Korean Job Discussion Forums

[USANAK]

SOLD

Honda Magna 750

Year 1996

Location: Itaewon

No papers

2.5 million or best offer (Any reasonable offer will be considered)

Available immediately

Email: koesan(at)gmail.com or PM

I�m leaving Korea so time to sell the bike. I leave end of this month. Buyer can take immediately. If I can�t sell it before I leave a friend will take care of it until it sells.

I�ve been riding the bike for over 3 years, and maintenance has been regular: have an excellent mechanic who really knows his stuff. Beautiful bike to ride, very low center of gravity so if you are looking to move up to a bigger bike, this is perfect. Being a muscle bike, it is more powerful than fast, though it is not by any means slow. If you want to ride outside of Seoul, it is excellent for long distance trips, and has plenty of power for carrying a passenger. To know more about the bike visit this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Magna

Photos of the bike are available here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38728464@N04/#photo4094441676

Bike Details:

I had heated grips fitted. There is a switch on the handle bar however it is also connected to the ignition so that it turns off when you turn off the bike�s power. I can also give you some good cold weather gear such as gloves and neck sleeve.

The bike is fitted with a cobra exhaust system, the best you can get so the sound is brilliant. Mileage is about 130 to 140 km before you hit reserve, depends on how hard you ride: that�s about 22,000 won per tank full if you do what I do and always fill up the moment you hit reserve.

Condition of the bike:

It is in very good condition. In preparation for selling had my mechanic go over it, give it a major service: had new gears put in and a new chain, there is plenty of tread on the tires and the tank is in excellent condition, had the seat recovered a month ago, a real pleasure to ride, steady as a rock.

Issues:

The mileage indicator stuck about a month ago. As the trip meter and speedometer is working fine decided it wasn�t worth the cost of having it replaced.

A real shame is that there are no papers for such a great machine. In the interests of full disclosure the bike is registered, I�ve tried a few times over the past 3 years to transfer it, but no go. Then to add insult to injury the license plate either fell off, or was stolen. Reported to police, and the district office, but guess what, police won�t issue a stolen report, and the district office won�t issue a replacement plate either. Interesting statement from the officer the last time I saw them �Why don�t you not worry.� The important thing in their view was that if there was an accident then no worries the bike is registered. Go figure!

I�ve been riding for almost 3 years on the bike without any problems. Only once did a policeman ask me where the plate was when I was parked outside a coffee shop. I told him it was registered but the plate stolen, no problem, just walked away.

Great chance to buy a quality bike at a low price, if I had the papers this would be at least 4.5 million won, as that is what they normally go for.
If you are interested please email me at koesan(at)gmail.com or PM

*I�m also selling other stuff so if you are interested in Lazy Boy Chairs, TV etc., please check out my other posts.

[bassexpander]

Nice bike, but what sort of roadblock did you run into when you tried to transfer it but couldn't? That seems really odd, unless the original owner fled the country or something?

[USANAK]

Thanks, yes she is a nice machine. Had many a happy time riding around Seoul and Korea.

Long story short, the guy gave me all the papers I needed except one. He gave me his steal, still have it in fact, but of course at the time, dumb ass that I was, I didn't know I needed a certificate to prove it was his stamp. Obvious now, but then hindsight is 20/20 right? He left the country the very next day, by the time I found out, too late.

I have visited Yongsan District Office numerous times over the past 2 years to try to get them to transfer the registration, but no go. On one of the trips the papers I did have, which I had carefully put into a Samsung Insurance Folder, dropped out of my bag. It was the day they had that big siren test where they actually forced cars to stop and wait for the all clear. By the time the police let me through no sign of the folder.

If I hadn't safely ridden this bike for the past 3 years I'd think it was a bad luck bike for me

[byrddogs]

That is a sweet bike. It is unfortunate that there is no way to transfer ownership and not get tags for it.

I've owned and ridden a couple of 125s around during my time here that were unregistererd to me (one with no tag). I could not register either one or get tags due to lacking that ONE very important paper for doing so. Luckily I had no problems.

On that note, my friend ran into a license check earlier this year on his 125 Hyosung. He had no tag and the bike was not registered to him. The police took him to the station, impounded the bike and fined him somewhere around 1.3 mil won.

This is a much bigger bike that draws more attention. It might be worth the risk to not have it registered to you, but with no tags I'd never take that chance.

What would your shop give you for it? Good luck with the sale regardless.

[USANAK]

There is a good chance the shop will give me a fair price because of the value in parts. Will try that if all else fails. The tank alone would cost 800,000 brand new: all the parts are genuine so the bike is probably worth more stripped for parts than it is sold to ride.

Feel sorry for your friend, very bad luck for him, rare that happens. I'm surprised that not having it registered to him made any difference. Here they register the bike not the person, so anyone can ride it: or at least that is what Yongsan told me.

With the larger bikes they tend to pay less attention to you. I think the reasoning is that anyone riding a big bike must know what their doing, probably has a license. I've actually been waved through a license check, the police didn't want to know.

