What do I do with my bike guys?

[Guillaume]

Hello everyone,

I'm new here and have been recommended the forum by Phillip who I salute!
Right now I'm driving from Canada to Argentina and Brasil on a F800GS (Canadian registered, I'm a French national).

I work in Thailand and will resume work in December (so my current visa is a non-B).
Now the big question is what do I do with the bike?
- sell it in Brasil or neighboring countries (more or less impossible)
- ship it to Canada to sell it there (the easy option but ... I'm kind of attached to the bike )
- ship it to Thailand (and enjoy it there! I'd take it to Singapore, Lao ... that'd be so cool)

Now from what I have read here, "temporary" import seem to be an option. I'm kind of worried that it will mess up with my work related visa and work permit though since it can only be done on a tourist visa (obviously ...). Anyone got experience to share?
Ideally I'd like to have all paperwork in order. Permanent import duties are outrageous though (87% of the purchase price...)
Anyone has experience with importing a bike as parts and having it registered afterwards?

Another option I had in mind was to ship it to Malaysia/Singapore where getting a temporary import should be easy, and then drive it to Bangkok. Hoping that land customs would be more "flexible" than their air/sea counterpart. Any opinion or experience on that?

Thanks in advance for your help guys!
For those interested, you can have a look at my trip here The long way south

Cheers,
Guillaume

 

[KTMphil]

The easiest way with being on a "B" Thai immigration visa, would be to ship it to Port Klang, Malaysia (KL's port) & then ride it into Thailand on temporary import, where you would have 6 months before it would need to go to the border and there would be a 2,000 bht fine at the end of the 6 months.

 

[Guillaume]

Thanks Phil, have you heard of anyone who has actually done it on a B visa? It'd suck really bad if I made it to the border only to be told I can't enter 3
And then regarding the temp.import extension, I've red on sticky posts here that it can be done on a tourist visa as well, how about on a B visa?

 

[KTMphil]

Currently, the only point of entry in Thailand where your visa immigration type is an issue, for motorcycle temporary import, is the airport in Bangkok.

You probably would be fine bringing the foreign bike here by ship but no-one can say 100% as the temporary import id designed for tourists doing a "tour" of Thailand. You just need one Thai Customs officer that has decieded he wants to give you a hard time.

Thanks Phil, have you heard of anyone who has actually done it on a B visa? It'd suck really bad if I made it to the border only to be told I can't enter 3
And then regarding the temp.import extension, I've red on sticky posts here that it can be done on a tourist visa as well, how about on a B visa?