I'm looking for a touring bike, something bigger with lots of luggage options and available in Thailand. What are the choices?

Hello Carl,

In Thailand you can actually buy most touring bikes, with the exception of Honda models, motorcycle manufacturers like BMW, Triumph, Yamaha and Ducati are all officially available in the country.

Thailand also has a official Harley-Davidson dealer, which sells the H-D Electra Glide, CVO Street Glide and some other Fat Boy's... You love them or hate them... Kawasaki is also available in Thailand but doesn't have any touring bikes on offer...

BMW has a good selection of tour bikes available from Adventure Touring to regular BMW R1200RT or the mighty K1300GT. Of course German quality and technology is often out of reach for the budget buyer...

Ducati has the Multistrada, I'm not sure if Ducati Thailand already has the new Multistrade 1200, but then the Multistrada 1100 was not a bad bike and with a new model replacing the 1100 you maybe in for a good deal...

Yamaha Thailand sells the FJR1300A, which a very capable touring bike. And it is also likely the cheapest “official” touring bike.

For people with a smaller budget, and who is that not now-a-day, you can look into the Kawasaki offerings. Okay the Kawasaki ER6N is officially not a touring bike, but with a few modifications and aftermarket parts it can be turned into the best money-can-buy Thai touring bike.

Check GT-Rider.com website under their bikes for sale section; some excellent touring bikes become available there.

I prefer buying a new motorcycle. The option of converting a Kawasaki ER6N into a touring bike sounds interesting...

The Honda Blackbird CBR1100, for sale at the Classified Ads, is also a solid reputation as a powerful, fast, smooth and very reliable sport-touring motorcycle.

(classified link removed, the motorcycle is sold)

I'm a USA guy (California) wishing to take my Harley to Asia for a touring vacation ... and then shipping it back home to California.
I want to start my Vacation in Bangkok. I'll probably spend the first few months around Thailand and possibly visiting neighboring countries, and then returning to Bangkok for a few weeks before shipping my Harley back home.
Can Any body provide information on how to arrange the nessecary docs to get me into and out of Thailand and the surrounding countries.
Thanks ... William

Quote by: William

I'm a USA guy (California) wishing to take my Harley to Asia for a touring vacation ... and then shipping it back home to California.
I want to start my Vacation in Bangkok. I'll probably spend the first few months around Thailand and possibly visiting neighboring countries, and then returning to Bangkok for a few weeks before shipping my Harley back home.
Can Any body provide information on how to arrange the nessecary docs to get me into and out of Thailand and the surrounding countries.
Thanks ... William

Hello William,

It's no problem to temporarily import a motorcycle in Thailand, but you should be really serious about this. Transporting the motorcycle to Thailand is costly, you need a transport company who has experience and can do the custom clearing for you.

Even if you have all the paperwork done and have the motorcycle on the road in Thailand you need to consider that riding with US license plates can attract unwanted attention. We also want to recommend that you study that Thai traffic law carefully. For instance if you kill somebody in Thailand, even it's clearly not your fault you get likely arrested and have to wait until they finished the investigation. With that in mind we advice you to contact a Thai insurance company to look for the options to get additional insurance coverage when you with the motorcycle in Thailand.

It's for a foreign motorcycle rider recommended that you take insurance that covers bail bond in case of an accident.

For the paperwork and rules for temporarily importing a motorcycle into Thailand you can look at Temporary Import of Motorcycle.

Quote by: Carl

I prefer buying a new motorcycle. The option of converting a Kawasaki ER6N into a touring bike sounds interesting...

have not read the whole thread here but I think it depends what you want... For what you want to use your bike? Just travelling a couple of thousand km in your area or planning a trip up country, riding also offroad and muddy streets? Or going to another country?

Ducati... FORGET IT.. to expensive if anything happends, even a broken mirror costs a fortune here

Kawasaki VERSYS ... the 650ccm is a great bike, not to tall and not too heavy, good touring bike, offroad possiblilities
Kawasaki VERSYS 1000ccm nice touring bike but I personally would not go offroad with it...too heavy

HONDA AfricaTwin .. the name says it all... perfect bike for EVERYTHING bit heavy may be on muddy mountain roads but PERFECT for everything else.. just around 580.000.-Baht with DCT and from Mai onwards availble at your HONDA dealer... order now, wait 3 month

HONDA CB500X nice bike, lightweight, good oportunities for changing to a perfect allround touring and offroad bike with some upgrades, Also the price .. 230.000.-Baht only ... buy spareparts and upgrades NOT at your HONDA dealer, they charge you most of the time 100% more as you can buy them in the internet

I like Harleys too but 1st they are too heavy on the roads in North-Thailand ... try it after a rain LOL... and second too expensive.. for a new HD here you can buy 2-3 perfect AfricaTwins


HOPE IT HELPED .. just my personal views

AND regarding IMPORTING ... JUST FORGET IT...

example

we used two different ballpen colours on a paperwork needed for transfer a bike from one Farang Owner to a Thai Owner, because our ballpen was finished so one part was written in BLUE and the other part was written in BLACK ... for 4WORDS on the paper


NOT WORKING so we have to do all the paperworks again...sometimes its really just a big joke here

Quote by: William

I'm a USA guy (California) wishing to take my Harley to Asia for a touring vacation ... and then shipping it back home to California.
I want to start my Vacation in Bangkok. I'll probably spend the first few months around Thailand and possibly visiting neighboring countries, and then returning to Bangkok for a few weeks before shipping my Harley back home.
Can Any body provide information on how to arrange the nessecary docs to get me into and out of Thailand and the surrounding countries.
Thanks ... William

Hi William
Send the bike to Port Klang in Malaysia. Entr the border to Thailand in Sadao. here you will have 30 days tempery import permission free of charge. make a insuranse at the border for your bike, if you dont have a worl wide allready. Want to stay longer ask the custom now a days you can max get 6 months. or visit a naighbor contry and return. new 30 days. visiting Laos and Cambodia no problem. Vietnam an Myanmar is more difficult. Contakt a agent in this contries 14 days before, and they can fix it for you. Sending you bike back from Bangkok no problem. need any help contact me.
best regards Kurt

Quote by: honse

Quote by: William

I'm a USA guy (California) wishing to take my Harley to Asia for a touring vacation ... and then shipping it back home to California.
I want to start my Vacation in Bangkok. I'll probably spend the first few months around Thailand and possibly visiting neighboring countries, and then returning to Bangkok for a few weeks before shipping my Harley back home.
Can Any body provide information on how to arrange the nessecary docs to get me into and out of Thailand and the surrounding countries.
Thanks ... William

Hi William
Send the bike to Port Klang in Malaysia. Entr the border to Thailand in Sadao. here you will have 30 days tempery import permission free of charge. make a insuranse at the border for your bike, if you dont have a worl wide allready. Want to stay longer ask the custom now a days you can max get 6 months. or visit a naighbor contry and return. new 30 days. visiting Laos and Cambodia no problem. Vietnam an Myanmar is more difficult. Contakt a agent in this contries 14 days before, and they can fix it for you. Sending you bike back from Bangkok no problem. need any help contact me.
best regards Kurt

We as Motorcycle Thailand do not recommend using a tempera Import Permit to get your motorcycle into Thailand for permanent riding.

The risks is just too high that your valuable motorcycle will be reduced to zero Baht value, if the rules for foreign motorcycles entering Thailand will change later this year….