[Roderick]

DAMN! I'd love to buy your bike as I'm tooling around on a 250cc Mirage right now and seriously want to upgrade! My concern is the no papers as well. You can't plate it, insure it, and it will be DAMN HARD to sell it later!! You're breakin' my heart with this tease!
Seriously though... I agree with the other poster... You may just be better off selling to a shop for parts... as much as that may hurt ya. As a buyer looking to upgrade desperately the no papers thing is a real bust. Even if they were not up to scratch, as you posted, future buyers for anyone who owns this after you would be a real pain in the rear for not having them!
Good luck with whatever you do/decide. Believe me it hurts not to take you up on this!!!

[byrddogs]

[USANAK]

Thanks for the posts guys.

Yeah, I know what you mean. But fingers crossed there are some guys out there like me who don't mind taking the risk and will make a good offer. After all, I've been doing it for well on 3 years now without a problem.

If I end up having to sell it for parts, no worries. If I sat down and worked out an estimate of all the money I've saved not having to use a taxi, I figure it has more than paid for itself.

[USANAK]

Bump

[Roderick]

Price Drop!! Ah man you're killin' me!! LOL!

[fitta]

I drove the original Magna V65 1100cc, loved it. Solid engine.

What about your mechanic, can't he register it in his company's name? I sold a bike to a Korean mechanic before and all he needed was my signature on the 1 (ONE) main paper you sign at the City Hall.

Didn't need a chop, witness, nothing. He said for foreigners, that's all he needed.

I'd hate to see this bike parted out for lack of a stupid document.

[USANAK]

I had no idea you could do something like that. I'll get one of my Korean friends to ask my mechanic about it. I'm guessing that if he registers it in his company name, he can then 'sell' it to me, and we can transfer the registration into my name.

He's been working on my bikes for the past two years, and also my mate's Honda Magna too, a very trustworthy nice guy. So I wouldn't have any qualms about the bike being registered in his name, and if it is possible to do this I think he'd go for it.

Yeah...this paper thing is a real pain. In Australia I'd be able to have it de-registered, and then re-registered in my name, but in Korea they have no system for doing that. It seems that basically the car or bike is registered for life to the one person if the papers are lost and, not being the original owner, you can't get replacements. Whereas in Australia we have to pay registration every year and get a dated sticker. If you let the registration lapse the car or bike eventually gets automatically de-registered. Very expensive process to renew, and just to keep up to date: over $800 a year now to register your car.

I have someone coming over to see the bike today, I'll tell him about that too. Maybe this whole thing will have a happy ending. I'll let you know how it turns out. Thanks again for the idea.

[USANAK]

I've got someone looking into it now.

But what is the one paper you mentioned that I'd need from City Hall?

And more importantly, can I get that paper if the bike is not registered in my name? That has been the sticking issue everywhere I go.

[aphase]

Ok, it's not impossible to register a bike without having the other person sign the bike over to you, but it is pretty difficult.

I had a somewhat similar situation. When my friend left korea he sold me his bike which he was riding around unregistered. He had the deregistration papers from the previous owner tho. I went to the Gu-office and they told me it was impossible to register because i needed the previous owners signature stamp document, or he needed to sign it over to me in person. I sat there arguing with them for 30 minutes saying there must be SOME possible way. After awhile they gave me the phone number of some guy who provides the service of registering and getting insurance for people who are too lazy to go do it themselves. At least thats what i think his job was.

I called up the guy. for a fee of 100,000 won he took my de-registration paper, i made a signature stamp in my name for him, and he also needed someone else to set-up as a new previous owner or something. It was kind of confusing why, but I just had my aunt be the new previous owner transferring ownership to me (i'm half korean).

Anyways in the end he got it registered under my name, got me my plates, and helped set me up with insurance. Now i have the papers etc. which make it legit.

Your case might be a bit different tho since it seems like you have no papers at all. (i think the de-registration paper was pretty important).

And before you ask... i don't have the guys phone number anymore.

I also think this method might be somewhat illegal, but i thought it was funny the gu-office was able to recommend the guy to me anyways.

I'm not sure if going the mechanic route would help like a previous poster mentioned. I tried that first, and all the ones i went to seemed really unwilling saying it was illegal. They said however i could have taken the bike in to be sold for parts, which i thought was really strange. If someone doesn't legally own a bike, then how could they sell it for parts? Wouldn't that mean i could just take any bike off the street and roll it in to a shop and sell it for parts? hah.

[USANAK]

Great information, thanks.

Yes, there is no sense in the regulations, but that's the way it is and not likely to change anytime soon.

When I was asking around I was told by a few Korean bike shops that there was a technically illegal way to do it, but none of them would say anymore than that. None of them were willing to help me do it either, even when I offered to pay a fee.

A 100,000 won or more fee is nothing when you are dealing with a fairly high value bike. I've heard of those guys who do the registration work too, but it was explained to me as being a service that only works if you have all the papers: as you say, doing it for you because you are too lazy to do it yourself. I didn't know that some of them would bend the rules to make it possible. I'll pass this information on to the guy coming to look at the bike today. Might help me make the sale.

Thanks again