andy.
NSR-WORLD.COM

Please keep all responses to Forum posts on the Forum so that others may benefit.

Please DO NOT PM me for technical advice. My time is precious, and you will probably receive a faster response on the Forum anyway.

Check us out on Facebook! Please "like" our page!

Another thing


sort out the shipping agent in u/k long before you import. as not all are the same service.

1st decide which port you want it delivered.
2nd find agent who deals in this port of choice. and how they import. eg how they want paying. how long they store for before they start charging. ( as often only 7 days so this means posting paperwork to them ect so not long )
3rd get prices in advance.
4th ensure that you have copies of all the paperwork at the departing port as you may need info from these.
invoice for bike, deregistration. shipping bill of Lading. ect

Shipping is done by volume not weight ( only air mail is weight )
so by removing items like fairing and packing down side of bike in crate will make the overall crate smaller so saving money.

also there is a lot of emplty space in crate, so use this to bring in some extra bits like the rarer items to sell on to recouperate some of your costs