Short Answer: Y E S !
Read more about our Asia adventures in our ebook
Buying and Riding a Motorcycle in South East Asia
by Sherrie McCarthy & Patrick Schweizer
Get it for $2.99 USD at your favorite ebook store:
Smashwords (all formats), Amazon
Being a biker over a backpacker almost ALWAYS wins. Big time. But thats not the topic for this post. We wanted to find out: was it financially worth it and how much did it actually cost us. This is not factoring in the money saved by not shipping the BMWs or the money we got for the BMW’s. This is based on the costs once we arrived here.
Costs:
1522 EUR per bike including insurance, registration and oil for just over 10.000 kms
30 EUR bike insurance in Thailand (we got one after the first border crossing. Later and in Laos and Cambodia we didn’t)
3 EUR selfmade chain oiler
4 EUR for having the bikes washed 2 times
That makes for a total cost of 1559 EUR. I sold my bike for 690 EUR, that leaves me with 869 EUR in fixed costs.
The gas consumption of the Honda Wave is about 3 liters. If you average the costs for gas at 1 EUR/liter (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia; Malaysia is about 0,5 EUR) you get 0,03 EUR/km.
Since we rode about 10.000 kms that makes for another 300 EUR.
So the overall costs of having our own, new bikes for half a year in Southeast Asia costs us 1169 EUR per bike or 6,40 EUR per day including gas. That is about the same cost as a bike rental but it allowed us to cross borders without problems (not possible with rentals) and gave us the feeling of our own new bike.This was especially important in two places: on the highway, where our new and generally unabused bikes did 90 km/hr without a problem (so long as we were not on a hill) and while off roading, where we did not have to worry about bringing back scratched bikes.
Well worth it. Especially given how easy it is to buy in Malaysia. As for what they could handle: everything! Floods and insane mountains of mud included!
Moscoot Goodness:
Hi Guys,
No problem taking your Malaysia registered bikes into Vietnam?
What is the advantage of buying in Malaysia over say Thailand or Vietnam?
Cheers,
James
Hi James,
We never took the bikes into Vietnam. We had heard so many different stories that we decided to just skip it. Getting into the other countries was so easy we felt why jeopardize the trip.
The big advantage of buying in Malaysia (and that goes for any bike, big or small) is how easy it is. You go in, you say you want the bike, you pay for it, you got it! Thailand and Cambodia involved a lot more paperwork, and a lot of the dealers would not even sell to us because we were not residents. Guest houses will often help you and register it in their names, but then of course you do not legally own the bike you just paid for!
Sherri,
From what i have read it seems that its nearly impossible to get a bike registered in your name in Thailand. Is Malaysia really that much easier?
Hi John,
WAY easier. Check out our post about it:
http://unleashyouradventure.com/buying-a-motorcycle-in-south-east-asia/
Cheers Patrick
Great adventure! I’m about to buy a couple of bikes here in Cambodia as my wife and I moved here to be near our son and daughter. What’s your advice about a honda wave versus say a honda crf 250? I’ve been riding my sons Baja for a couple of weeks and really enjoy it. Your adventure sounds like something my wife and I would really like to try. Life can get a little boring in the city as we are not big clubbers anymore but love the outdoors, water and adventure. Looking for hard to come by advice on what type of bikes you recommend, your experience with Honda small bike quality, are dirt bikes necessary, etc. thanks, much love…. Bob
Without having ever ridden one, the crf 250 seems more of an off road bike whereas the waves are street bikes. Having said that those little waves went places we never thought possible! There was one day in Laos where they went straight up little mountains of mud! I (Sherrie) would not have been able to do it on a bigger bike. Patrick would have loved to have the crf on that particular day because instead of being work the day would have been all fun. Although capable there were points we had to push the bikes to their limits.
Overall we loved the Waves. We did not have any problems with ours the entire 10 000 k we had them, and we knew if we did anyone could fix them anywhere we found ourselves. In terms of which is better, a dirt bike or the street bike, it depends entirely on what the majority of your riding will be. If you are looking at a bike so you can spend your time off roading through rivers and sand and mud and that will be the majority of your ride, then go for an off road bike. If you are looking at using the bike to get out of the city and occasionally there will be off road conditions, the Waves can handle it and I would get a Wave. The Wave is a more comfortable ride and will handle what you through at it. A dirt bike I would buy only if I was going off roading the majority of my riding time.
If we were to do the trip again we would buy the Waves again.
March 13th, 2015
Hi to you both — just found this site. Great stuff!
So you bought your rides in Malaysia, but my question is when you were done with your adventure, where did you have to sell the bikes? Back in Malaysia or…elsewhere?
And by the sounds of it going over the borders of other countries with your own bike
(not a rental) is not a problem? Again, you mentioned Vietnam has issues.
– MG in Canada
Hi MG,
we bought and sold the bikes in Malaysia, I’m not sure if you can sell anywhere else legally. The borders where no problem at all. Usually they didn’t care about the bikes since all locals cross the borders with the little bikes. Vietnam we didn’t try so we can’t say much here.
I hope this helps.
Cheers from Berlin!
Patrick