Warning: Huge Post Below
Hi there, Im a Honda chopper enthusiast and new on the board, so I thought for one of my first posts I would try and contribute something to this community. I recently imported a Honda Chopper from Texas to New Brunswick, Canada. Below I will summarize all the backflips I needed to make in order for this to happen. This may interest some of you Canadians thinking to do the same. Or it may bore you to death, if so please stop reading right here. 
To start off, let me give you a quick timeline on how long all of this took:
-Purchased a bike from a guy in Amarillo, Texas on May 17th
-Had it parked in my shed in Moncton, New Brunswick on June 21st
-Had it registered and insured on June 22nd
Part I: FINDING THE BIKE
So around early May I decided I would get the bike Ive wanted all my life, a chopped CB 750. The reasons why I didnt build it myself, I work full time, no resources or tools, plus I wanted to ride this summer.
I originally preferred to get one in Canada, since I knew shipping would be cheaper and less paper work, but I had a really hard time finding one I liked that was affordable in Canada. Here are some places I looked:
These searches gave me practically NO results:
1. I went to every bike shop in my home town and asked if they knew anyone selling one.
2. Checked the local newspapers, auto traders, vehicle traders, free buy/sell flyers
3. Placed a wanted add on a local biker website for the Maritime provinces
4. Called bike shops in Halifax and other big Maritime cities, and checked their websites.
5. Surfed the net for various Canadian newspaper sites to find their classified ads
6. Talked to friends, colleagues, etc
At this point, I realized I wasnt going to find what I was looking for locally, so I broadened my search.
These gave me SOME results:
1. Google man, googled myself to death, hours and hours on Google.
2. http://www.craigslist.org3. http://www.cycletrader.com4. http://www.buysell.com5. http://www.75vn.com6. http://www.lespac.com and http://www.annonce123.com (Quebec loves to ride, found a few here but expensive)
7. The Hondachopper.com FOR SALE / TRADE forum
8. And probably about another 50 or so websites which I dont remember. Lot of chop shop sites, etc.
9. The best place EBAY.
PART II: THE BIKE
So finally, after spending about 2 weeks on the phone and internet and on some days spending up to 8 hours searching, I found my best resource was very obviously Ebay. There were a few nice bikes and I ended up falling for this one:
cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Honda-CB-Honda-750-Custom-Chopper-One-of-a-Kind_W0QQitemZ290114820444QQihZ019QQcategoryZ80647QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Feel free to criticize or comment on the bike, I welcome it. I went with this one due to many factors, (ie: the look, the price, my gut, the little I DID know and the opinions of a few biker buddies and mechanics)
I had NEVER used ebay or paypal before but had help from friends. I ended up being the very last bidder with $2025, but his reserve wasnt met so he didnt have to sell the bike. I emailed him right away and offered $2200, and he accepted. I payed him via paypal. The deal was closed.
PART III: THE SHIPPING AND THE PAPERWORK
Before I bought the bike, I obviously researched the shipping as best I could. After calling and emailing several companies, I found a shipping company on google called JC Motors, and they seemed to have their shit together and a price I was willing to pay ($1182, taxes in), so I chose them. (website: http://www.motorcycleshippers.com )
As soon as I bought the bike on May 17th, I called JC Motors to let them know. No one answered so I had to leave a message, and then they called back and left me a very confusing message. To give you an idea of the amount of stuff you need to do when importing a bike, listen to the message for yourself:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5_hAT6lPbo
I had to listen to that 5 times to make sure I understood correctly. And that was just the tip of the iceberg; there is no way in Hell I could have properly prepared myself for the paperwork and constant faxes I would need to send back and forth for the next month.
