Big Heavy Bikes (Unlicensed and How To Licence)

UK RRP for the Ninja 650 is NT$270k, roughly the new RRP here in Taiwan. Then add on the inevitable freebies, interest free credit and bargaining plus very low insurance and it doesn’t seem very expensive to own a big bike at all.

I think the bigger you go the more you get ripped off and the less useful your bike is for riding here anyway. 600-650 is just the right size for Taiwan.

I want a sportsbike not a street bike. You can get a pre registered 2007 zx6r in the UK for 5k/$NT300,000, ok it’s last year’s bike and officially a year old according to its plate but it’s a brand new bike, from a dealer, with warranty. A new one is 48.5 wan here, my wife was told that if she pays cash she can get it for 43 or 44. That’s still a bloody big difference in price even if you get the cash discount. I paid about 150,000 for my 02 zx6 in the UK and I’d like to do the same here but it’s not possible. Maybe in a few years it will be.

As for a 250 no plate bike, what if you get caught? Are you going to get a fine, or ejected from the country? I don’t want to annoy the powers that be, we’re getting a kid in a couple of weeks & the responsibility makes you do things you wouldn’t normally do. Or rather, makes you not do what you want to do!

Do little bikes get pulled by the rozzers a lot too or is it just big ones? My wife thinks that you could do 200 on a scooter and the coppers wouldn’t stop you but if you do 50 in a 50 on a big bike they probably will.

I would think it’d be very possible to do some switching over from an NSR 150 to a 250 and have it look like it’s legal/claim ignorance/confusion when they ask about it. I doubt many cops would go through so much trouble for a 20 year old bike and a white plate. I think the problem more is that NSR 250s are rare and even the illegal ones cost alot of money. Moreover you also need the means/expertise to maintain/repair it since it will definately break down… I think the best option is to bite the bullet and see if you can get a good 600 for around 200k. I plan to do so myself, afer i save for a couple years… :unamused:

The Ninja 250 is the same thing as the 650, twin parallel up seated and conventionally sprung. Should not even carry the tag ninja imo, sorry if that offends my friends Mordeth and MJB, sure they are great bikes for what they are but they are not Ninjas they are to the Ninja what the SV is to the GSXR.

What the cops look for is the sportsbike fairing they see a fairing and they’re interested, easy to distinguish the legal 150’s from anything bigger.

You are thinking about the 2 stroke 250 sportsbikes but thats not a practical route either, they are old with parts hard to find and very loud so the rozzers will clock you very quick with your large fairing and double 2T pipe to boot. They are more expensive than they should be because good examples are rare and due to age and the nature of 2 stroke engines will likely give you trouble add to that the fact that you will have trouble finding reliable mechanics.

Next you may likely consider the 400’s which, though not as expensive have the same troubles of age and difficult to get parts, include the fact that it may be a cobbled together job from various bikes stolen in Japan as well as having borrowed parts to keep it going and not legal as well as being easily recognisable and in demand by police with their nifty fairings standing out among the sea of scooters.

Hell I have even ridden 2 stroke 250 trail and motox bikes on Taipei’s streets without the cops caring as do many guys I know, but the word is stay clear of the fully faired illegal bikes.

What you want is a great deal that comes from an old bike and plenty of them, like the UK, well thats gonna take a few years if ever since they only became legal recently and even then there is not a large supply because the original uptake was so low so you will never get the deals from the UK here even when the bikes get older because demand here is high relative to the small supply. Do daily searches on the internet and notice how bikes are either snapped up in a few days or they linger for months even years, there are few good deals and many willing to snap them up and the crappy deals are what is left.

I have not gotten concrete answers on the consequences of being caught with an illegal bike on the road beside the fact that you are guaranteed to lose the bike on the spot, but I have heard rumours of deportation, large fines etc.

I have been down this road for the past 3 years with a fine toothcomb and have resigned myself to the reality of the situation, If however you find a better solution than mine please share I would be happy to learn of it.

Off topic but…

Fortunately for the tens of thousands that the Ninja250 has inducted into the world of motorcycling, your product branding opinions aren’t shared by Kawasaki corporate… :smiley:

I own a BMW R75 with sidecar. You should see the funny things I had to go through to get it registered. Its so odd!

To be fair, it’s not street legal. Modifications of any kind are generally illegal in Taiwan. You might not like it but that’s the law. And to be extra fair, they haven’t impounded the car, have they?

And cops are doing more checks on license/registration lately… good. I get pissed off when I went to the trouble of getting a local big bike license and pay all my tax and insurance to have some unlicensed, unregistered asshats moan about how the police are getting so mafan. (Not taking jibes at you or anyone in this thread BTW, just making a general comment).[/quote]

To be fair you say? Well just because its illegal in Taiwan doesn’t make it right. It’s funny that you asked if they impounded my car because I remember paying 3000NT once so that they wouldn’t. Isn’t accepting bribes illegal? So I’ll moan and complain but in the end I’ll have to put up with the corruption after all if I was the son of a politician we wouldn’t be having this conversation.