I've been looking at bikes - trying to get an idea of the colour I can have and basically I'm really limited in my choice.

The only decent colour really (with the exception of the all black with bits of silver) is the all silver one. The only problem being - I have been told that the only silver ones in this country will all be imports. Therefore I'm guessing that they must be 'grey imports'. If they were 'parallel imports' (also available in the UK) then surely some of them would be UK bikes and not all imported.

I'm a bit confused as to whether all these bikes are in fact imports as there's quite a few on autotrader, most from dealers, and only a small minority mention anything about being imported.

Anyway. What are the disadvantages to buying a grey import, other than it may be harder to sell on? Do you get penalised insurance wise? Obviously the clocks would have been changed to MPH and the headlights adjusted.

I'd be interested in peoples views on imports..


Thanks

I used to ride a little Hyosung 125 Cruiser and it was an import, but honestly I didn't notice any problems. Insurance was cheap, he ran really well (Don't tell anyone but I got him up to 80 once....) and all I did to bring him in line was to put in a Motrax KPH to MPH convertor.

Admittedly my experience is limited, but I don't see any probs myself.

personally i'd neer buy an import again unless the same bike is available locally. Im going to have to sell my GSXF400 because I still cant get mirrors, front headlamp, and a front wheel mudguard - i crashed it about 2 months ago now.

about the speedo - usually bikes with mph have kph printed in smaller numbers - maybe the kph speedos are the same ...

I had a Grey Import FZR400, I had nothing but trouble with it ........ Firstly I purchased it from Colin Collins a well known bike shop in Harrow - they sold it to me as a 3rd party, on behalf of the owner...

Anyway due to it being a 400 it needed high revs to achieve its purpose - it started to loose power etc and I took it back to the Shop - they basically told me "sorry not our problem" I'd only done 1000 miles

My mechanic fixed it 3 times - rebore, rebuild etc still brokedown
So it needed a new engine - I searched through internet sites here and found that the engine was not the usual type of grey import - very dark grey import I discovered ....

Moral of the story - don't buy from a shop on behalf of the owner and stay away from imports IMO

No. They'll be silver imports...

HTH

MIne is also a import....i really don't know the problems of having one....maybe difficult to get parts over here?

And the clocks that come with KM/h...don't have MPH, like the mph have km/h

Grey imports are bikes manufactured outside the EU according to the spec for whatever foreign market it was made for, e.g. Japan, US etc. Problem with these bikes is that parts may be mor expensive and take longer to get hold of as they may have to come from abroad or a specialist parts dealer. Andy's also highlighted an important point in that UK Dealers warranty contracts do not cover foreign spec bikes so thay don't have to honour any warranty repairs for grey imports so be careful on that one. Having said all this they are alot cheaper and not necessarily any inferior in terms of build quality so if you gonna buy one obviously give it a good coat of looking at and also be aware of the issues with repairs and maintenance.
If you do your own importing you have to get a certificate of conformity (you get this from the manufacturer if not then ask them for a Commission Notice Letter which you send to the VCA. If they can't give you either then you have to complete a Single Vehicle Approval application), warranty docs, vehicle handbook and service book all in english to register the bike in the UK. Oh and tell the VATman. I think you've got 7 days from when the bike arrives.

Jobs a good un

Thanks for that RB - quite interesting.

The bike in question would be a used 2001+ CBR600 F parallel import.. the only issues I have really are:

1. The headlight conversion - has this been done? With it being a newish bike it won't have had to pass an MOT yet so it's more than likely that the headlight issue won't have been sorted.
2. Speedo conversion (although I've been told on the digital dash this isn't a problem as you can press a button that will change KM to MPH)
3. The sell on/trade in price. It may be harder to sell with it being an import or I may get a worse trade in price than usual.

(i might start ranting if i do im sorry)

yeh i had that same problem. it seems Suzuki only ever made one GSX400F and I have it ....

since I buy and sell bikes here in Saudi Arabia, ALL 400's, Kawasaki's, and other non-(SuzYamaHonda) are imports. a Harley-Davidson dealer opened 2 months ago with all services, parts, warranty etc ....

so what I do whan buying a bike is make up a mock list of parts -headlight, rear indicator, piston ring set, front chain sprocket etc etc. and call up a few shops - if they have all of the in stock then its OK, if not, I stay away unless its a really good deal (I got my current '98 ZX9R for 1600 pounds and its squeaky clean)

anyway thats what I do ... but In UK it should be OK .... here in saudi Arabia if you want to but a new bike you have the following choice:

Suzuki:
GS500
GSX-R 600
GSX-R 750
GSX-R 1000
Maurauder 250

Honda:
CBR600RR
CBR750RR
CBR1000RR

Yamaha:
R1
R6

and the full H-D range

THATS ALL no 400's, no 250's (not that i would want one), no Hayabusa no Kawasaki,

but most importantly

NO DUCATI

you know i have never seen a Ducati in the metal.