Fast forward to present day, as I sit here now everything is done and I have the bike registered in my name, etc. I have laid down on the floor every document I had to fill out, sign, fax, read etc. It amounts to 12 separate documents. Here they are:
ALL THE DOCUMENTS:
After the purchase, got these from the bikes previous owner:
1. The American title (which noted the bike as an SPCN for Special Construction)
2. The American registration (which when I registered my bike in New Brunswick I did not need)
3. The Bill of Sale
From the shipping company I got:
4. Shipping Info. Form (basic information about shipping addresses, etc)
5. Shipping Info Agreement and Instructions (the shipping agreement I needed to sign)
From my broker I got:
6. Basic information sheet to tell me what needed to be done
7. Short Form Power of Attorney For entry of a Single Importation Form
8. U.S. Customs and Border Protection/NCIB, Vehicle Equipment Export Worksheet
After the bike crossed the border, I got these 2 from the broker:
9. Vehicle Import Form Form 1 (some crucial Canadian form that is stamped at the boarder)
10. B3 (somekind of tax form)
When the bike arrived at my house I got from the truck drivers:
11. Bill of Lading & Freight Bill (somekind of shipping form that was stamped at the border that I needed to sign when the bike arrived)
12. Visual Motorcycle Inventory (shipping form that showed condition of bike upon pickup which I needed to sign when bike arrived)
So basically thats almost all the paperwork I saw. I had to have access to a fax machine, Adobe Acrobat (to print .pdf files) and a printer. Without that, it would have been practically impossible to get the bike.
Part IV: THE PEOPLE I HAD TO DEAL WITH
Basically there were only 2 people I could ask questions to during shipment; my contact at the shipping company, and the broker. So every time I was sending a fax or asking a question, it was to one of these 2 people. They were the ones instructing me on what needed to be done.
Shipping company contact:
The shipping company guy was ok but HE SENT ME VERY SHORT EMAILS IN ALL CAPS. I wouldnt say he was the most helpful guy but he did his job ok, I dont have a major complaint.
Broker contact:
The first impression I had from the broker was him telling me about how he just got off the phone with some trucker who had to drop a bike at the boarder due to missing paperwork and how he was going to go down there and kick his ass or something. So much for a first impression.
The broker I feel wasnt necessary, but I guess he had contacts at the boarder and knew what needed to be done, etc. His fees came up to around $450 which included the taxes on the bike.
Part V: THE CONFUSION AND THE HASSLES
The worst part of the process was the paperwork. What fax needed to be sent where, when and by who and how it needed to be filled out was all VERY confusing, and Im not going to explain all of that. Just know that sending original documents by US Mail, even if you pay $20 and send it high priority still takes 2 fucking weeks. Fed Ex overnight is the way to go for documents, I learned my lesson on that one. I would have had my bike 2 weeks sooner if it wasnt for that tiny mistake. I often had to fax things back, re-fill forms and re-fax again, etc, but that was pretty much instant. Things could have went smoother if the broker and shipping company dude explained things better on the phone but they didnt.
Part VI: REGISTERING THE BIKE IN NEW BRUNSWICK
I went to a small DMV in a resort town called Shediac New Brunswick, to avoid the hassles of the big city ones. They asked to see:
-The US Title (which had the bike model listed as an SPCN, which they didnt know what it meant so they registered it as a 1980 Honda CB 750)
-Vehicle Import Form Form 1 (with stamps from the boarder)
-B3 (to prove I paid the US taxes at the boarder)
-My bike insurance
-Maybe the bill of sale, I dont remember them looking at it but I had it. I brought EVERYTHING with me to the DMV matter of fact.
Then they charged me something like 6% or whatever Harmonized sales tax which was 186.81, with the plates and registration and all, registering the bike came to like $235.
There was no duty on the vehicle as it is over 15 years old. Sweet deal.
The worst part was that while I was registering my bike, I didnt have the Form 1 and the B3. It had not arrived with the bike as it should. So the DMV said I needed to go to the customs office to get them. The customs office here in Moncton New Brunswick said I had to get those from the broker. The broker said that for some reason if the bike crosses at the Detroit/Windsor bridge boarder, the forms cant cross with the bike so they were sent to me by mail. The broker was kind enough to fax me copies. I went back to the DMV and they told me I needed the originals as the faxed copies werent clear. I pleaded, and they accepted, and my bike was finally registered.
THE END
Well actually, not quite.
Now after putting in some riding time I have to get all the quirks out of this fucking thing! But thats another post I guess. I have a long list of issues but for the most part the bike runs great and turns heads, haven't seen any others around here.
If any of you have any questions whatsoever, feel free to ask, I will answer as soon as I can.
Thanks for reading dudes, and mighty Hailz!
