Hello from Switzerland/Germany

[andiio]

Yo kiwis,

I'm a kiwi living in Switzerland and a fellow biker mate asked me a few questions about riding in New Zealand...

He will be coming in December and January 2016 with his wife and looking for options to ride NZ. He said 6k for renting two bikes is out of his price range and asks if there are any other options. I know buying a car and selling it back to the same guy is common in AKL for backpackers, is there someone that does it for motorbikes?

Don't know what he will want as a bike, he has a motorbike shop in Germany... Last time he was riding a collector R80GS Paris/Dakar, but something comfortable for sure.

I have seen a few Germans around the forum so here is the original text.
"jetzt im Dezember und Januar 2016 will ich nach NZ, mit meiner Frau, aber ohne meine Mopeds dahin zu schicken, das ist zu viel Palaver. Ein Moped leihen kostet ca. 3.000 € = 2 Stück 6.000€ das ist mir doch verdammt viel. Weißt Du eine alternative zu empfehlen? Privat, oder was kaufen und wieder verkaufen oder oder ….? "

Cheers Lads

[puddytat]

Tell him to start looking here www.trademe.co.nz

Er ist Deutsch, bestimmt wollte er einem BMW...

[Kokopelli]

The problem with buying a bike is obviously selling the bike at the end of a ride. I would rent one bike and make the wife ride pillion. Having said that, I don't think my wife would buy into either. However, 6000 euros is a lot of money and should buy a couple of good Dr650s easily. Be prepared to take a loss for a quick sale.

[Paul in NZ]

There are good people here (believe it or not) who will go look at a bike for him and even store it/sell it for him.

I know - I find it hard to believe as well but while we all scrabble over stupid shit - most folks here are pretty honest...

[jonnyk5614]

The dealers work on making $1500 on a used bike sale.

So, if you buy a decent condition bike on trademe for, say $6000, put some kms on it, don't drop it and have the time to sell it again on trademe, you'd look at getting back $5500-$6000.

If you don't have time to sell it, ride it into a dealer (Red Baron spring to mind) and they will probably give you $4500 for it.

Losing $1500 twice is still cheaper than $6k.