Buying a motorbike in Hanoi

citsym — Fri, 22 Nov 2013 10:13:00 GMT

Cost of motorbikes in Vietnam

Whether you buy in Saigon or Hanoi, you are going to experience pretty much the same price range.

This trip was taken on two Honda Win's 100cc motorbikes, but there are others out there. If you go to Craigs List Vietnam which I have linked for you, and browse the bikes for sale, you'll get an idea of types and prices available. I used this and other sites (listed below) to get an idea of what to buy and where.

Travel Swap Bikes for sale

Vietnam classifieds ... ads are a bit old in these classifieds, but okay to get a handle on the market.

Vietnam Motorbikes This site will give you a good idea of the sort of motorbikes available.

Minsk Club A great site with tons of information.

Saigon Minsk Bikes This site will also give a good idea of bikes available in Vietnam

Expat Blog Not so many bikes for sale.... some postings about motorbike traveling pretty negative!

We bought our two Honda Wins from http://vietmotorbikes.com The guy there Viet speaks good English we got a fair deal.

The bikes cost $300 each, with waterproof bag for backpack, straps and bungee cords to tie down, helmet, oil change and the MUST get Blue Card...

The Blue Card is the bikes Registration Card. It has the name and address of the FIRST buyer, rego number and Vin/engine number. Don't loss it OR buy a bike without one...

Here is an extract from a forum where this guy lost his bikes Blue Card..

Vietnamese Motorbike Registration Card Lost..
Unfortunately on my 2nd last day of riding in Vietnam my bike's blue registration card fell out of my pocket.. I now want to sell the thing, was wondering if anyone knew any info about obtaining a new card/costs.. or if it's even actually worth it.. I am in Hanoi..any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Daniel

Someone answered: getting a new registration card is a pain in the butt even for locals, seeing as your bike is not registered in your name, you must go to the place where it is licensed and deal with it there, or u could get it done anywhere but will take longer and cost more ...

best is to forget it and sell the bike without, seeing as you probably never got stopped once during your trip

but the value of the bike is gone, no one really wants one, unless it is real cheap
i bought a honda Win for 50 usd that way ... gave it to my local police officer , cause he don't care he is the police , but anyone else,no way ...
a foreigner will have less trouble because a foreigner hardly gets pulled over ...

Well there is a lot of information for you to look through here, and before i go I'll add this link on buying a bike in Vietnam

In my next post I will be going through all the things we repaired, tightened and fixed on the bikes, with associated costs.

Alex

Buying the bikes

citsym — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 12:05:00 GMT

One of the most difficult tasks is buying the motorbike(s) you are going to use around Vietnam.

The most common is the "Honda" Win a 100/110cc bike which really isn't a Honda but a Chinese copy. These bikes sell for between US $250 - $350 every day of the week. Before you buy a bike, the issue you will have to deal with go something like this:

1. Are they reliable?

2. Will they break down?

3. If they break down how do I get them repaired?

4. Is it legal to drive them in Vietnam?

5. What happens if I have an accident?

etc etc

If you are on a budget, the win is the way to go, but be prepared to spend more money fixing things after you have bought it. The situation is like this...

These bikes go up and down the country, bought, driven and repaired on the way to their destination.

FROM DEALERS: The bikes are cheap, there isn't enough money in them for a re-seller to fix EVERYTHING on them, so really the basic is done and this is dependent on how much money there is to put into the bikes and still get a profit.

FROM PRIVATE SELLER: You will often find honest guys out there selling their bikes after their trip, who will tell you in truth all the things that went wrong and how much they spent on the darn things ... but beware. Many are not conversant with bike mechanics and the bike may still be in need of repairs.

The choice comes down to your idea of how to start the trip.

We, (son and I) decided to buy of a dealer, to buy the two strongest bikes we could find (Good engine gearbox) and fix the rest. Even then we had repairs on the road, but really minor and fixed quickly and cheaply

In my next posting I will cover the costs we incurredon the journey and the specific repairs/sevicing we did to ensure a trouble free trip.

Alex

Motorbiking around Vietnam

Buying a motorbike in Hanoi

Cost of motorbikes in Vietnam

Buying the bikes