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Hi there, Im a Honda chopper enthusiast and new on the board, so I thought for one of my first posts I would try and contribute something to this community. I recently imported a Honda Chopper from Texas to New Brunswick, Canada. Below I will summarize all the backflips I needed to make in order for this to happen. This may interest some of you Canadians thinking to do the same. Or it may bore you to death, if so please stop reading right here. 
To start off, let me give you a quick timeline on how long all of this took:
-Purchased a bike from a guy in Amarillo, Texas on May 17th
-Had it parked in my shed in Moncton, New Brunswick on June 21st
-Had it registered and insured on June 22nd
Part I: FINDING THE BIKE
So around early May I decided I would get the bike Ive wanted all my life, a chopped CB 750. The reasons why I didnt build it myself, I work full time, no resources or tools, plus I wanted to ride this summer.
I originally preferred to get one in Canada, since I knew shipping would be cheaper and less paper work, but I had a really hard time finding one I liked that was affordable in Canada. Here are some places I looked:
These searches gave me practically NO results:
1. I went to every bike shop in my home town and asked if they knew anyone selling one.
2. Checked the local newspapers, auto traders, vehicle traders, free buy/sell flyers
3. Placed a wanted add on a local biker website for the Maritime provinces
4. Called bike shops in Halifax and other big Maritime cities, and checked their websites.
5. Surfed the net for various Canadian newspaper sites to find their classified ads
6. Talked to friends, colleagues, etc
At this point, I realized I wasnt going to find what I was looking for locally, so I broadened my search.
These gave me SOME results:
1. Google man, googled myself to death, hours and hours on Google.
2. http://www.craigslist.org3. http://www.cycletrader.com4. http://www.buysell.com5. http://www.75vn.com6. http://www.lespac.com and http://www.annonce123.com (Quebec loves to ride, found a few here but expensive)
7. The Hondachopper.com FOR SALE / TRADE forum
8. And probably about another 50 or so websites which I dont remember. Lot of chop shop sites, etc.
9. The best place EBAY.
PART II: THE BIKE
So finally, after spending about 2 weeks on the phone and internet and on some days spending up to 8 hours searching, I found my best resource was very obviously Ebay. There were a few nice bikes and I ended up falling for this one:
cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Honda-CB-Honda-750-Custom-Chopper-One-of-a-Kind_W0QQitemZ290114820444QQihZ019QQcategoryZ80647QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Feel free to criticize or comment on the bike, I welcome it. I went with this one due to many factors, (ie: the look, the price, my gut, the little I DID know and the opinions of a few biker buddies and mechanics)
I had NEVER used ebay or paypal before but had help from friends. I ended up being the very last bidder with $2025, but his reserve wasnt met so he didnt have to sell the bike. I emailed him right away and offered $2200, and he accepted. I payed him via paypal. The deal was closed.
PART III: THE SHIPPING AND THE PAPERWORK
Before I bought the bike, I obviously researched the shipping as best I could. After calling and emailing several companies, I found a shipping company on google called JC Motors, and they seemed to have their shit together and a price I was willing to pay ($1182, taxes in), so I chose them. (website: http://www.motorcycleshippers.com )
As soon as I bought the bike on May 17th, I called JC Motors to let them know. No one answered so I had to leave a message, and then they called back and left me a very confusing message. To give you an idea of the amount of stuff you need to do when importing a bike, listen to the message for yourself:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5_hAT6lPbo
I had to listen to that 5 times to make sure I understood correctly. And that was just the tip of the iceberg; there is no way in Hell I could have properly prepared myself for the paperwork and constant faxes I would need to send back and forth for the next month.
