Buying bike in UK/Europe

[moko]

Britain`s expensive compared to the rest of Europe,the reason why "parallel" imports used to be so popular from abroad.Assuming you dont want a new bike you could always take a chance and buy something for cash in Italy or somewhere from a private seller and run it in the U.K. on foreign plates.there`s no law about carrying your licence over here so if you get stopped be polite,act as if you dont speak English and wave the reg document in front of the Cop.Unless you`ve been a real dork they really cant be arsed with the hassle of trying to communicate with foreigners over something minor,there`s been rows in the papers about them not booking speeding Europeans because there`s little point anyway,they never pay the fines and it costs too much to track them down.Also with your foreign plates you can fly through speed cameras without a care in the world and you wont need road tax either.Insurance here is extortionate and they`ll probably load you right up for having no no claims in this country and just about anything else they can think of.Of course if you go the "foreign bike" route you can go without insurance as well IF you get caught them you`d be looking at a short ban,which wouldn`t apply in N.Z. and a fine of about £150,the reason half of eastern europe is driving around totally illegally these days as it`s far more cost-effective than being legal.seeing a traffic cop here is rare,getting pulled for anything other than speeding is rarer.

[Biff]

Britain`s expensive compared to the rest of Europe,the reason why "parallel" imports used to be so popular from abroad.Assuming you dont want a new bike you could always take a chance and buy something for cash in Italy or somewhere from a private seller and run it in the U.K. on foreign plates.there`s no law about carrying your licence over here so if you get stopped be polite,act as if you dont speak English and wave the reg document in front of the Cop.Unless you`ve been a real dork they really cant be arsed with the hassle of trying to communicate with foreigners over something minor,there`s been rows in the papers about them not booking speeding Europeans because there`s little point anyway,they never pay the fines and it costs too much to track them down.Also with your foreign plates you can fly through speed cameras without a care in the world and you wont need road tax either.Insurance here is extortionate and they`ll probably load you right up for having no no claims in this country and just about anything else they can think of.Of course if you go the "foreign bike" route you can go without insurance as well IF you get caught them you`d be looking at a short ban,which wouldn`t apply in N.Z. and a fine of about £150,the reason half of eastern europe is driving around totally illegally these days as it`s far more cost-effective than being legal.seeing a traffic cop here is rare,getting pulled for anything other than speeding is rarer.

Yeah - what Moko said, apart from the bit about a short ban if you get caught without insurance. If you get caught without insurance it is possible and more than likely, paritcularly if you play the jonny foreigner card, that you'll get hauled into the local police station, where not only will your real nationality become obvious very quickly but you'll be in direct breech of your visa stipulation, namely abide by the laws of the land. You could quite easily be deported for this and have a real hard time ever getting another entry/work visa. Is it really worth the risk. Heaven forbid you kill someone etc etc

[bluninja]

Having returned from there not so long ago, the other thing that makes life difficult is that it is illegal not to have insurance AND you won't get insurance without a British license (unless you're hiring). Which doesn't take long to get I must admit as long as you have your passport and some sort of residential address.
But they won’t give you your NZ one back, its done on exchange basis. You’d have to do the same at this end. Though on the plus side a British one is still valid in this country and its hard to put points on
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/BIKES/ is the best site but sells mostly private stuff

Hmmm, didn't exchange mine when I came to NZ. Just had to pay to do the scratchcard and voila one UK and one NZ license.