At Tigit we sell off our older rental motorbikes. This is great for a traveler wanting a long holiday with border crossings through Cambodia and Laos. It is also good for the expat wanting to get a motorbike from a reliable source.
In this article, I will list the motorbike models we sell, and at the end, I will explain why it is sensible to buy from Tigit and also things to look out for on the open market.
Warranty provided
Contents
All Tigit sales have a one-month warranty. Within this time, you can return the motorbike for the purchase cost minus the normal rental price. We will continually fix the motorbike if it has problems. Hopefully, it doesn’t!
Where the warranty stops, however, is at the end of the month. We will not replace all the parts about to need replacing! Some travelers can do 3,000km or more monthly, and we sometimes get asked to replace the consumables such as tires, toward the end of their journey!
We are now wise to this trick and promise everything on the motorbike will survive at least a 1,000km journey. After which, you may need to start replacing parts.
Why do we sell our rental motorbikes?
Tigit buys all its motorbikes new. Within around two years of life, a motorbike in our fleet will have done around 50,000km or more. They are on the road alot and the kilometres quickly go up. However, they are not old motorbikes.
We maintain the motorbikes to an excellent standard using only OEM parts. Unfortunately, rental customers often point at the KM reading if a motorbike breaks down. This can lead to negative reviews.
In reality, a new bike can break down just as easily as an old one. But we must have a cut-off point at some point. We are not selling the motorbikes because they are old. We are selling them to have an age consistency within our rental fleet.
Honda XR 150
Without a doubt, the Honda XR 150 is our most popular manual motorbike. It is a dual sport motorbike with on road and offroad capabilities. I have a video explaining why the Honda XR is great for traveling in Vietnam and why it is also great for the daily commute around the city.
The Honda XR new is a $3200 motorbike and is very hard to get hold of in Vietnam.
At Tigit we sell the Honda XR 150
Around 50,000km for $1600
For a traveler, your expected re-sell at the end of your journey is $1000-$1500.
The Honda Blade
The Honda Blade is an indestructible semi-automatic. The life of a Honda Blade could be infinite. They are also the easiest motorbike in the country to maintain. No fancy gadgets, no weird and wonderful problems to go wrong. They just work!
The big difference between a Tigit semi-automatic and a random one from elsewhere is that all Tigit semi-automatics are maintained with OEM Honda Parts. Unfortunately, in the real world, as motorbikes get older, owners tend to start to cut corners and end up maintaining the motorbike with Chinese parts.
Suddenly you find yourself with a real Honda motorbike, but a Chinese engine.
If you buy from Tigit, you get OEM Honda, guaranteed.
The Honda Blade 110cc new is around $1100 after taxes.
At Tigit we sell the Honda Blade 110
Around 50,000km for $550
For a traveler, your expected re-sell at the end of your journey is $300 -$450.
Yes, this is cheaper than renting a motorbike from Tigit! You just need to invest a little bit of time trying to sell it.
The Honda Airblade
Tigit Honda Airblades are not bought new, and they are not registered in the company name. All our Airblades are 2011 model and have around 80,000km on the clock.
We are currently selling them for $450, which is below the market average.
Changing the name on the bluecard
When you buy from Tigit it is possible to transfer the ownership papers to another Vietnamese (not a foreigner). However, we do not offer a full-fledged assistance-based service for this as other companies may provide. We can recommend services to help, though.
You can own a motorbike in Vietnam with the bluecard not being in your name, and this is perfectly normal. You do not have to do the re-register process to own a motorbike. However, if you do wish to transfer the bluecard to someone else, Tigit will de-register the motorbike from Tigit. This costs 1 million dong.
It is then up to you to re-register the motorbike in a new name. The cost of this is complicated and depends on many factors. However, you should be budgeting a further 2 million dong for this process and a period of around two weeks where the motorbike does not have a number plate.
Asking for pictures and colors
We can set aside a motorbike of a specific color if you like, but we are looking for quick sales to people who understand what they are doing. In the end, all the motorbikes have had a similar life, with similar mechanics maintaining them, and all the motorbikes look and feel similar!
The market in general and the Chinese motorbike market
This article aims not to bash other companies, but to explain why Tigit is an easy and quick option to getting a motorbike with some sort of warranty. Here, I will quickly breakdown some of the tendencies in the market.
Buying on the Vietnam Market
Vietnamese-to-Vietnamese sales don’t have any warranties. Once the money is handed over, the sale is complete. Forget complaints and refunds. Therefore it is normal for sellers to provide motorbikes with old tires, and an old battery with a pretty low standard of upkeep on the motorbike. However, this is understood on the market, and a buyer will quickly pop down to a mechanic shop to get the bike up to scratch.
A foreigner will be expecting a motorbike that is ready to go. Therefore you will often see a difference in “Vietnamese price VS foreigner price.” It isn’t a “rip-off”, it is just an expectation difference between the two cultures in how after-service is handled.
Chinese motorbikes
You can see on the Tigit FAQ and our briefings to customers the emphasis on using “Honda Head” mechanic shops. Honda Head sell OEM parts for their own motorbikes.
The little mechanic shops on the side of the road don’t have OEM parts, and they have Chinese copy parts instead. They can fix and maintain any motorbike but it isn’t to the same standard as OEM Honda.
Chinese motorbikes lack power, tend to wobble around, and basically are not the same quality as an OEM Honda. You won’t know, though, unless you have experience driving both OEM and Chinese motorbikes side by side.
Hello! Do you re-buy your motorbikes taking the rental fee? I want to cross to Cambodia and return in 1 month.
Yes this is something we do
is it possible to get power of attorney (like Carnet De Passage) from Tigit for your sold bike, so the new owner can hit the road outside SEA?
We can sign and stamp papers, and it has worked in the past.