Chile - no used bike imports

Absolutely banned. No way, no how. Oh, ****. There'll be a fire sale,
then, I suppose.

 

That's mad that is. That includes classic/vintage/veteran too, or just
modern stuff? Any way of bringing them 'piecemeal' as 'spares' and building
them up as you go?

JB

 

Dibs on the Ducati...

 

I'll give you a fiver for the dodgy Street crip, complete with
intermittent electrical fault.

<Thread swerve>

Whould you recommend one of those to an absolute beginner rider? I don't
think I would. Someone's bought one around our way - he was riding it
around all day Friday at about 10mph, complete with shiny new suit and
dayglo vest.

A guy at work has *just* passed his test and is looking at all kinds of
bikes, nearly all of them over a litre. I'm sure it's going to end in tears.

 

Chile needs to prop up their burgeoning indigenous bike factories, right?

 

25 quid for the Ducati, and I'm cutting my own throat.

 

Everything. Absolutely everything. Used cars are almost as bad - there
are exceptions for the regions at the very north and very south, and for
diplomats, and for Chileans returning from abroad, but that's about it.
Bikes, however, are verboten completely.

Nope. Apparently the Customs keep a beady eye open for just that sort of
behaviour.

 

Nor would I.

It will.

 

Thing is, how do you approach it without coming across as a boring old fart?

I've tried to tell him there's a lot more to a bike than top
speed/power/acceleration, but somehow he seems attracted to such stuff.

Another thing I've noticed with beginners recently is the trouble they
have with stuff that I just take for granted - wheeling it around,
getting on and off it, putting it on the stand etc.

 

You're already too late. But if you throw in a packet of Werthers
Originals....

 

The word on the various fora is that (for cars) they were trying to
protect their own factories, but the last one closed a while back. It
made the amazing Chevy LUV: a sort of cheap 4x4 pick-up, offroader,
estate, designed by a man who loved straight edges.

Nowadays the excuse is "emissions" but the belief is that it's more to
do with the motor trade trying to protect its business.

As for bikes, I have no idea. All the Japs have dealerships there, plus
there's Harley, Triumph, BMW and Ducati as well. Aprilia - I dunno. And
loads of horrible Chinese knock-offs. Plus various Korean and Taiwanese
things which aren't *quite* so bad. Actually, the Korean scooters are
supposed to be OK, really.

I was planning to get some sort of big off-roader, as that's the vehicle
of choice, but did rather want to have the 400 Four and the Suzuki TS250
(when/if completed) out there as well.

 

You can't. But there will come a day when he grabs a handful of
throttle, immediately followed by a huge handful of front brake, and
he'll find out the hard way.

Well, that's encouraging, at least

Indeed.

 

The exempted regions apply to bikes too according to
http://www.allchile.net/chileforum/topic4355-48.html but wibble.

 

can do, and they come with their own lint!

 

At the opposite end of the performance bracket, a friend of P's has just
bought this:

http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/ww43/jimukrm/eh.jpg

It's difficult to see from the front, but (a) no exhaust pipe and (b) no
logo means apparently it's an electric scooter from some company that
went out of business and there's a bike shop in Southampton who bought
the remaining ones and is flogging them on ebay.

He reckons that he doesn't need a CBT to wobble round on this thing,
which I guess means it's equivalent to a 50cc scooter. Dangerous when
you've got lorries whizzing past you, though.

 

I don't think you can, plus it's just another form of personalised
nanny-stateism.

Good for him! I may not *recommend* the latest GSXRYZFZX-RR1000 to
him, but if that's what he wants, it's totally up to him.

Yes, but the important word that you typed there is "beginner". We
were all beginners once.

 

I had a similar discussion with my cousin, who was gearing up to do his
test and was set on getting a GSXR750 until he heard I had a thou.

I explained that when I got the thou I'd been riding for 13 years and I
still thought "**** me, this is going to take some getting used to".

Gist being "it's not that you won't be good enough, it's that I wasn't
good enough, and I'm a **** sight better at this than you."

 

Ah, do they? OK, well, that's stll effectively useless.

 

It just seems mean-spirited and punitive for no good reason. Especially
not having an exemption for vintage stuff like your 400, which is in no way
competes against new bike sales from dealerships.

 

But you *are*!

Just tell them straight. 30 years of experience vs 10 minutes. Really,
you don't want a Street Trip.



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