Off topic Approved.

Thanks for that information, but it would be worthwhile if you could post the source from where you got all this information from.

Its a very dirty bussiness in India..Most of the times, papers are forged or bribed out of the customs guys..
At DSG, most of the bikes comes broken down, stuffed in a freakin' qualis! and is assembled later on..Though Im not directly hinting at something fishy, more often than not it is..

But the fault is of the extremely dumb Indian import laws....Outdated,retarded as usual..
The same thing was going on with other products before the economy opened up in the 90s..

They say its to "protect the industry"...Oh my word..So thoughtful...I know, the Busa/Blade/R1 is such a competition to the Splendor/Pulsar yeah!
If you want to protect the industry, have a little import duty on <250cc class! You have bikes here every 10cc of the way right from 100,108,110,115,125,135,150,160,175, 180,200,220,223!!!! And the market ends there(except the bullets)

Twil take some pressure from the Auto lobby to force a change...

rightly said these law were made by lawmakers 30-40 years and still it hasnt changed....holy shit!!
when our corrupt politicians will walk out of the corrupt works...and increasing their personal wealth..there are not many bikes in India[more than 250+] and hayabusa and other SBK's are bought at phenomenally high prices because of dumb laws and lawmakers..
148% tax on the used bike and 88% on new bike on import is this a joke?

I agree majority bikes are like that only but still there are exceptions.
I would say not all bikes are illegally imported.
I have come across a lot of bikes which are imported pretty cleanly and imported in one piece and not in parts with full duty paid and plus the penalty which makes the bikes legal.
I have so many examples in front of me thats why I can say this.

From earlier days (rarely now a days) there are a lot of bikes which were genuinely imported through transfer of registration process when the owners actually settled in India bringing their bikes along with them.

Now a days since the competition is more and every other dealer wants to sell bikes at a cheaper rate than the other one, the corrupt ways are adopted.

You CAN get a legally imported SBK but you might have to search hard for it. Or work/struggle hard for importing it of your own.

PS: After having a discussion with aryan I am posting this here. Let us not make this thread, a thread which will scare the prospective buyers out there and bias them for not owning their dream machines.
Let the healthy discussion continue .

i would aggree partly with the laws being outdated but then again its almost working for the better. anyone will agree that the roads in india arent sutabile for these bikes. plus the lack of proper tracks and safety gear .

not to mention the liscening system as well. to get a bike liscent all you have to do is go around the block on a kinetic with no gears and you can go ride a litre bike after that.

all of this stuff has pretty much made bikes that much more exclusive which i dont think is a bad thing and its probably saved people from killing themselves.


looking back at my few years experience at riding these bikes i can understand why people arent allowed to ride over 250 cc bikes in the first 2 years in aus. but even when people get on them most of them still dont know how to ride. ive been learning for the past year and i still cant explain how far off i am from where i want to be

@Sumit: I am pretty sure there are people who take the pain and go through the whole process of importing a machine by following all the prescribed rules laid down.

But, as you said because of the competition, illegal procedures are being adopted by many importers. It would be worthwhile to go through the whole process and get a legally imported machine than to get a illegal machine and hide away from the law for the rest of the machine's life.

How could it be registered by some authority as its fake?

Can you explain?

Even If bribe works, later at any point of time - the customs officials could confiscate the bike right??

Indian laws sucks , as 148% tax is nothing but a shit!. India is backward in bikes and technologies only for this stupid laws , what americans ride for 6 lakh we ride for 12 lakh here Isnt a shit? I will like to raise a voice against this stupid law, as it ruins many bikers in India..

Pal, don't mind it but using the word "shit" so many times, laws of the govt won't change . request you to please use some decent language. Peace

Sorry bro got emotional! Jazbaato me bah gaya tha

Hope this closes all the doubts...


How would you classify ... a bike by legal and illegal ?? Just by papers ?? The importer can import a bike...in CKD form.. and rebuild it... As cleanly as possible. May be a few other bucks out of his pocket... where he can create papers as if the bike was cleared in the customs with 142% duty paid... and washing his hands by selling it off ...

You know anything is possible in our country.

And one more thing... The importer can earn..even more ...than what he sells. Say if he sells a CBR1000 at 9.5 which is bought in the form of CBU, he can get almost close to 15 laks..considering todays dollar rate.

But who wants to take a bike of 15 laks where you can get the same for 9.5 laks...with some less papaer work ... ??

I naturally opt for gray market bike... I know that there's always a threat from custom people. Forget man... again its india...

Firstly they wont give a thought of raiding on these bikes. As Hardly +/- 100 bikes come to india every month. As per my knowledge..all the bikes are paying duty(partly). And may be a loss of 4lks per bike would be the loss for custom people. But there are many other things that come to india... which brings loss in crores of rupees.

But be ready in a worst case... even if they come...which wont happen 99.999% in reality... bribe them guys. Thats the only suggestion.

Else if you want to cleanly import a bike, Order a bike in one piece, make it shipped...get it out of the port by paying all the bribes and duties and penalties... Which may end up sometimes thrice the bikes cost.. and ride a so called legally imported bike.

@ananth: Explaning your point in the next post

Firstly a bike registered in an RTA itself says that the bike is registered... Though its a legal or illegal.. A registration no. for your bike given by the govt of india itself says that its a bike which is allowed to roam on the roads of india.

Say if you are going on a road... a traffic cop or an RTA fellow stops you asking for papers..

They may ask for your..

1. RC
2. Driving license
3. No pollution certificate..
rarely... 4. Insurance certificate.

AFAIK... no fellows asks for your duty papers... in that kind of situations.

Says if your bike is being confiscated... bribe them again..and get it out.. Cant help it ... We are in a democratic country.

make sense if the inspector is not "Inspector Vijay " .

Someone abused about the system wherein Americans get to ride the same bike for 6 lakhs which we ride for 12 lakhs..

I have a one tone message for that query- Brush up economics skills and read the per capita income of Indians ,Compare it with americans and u'll get the answer.

I am in-favor of such a heavy duty on imported bikes in India.

A poor guy does not deserve or needs or requires to ride a SBK.

Its meant for richies ONLY!

U have moolah, go ahead , and its applicable on americans too!..

10k dollars is no small deal there also.

completely agree especially with the last 2 lines