Fast forward to present day, as I sit here now everything is done and I have the bike registered in my name, etc. I have laid down on the floor every document I had to fill out, sign, fax, read etc. It amounts to 12 separate documents. Here they are:
ALL THE DOCUMENTS:
After the purchase, got these from the bikes previous owner:
1. The American title (which noted the bike as an SPCN for Special Construction)
2. The American registration (which when I registered my bike in New Brunswick I did not need)
3. The Bill of Sale
From the shipping company I got:
4. Shipping Info. Form (basic information about shipping addresses, etc)
5. Shipping Info Agreement and Instructions (the shipping agreement I needed to sign)
From my broker I got:
6. Basic information sheet to tell me what needed to be done
7. Short Form Power of Attorney For entry of a Single Importation Form
8. U.S. Customs and Border Protection/NCIB, Vehicle Equipment Export Worksheet
After the bike crossed the border, I got these 2 from the broker:
9. Vehicle Import Form Form 1 (some crucial Canadian form that is stamped at the boarder)
10. B3 (somekind of tax form)
When the bike arrived at my house I got from the truck drivers:
11. Bill of Lading & Freight Bill (somekind of shipping form that was stamped at the border that I needed to sign when the bike arrived)
12. Visual Motorcycle Inventory (shipping form that showed condition of bike upon pickup which I needed to sign when bike arrived)
So basically thats almost all the paperwork I saw. I had to have access to a fax machine, Adobe Acrobat (to print .pdf files) and a printer. Without that, it would have been practically impossible to get the bike.
Part IV: THE PEOPLE I HAD TO DEAL WITH
Basically there were only 2 people I could ask questions to during shipment; my contact at the shipping company, and the broker. So every time I was sending a fax or asking a question, it was to one of these 2 people. They were the ones instructing me on what needed to be done.
Shipping company contact:
The shipping company guy was ok but HE SENT ME VERY SHORT EMAILS IN ALL CAPS. I wouldnt say he was the most helpful guy but he did his job ok, I dont have a major complaint.
Broker contact:
The first impression I had from the broker was him telling me about how he just got off the phone with some trucker who had to drop a bike at the boarder due to missing paperwork and how he was going to go down there and kick his ass or something. So much for a first impression.
The broker I feel wasnt necessary, but I guess he had contacts at the boarder and knew what needed to be done, etc. His fees came up to around $450 which included the taxes on the bike.
Part V: THE CONFUSION AND THE HASSLES
The worst part of the process was the paperwork. What fax needed to be sent where, when and by who and how it needed to be filled out was all VERY confusing, and Im not going to explain all of that. Just know that sending original documents by US Mail, even if you pay $20 and send it high priority still takes 2 fucking weeks. Fed Ex overnight is the way to go for documents, I learned my lesson on that one. I would have had my bike 2 weeks sooner if it wasnt for that tiny mistake. I often had to fax things back, re-fill forms and re-fax again, etc, but that was pretty much instant. Things could have went smoother if the broker and shipping company dude explained things better on the phone but they didnt.
Part VI: REGISTERING THE BIKE IN NEW BRUNSWICK
I went to a small DMV in a resort town called Shediac New Brunswick, to avoid the hassles of the big city ones. They asked to see:
-The US Title (which had the bike model listed as an SPCN, which they didnt know what it meant so they registered it as a 1980 Honda CB 750)
-Vehicle Import Form Form 1 (with stamps from the boarder)
-B3 (to prove I paid the US taxes at the boarder)
-My bike insurance
-Maybe the bill of sale, I dont remember them looking at it but I had it. I brought EVERYTHING with me to the DMV matter of fact.
Then they charged me something like 6% or whatever Harmonized sales tax which was 186.81, with the plates and registration and all, registering the bike came to like $235.
There was no duty on the vehicle as it is over 15 years old. Sweet deal.
The worst part was that while I was registering my bike, I didnt have the Form 1 and the B3. It had not arrived with the bike as it should. So the DMV said I needed to go to the customs office to get them. The customs office here in Moncton New Brunswick said I had to get those from the broker. The broker said that for some reason if the bike crosses at the Detroit/Windsor bridge boarder, the forms cant cross with the bike so they were sent to me by mail. The broker was kind enough to fax me copies. I went back to the DMV and they told me I needed the originals as the faxed copies werent clear. I pleaded, and they accepted, and my bike was finally registered.
THE END
Well actually, not quite.
Now after putting in some riding time I have to get all the quirks out of this fucking thing! But thats another post I guess. I have a long list of issues but for the most part the bike runs great and turns heads, haven't seen any others around here.
If any of you have any questions whatsoever, feel free to ask, I will answer as soon as I can.
Thanks for reading dudes, and mighty Hailz!
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