Alibaba motorcycles?

[Timpo]

Have you guys ever, or know anyone who ordered a motorcycle on Alibaba?
I shop with AliExpress all the time and they have been very reliable.

I know people buy electric bicycles on Alibaba, but through my search on Google, I couldn't find anyone who actually bought a motorcycle on Alibaba.

My guess is because of DOT/SAE paperwork issues? or maybe registrations? I know a lot of Alibaba listings have minimum order requirement, but some of the vendors will let you order just one unit.

I think Alibaba might be a really good place to buy Chinese bikes because of their price... in the end, I think we can all agree that one of the biggest attraction of Chinese motorcycles is their price.

[culcune]

It has to do with EPA. For offroad vehicles, they have to be on the EPA's offroad certification list (the list categorizes quads, buggies, dirt bikes, etc...not just 2 wheelers), and for street bikes they have to be on the EPA/DOT On highway motorcycle certification list. The mid to later 2000s is when you could no longer order samples direct from manufacturers, unless they had EPA certification. This topic has come up fairly often of getting a group buy, but logistics of who gets the container and shipping cost of individual bikes from the container to individual addresses always makes the bike more costly than thought and not worth it in the end.

[Timpo]

Originally Posted by culcune

It has to do with EPA. For offroad vehicles, they have to be on the EPA's offroad certification list (the list categorizes quads, buggies, dirt bikes, etc...not just 2 wheelers), and for street bikes they have to be on the EPA/DOT On highway motorcycle certification list. The mid to later 2000s is when you could no longer order samples direct from manufacturers, unless they had EPA certification. This topic has come up fairly often of getting a group buy, but logistics of who gets the container and shipping cost of individual bikes from the container to individual addresses always makes the bike more costly than thought and not worth it in the end.

I didn't know that this topic was already discussed! Thank for the info.

Yeah group buy would be hard.. especially somebody has to received the huge amount of containers.

[NzBrakelathes]

I asked about it and was in the $1400 per bike area that is shipping only

[Timpo]

Originally Posted by NzBrakelathes

I asked about it and was in the $1400 per bike area that is shipping only

$1400 for shipping only?? Did you mean like $1400 for a one containet? Because I know businesses would probably import a couple a dozen or so bikes in one shipping container.

[culcune]

$1400 sounds about right for an individual bike. They don't like dealing in shipping out single bikes over there. For a few thousand more, you can get a half container, which I think is their idea. It is prime shipping cost from China to the US. I am guessing not as much going the other way.