Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Custom Corner Moving back to 'Blighty'

After 7 years in the Boston area, I have decided to give up work (at least for a while) and move back to UK.

I am a bit of a Nomad and this is not the first time I am 'back-locating' having lived in NJ during 2004-2007, before moving back.

I am trying to be a bit smarter this time, as last time the cost of shipping my then pride and joy, plus import duty etc made me decide to sell it here and buy another in the UK - I went from having every OEM custom accessory to a standard factory unit. I am now back in the same position but this time I plan to buy a stock bike in the UK and swap all the nice parts from my US 2003. So move the parts not the bike. I fly back and forth quite often and British Airways are used to me carrying everything from tanks to exhaust pipes, but there is one item I can't take from my US bike, but looks terrible on all (legal) UK bikes - the damn license plate! What are my options, because this is what a UK 'number plate' looks like to me!!!!

it looks lovely.

It could be worse, they could require that giant plate on the front too.

Most of us just fit a smaller plate....nobody seems to get booked for it.
You just need to buy one from a custom showplate dealer on line.
Al
Ps where will you be moving to?
I'm in Kent

I have one of Zmilin's laydown brackets on my '05 and looking through that thread I can see that Grzegorz has one on his bike.

I think a combination of a smaller plate and the laydown bracket will work so I will order one from Fasteddy.

I'm not going to be that far from you Al, at least initially. We still own a place in Whitstable and another in Margate but they are both rented out. So short-term we will stay with family in Canterbury.

I lived in Whitstable in the early 1990's.......Marine Gap near the Old Neptune pub...happy times.
Al

The old town has changed a lot since then, you may not even recognize it if you go back! My place is on the other end of town, more towards Herne Bay. I have owned the place for over 30 years and although nothing has changed in my street in that time - everything else has.

Good luck, Martin. It was great meeting you and really appreciate the parts that I got from you. It's too bad we never did get together for a ride up here on the North Shore, but thanks mate.

Thanks John, the feeling is mutual!

OK so I have been gone for a while, but I will soon be back on the forum. The 5c summary is we moved back to the UK as planned, but I left both my bikes temporarily in the US, in a storage place, as I expected to be coming back and worth every few weeks. It was a good plan until Uncle Sam refused my application to give up residence status (return my Green Card), meaning I was classed as a US PAT and liable for US tax (as well as UK). Means I was effectively barred from the US until the immigration situation was resolved. That took 18months but finally happen a few weeks ago and I have popped back to find that my 2005 which was supposed to be sold in consignment (to pay for storage of my 2003) hasn't been sold, so I have a storage bill of approx the value of the 2005 just to get both bikes out. A friend is going to provide a new home for my 2005, and I can finally ship the 2003 to UK...or at least that is the current plan. Gotta love red tape!

Firstly, welcome back....
That all sounds somewhat complex. I'm sure the 'logical' route would be to sell your bike in the States and buy another here...but then it wouldn't be ' your' bike for a few years.....

The market for our bikes in the US appears to be non-existent. For example my bobber has been up for sale for 2 years at $2700, with two spare sets of tins (a black 'flags' tank and front fender, and a Goodwood green 'flags' front and rear fender - already fitted with the original lights so it could be swapped back to 'standard' in about an hour). A few tire kickers but I have had to give it away to get rid of it.

Hmmm, I can see your point. It'd be very hard to let them like that.

Yeah! Larry's got a good idea here, Martin!

OR maybe, you can hide out from the Feds in boring-as-hell Iowa for a time.

Those Federal Immigration agents will NEVER think of lookin' for ya THERE, dude!

(...'cause who in their right mind WOULD wanna live there, RIGHT?!!)

Just thinking perhaps you could arrange a swop with cash as required with this guy who is going from UK to USA an selling his bike in UK?

https://www.gumtree.com/p/triumph-motorbikes/2005-triumph-bonneville-america/1295119945

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=...e=3&theater

I haven't been able to get on the forum for a few days so missed the messages - sorry.

The deed is done and the new custodian of my bobber just emailed some photos of them picking it up in Hingham,MA.

Just have to get my blue bike shipped now. Pricing for shipping is not bad, but it actually costs more to move it from MA to the port in NJ, than from NJ to the UK...go figure!

Well its 18 months later so time for an update.

Trying to get my bike collected from the shop/storage place has been a nightmare. The shipper went to collect and the shop had gone, been taken over by a auto repair shop. Turns out the shop is still in business and has moved but my bike isn't at the new shop. Finally find out my bike got left at the old shop, out back in a storage area waiting to be moved.

Well this week I am working in Washington DC so drove up to New England and 'grabbed it' back. It is now sitting in New Jersey awaiting collection/shipping to UK. Hopefully normal service will be resumed soon!

You're probably fortunate that it was still there. Hopefully in the same condition you left it.

Certainly it isn't in the same condition. I am just hoping once it arrives in UK and I can work on it that it isn't too bad!

Well the journey is almost over.

Just dropped my bike off at the shop to have an MOT (the annual inspection) to allow me to register it in the UK.

The painful part is due to the new 25% anti-damping tax (thanks Mr Trump) on top of the 20+6% importation duty, which gets charged on the value + shipping costs, it has cost the same in shipping and duty as the KBB value for the bike.

OK so my prediction of the journey nearing completion was premature.

UK DVLA (our DMV/RMV) refused to register my bike without a certificate of conformance, which they only started issuing 8 years after my bike was built. This means it got treated as a one-off construction and needed a single use MSVA test (which makes sure it conforms to current, not 2002, safety standards). As expected numerous items did not meet current standards, including a range of OEM extras (like the mirrors, exhausts, etc) and believe or not, the horn. This meant the current version had to be temporarily fitted (and then immediately removed once the MSVA was issued).

Hopeful the end was near, I start the process of insuring the beast. Of course the bike was not on the UK VIN 'database'. So the insurance company manually enter all the details and email me the insurance certificate. At this point the true reason for it not being on the database is apparent; the insurance agent has entered a typo on the plate number. Simple to fix? Not when it seems the whole of the UK is 'working from home' and a 'change of policy' is a paper-based activity...I tried pointing out I wasn't changing policy but fixing their mistake - it made no difference.

So we are now nearly 4 months since it arrived in the UK and it is finally road legal.

Pity since yesterday we all are under lock-down and it could be 3-4months before I get a chance for a decent first ride.

Stay healthy, I think a nice ride in the country would be good!