Motorcycle price in Taipei

Life Cars & Motorcycles
1

Hi Guys, I moved to Taiwan a few months ago and currently living in New Taipei City. I am planning to buy to motorcycle.
After a few days of searching, I found something strange in bike pricing:

But it looks like the price of the Honda bike is 7,299 USD while the price of the Kawasaki one is 5,299 USD. So why the price of the Kawasaki bike is higher than the Honda?

I heard that you need to have a white plate license(below 250cc) for at least a year to able to be eligible for a yellow plate license(250-550cc). Is it true?

Thanks in advance.

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2

hello and welcome,

The simple answer would be this is not the US taxes are different.
Longer answer, depends on what parts have been manufactured or imported then assembled here, if the whole bike is a factory import or a grey import.

This is the list price new from the factory for both bikes, I have a feeling the Honda has more parts assembled as apposed to fully imported.

This is correct

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3

Just moved here? Get a 野ē‹¼ and chill :sunglasses:

Iā€™ll forget some, but hereā€™s as comprehensive a list as I can make off memory.

Your main, best white plate options are: (looking here to provide a variety of styles, but all proper imports - no ā€œgrey marketā€, aka agent imports)

Sym 野ē‹¼ 150/125ļ¼ˆwolf)

Kymco KTR 150

Yamaha Mt-15

Suzuki Gixxer 150/250. Come in Racey and naked variations. Racey is for wannabes, naked is ugly, but eh. The 250 in particular is a really well powered bike.

Yamaha R15 - Racey looking but less try hard than the Gixxer Racey dude. Idk the vocab and donā€™t care.

CRF 150

Sym å؃å؃ (the most recent not-super-cub super cub)

Any white plate Honda bike is great, if youā€™re willing to fork up the price. Even used these go pricey. Looking at CB150, CBR150, Grom, Monkey, Super Cub, Cross Cub, and I think thatā€™s it.

Suzuki V-strom 250 (Iā€™m biased as hell and I donā€™t care)

Some more questionable options, but perhaps worth consideration if you like the style. All still normal market:

Aeon (I think basically Kymco) My150: donā€™t know much, but heard QC can be a bit hit or miss.

CPI SM250: known to be plagued with issues of QCā€¦ But offroad-ish? Frame is ā€œagricultural,ā€ as ive heard it described. That said, it seems there is salvation and possibility for it to work nicely - oddly enough - once enough mods are done

Sym T1/T2 (150/250)

Kymco Qannon 酷龍 150

Sym Husky / Kymco Xing (questionable and imo silly looking white plate cruisers)

Hartford VR150/250 - old ā€œEnduroā€ style bikes. Hartford is however known for somewhat questionable QC. This especially applies to their newer bikes, so Iā€™ve heard. Thus, havenā€™t listed the newer Vr223

Hartford Clouded Leopard é›²č±¹ 223 - again, to a degree, older Hartford might be better. Not to be confused with the VR223. Diff bike.

Yamaha DT150 - kickass looking old Enduro, butā€¦ Parts can be a pain, Iā€™ve read. But itā€™s awesome, so who cares.

Yamaha SR-150 - awesome looking farm bike, but drum brakes and being old are not great.

Kawa B1 - good luck not finding one rusted to shit, but even so, you can smoke around Taiwan in classic style on one of these.

Suzuki 雄ē… 125 just an old Suzuki. Donā€™t know that theyā€™re anything special but that they seem to be durable.

Getting into grey market and the unaffordable now. Some awesome bikes here, but price, parts, and even whether itā€™s plated or not will become a consideration:

There is a Benelli Small bike, idk anything about it, but I assume itā€™s sketchy because it sounds Italian. This isnā€™t racist, right?

Husqvarna Svartpilen 250, and really anything KTM/Husky, should be treated with caution as parts can be hard to get. Have witnessed this firsthand, as a friend wasnā€™t able to ride his KTM 390 adv for weeks. Cool bikes if u like shitty color palettes tho!

Old offroady bikes: unobtanium. Expensive as hell. Parts sometimes available though. Looking at options like the Serow, TTR, XR, etc. Beautiful bikes, would DIE for a serow, but so would my wallet. Generally speaking, if itā€™s a dirt bike that isnā€™t a CRF or VR or this one weird and rare one from Kymco called the ā€œSeekerā€, itā€™s probably either ridiculously expensive or unable to be plated and street legal.

Honda Hornet 250 - outrev people on bikes two times your displacement. Inline four says it all. Old, and pricey, but cool as all hell.

Yamaha RZR čæ½é¢Ø ā€“ two stroke, this time kinda Racey looking. Thereā€™s also a sym with similar style called the 運動ē‹¼, but these are pretty rare n not 2 stroke.

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I have a 2020 YZF-R15. Yes, only 155cc, but youā€™ll quickly find that there are a lot of speed cameras that suck up the fun of being able to exceed 50 km/h since itā€™s held to abilities of the lowest common denominator, and the laws are probably written by an old guy who thinks 20 km/h is unreasonably fast, never ridden so much as a bicycle (or even if he did, had training wheels on well into his 40ā€™s), and has soup with floaties on in case he drowns.

Not only that, but the rules surrounding each category are different, which essentially makes yellow or even red a toy unless you have the patience or money.

White plate: Must make a 2-part left turn when required, lane restrictions (no ē¦ę­¢ę©Ÿč»Š (motorcycles prohibited) lanes), no use of ANY freeway/expressway, but parking is either free, much cheaper (most places are $20-30 flat rate instead of hourly thatā€™s at least $40/hour) or easier to find. Just keep in mind that people will mercilessly crowd your bike and donā€™t care if they scratch it though, and you can legally filter/split lanes.

Red/yellow: Your bike is legally considered a car. Lane splitting/filtering is illegal, you have to park in the same garage as a car, often more expensive and tougher to find a spot (and ironically get dirty looks and sometimes yelled at if some dude doesnā€™t know the difference), but at least you get to go on most expressways and freeways, but except for 3ē”², not the national freeway (denoted by a flower and single-digit number), you donā€™t have to steer clear of prohibited lanes, and can make a direct left turn.

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I have a large bike license that I got in Taiwan. Yes , I had to have the small bike license for one year to then take the large bike license test. However, that was going through the Taiwan system , so I donā€™t know if there is reciprocity between for large bike licenses like there is for cars.i donā€™t have a large bike as I live in Taipei and canā€™t park it easily. I only have a parking space for a small bike. If I move out of Taipei then a large dirt bike I shall aquire.
A Kawasaki ninja no thanks , Iā€™ll die , as I know myself :joy:

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There wasnā€™t when I asked and also couldnā€™t used one on my international driving permit (but that was a few years ago), I just did the test and had fun playing with their bikes for a week.

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You canā€™t? Iā€™ve used the IDP for a friendā€™s MT-03 since he rarely rides it!

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Yeah itā€™s fun.There were about 30 people doing it when I did it. Be careful out there :ok_hand:

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Not when I asked, but I only asked one place, but you better double check as his insurance may not cover you.

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There was only 4 people doing the test when I did. I was doing the afternoons, sometimes it was only me, so I could mess around as much as I liked.

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