YOU LOT HAVE IT EASY .... BUGGER

(rant over, sorry)

a friend of mine bought a gray import v-max from the states this was when you couldn't get full power ones over here, and he's still chuffed to bits with it.
The only thing he had done was the headlight conversion. The speedo already had mph on it and the double nickel (55mph) mark was in red which gave it a nice touch IMHO.

Not sure what you mean there dude. You said you're looking at a parallel import. Parallel imports are UK spec. They tend to be made in the UK, sent abroad, not sold and then imported back to the UK. Even with the daft amount of shipping, they're still cheaper. If its a case of crossed wires and you mean a grey import and its second hand not new then you're probably absolutely right about the headlights so you'll have to look into the cost of doing it yerself or ask the vendor to cost it for you.


As above. If its parallel the clocks should be in miles not kms otherwise there's always the old letteraset/insulation tape method (clock calibration isn't part of the MOT its just a pain in the arris thinking you're breaking the land speed record until a robin reliant passes you).


Yes and yes but you'll be paying alot less for it so you shouldn't really incur more losses than you would with depreciation on a UK bike.

I had a GPZ400r grey import, one of the bug bears i had with it was the fact that the dealer didn't have a microfiche making buying spares a pain...most of the bike was the same as the 600 which is available over hear so on the whole it was ok. Till the bike broke down with a major lecky fault and never got sorted due to the lack of a manual and knowledge, even the bike repairers couldn't figure it out.

I never changed my clocks from kph to mph.. you get used to what the speed conversions are.

RedBull

The bikes (CBR600 from 2001 onwards) I'm on about definitely have the headlights pointing to the right and are definitely parallel imports, not greys.. they are UK spec bikes but it's just this particular colour was not a UK colour. The only difference between them and UK spec is the headlights and possibly the speedo but that's digital and I think you can do KM or MPH.

I've found out that Honda weren't originally going to make the silver models of the VFR, CBR600 or Blackbird for the UK market but were persuaded to do so by MCN. Therefore they made 200 CBR's (not sure how many of the others).

So there should be some UK silver CBR's around - nice one!

If you don't manage to find one you could always buy a UK bike and attempt to summon the Dark Lord of the Spray Gun
[CUE CARMINA BURANA MUSIC]

Hehehe I could matey I could

Good for you dragon - but seeing as how saudi doesnt have any major motorcycle manufacturer there i dont see how you can avoid it. Your no buying imports deal means no to yamaha, suzuki, kawasaki, honda, ducati etc etc.

Funnily enough they're mostly built in japan ( or italy) so unless theyre imported i dont see how youre going to get one mate.

THEY'RE ALL IMPORTS!!!!

Here in the uk what confuses people is official and paralell imports - so long as theyre uk spec it doesnt really matter. Hyrioshu is not just north of watford.

yes theyre all imports but when i say imports i mean bikes not imported by official dealers, who will have the spare parts and warranty and all that ....

so a gixxer thousand supplied by suzuki uk is built from different parts than a gixxer thousand sourced form belgium or wherever that is uk spec?

We're not talking about the uk though we're talking about suadi.

no it isnt diffrent ... but I couldnt get parts for my GSXF coz the dealer never sold it. A UK Gixxer 1K is 95% the same as a Saudi Gixxer 1K i would import one from UK, but i wouldnt import a Cagiva or Ducati where there are no dealers in Saudi ...

So a ducati or cagiva wouldnt be an import? In the sense that a suzuki is not built in saudi but is not an import?

I think you mean you wouldnt buy a bike not normally sold in youre country?

this is grey importing and not parallel importing like is commonplace in the uk.

yes ....

I would buy a grey import only if its an (for example) Yamaha R1, Gixxer 1000, bikes that are sold by Suzuki KSA, even if there are slight differences, but i wont buy a GSXF again coz i cant get the parts

A grey import is a bike that is different from the bike in the country it has entered. It could be a colour scheme that isn't sold in that country or a different spec engine. I brought my R6 back from the states and it is a parallel because it is identical to a UK bike in every way. Talking about headlights, you have to be careful because a lot of manufactureres make straight beam headlights nowadays and you don't need to change the unit. If anyone is interested in sharing the shipping costs from the states with me you could benefit from a brand new bike for less than half the price in the UK. A 2005 R6 would cost you 3600 quid in the US and almost double here. I am going to sell my 2001 and buy a2005 for the same price.

whoa ....

how much are bikes in US?!?!?!

here in Saudi Arabia:

GSXR1000: 43000SR = 6150 GBP
Yamaha R1: 45000SR = 6400 GBP

but:

A clean used 2002 GSXR750 is about 12000 SR = 1700 GBP

or even:

A used Honda CBR250 (say, 1998, 1997) is about 3500 SR = 500 GBP