How to Get Your Motorcycle in Korea!
Here’s a step-by-step guide to getting and riding your motorbike in korea!
There are two ways to ride bike in the land of the morning calm. Illegally and legally. I’ve done both I’ll explain in detail how to go each route.
The Illegal method.
1. Buy your bike.
2. Ride your bike.
Well that was easy! You can buy from a Bike shop or a private sale will suffice. Since you’re going to drive illegally, it’s just as well to go private sale and get a cheap bike with no papers. If you think you’re going to go the legal route later, get something with papers.
The Legal method.
1. Buy the bike
2. Get it insured.
3. Get it registered.
4. Get your Korean driver’s license with motorcycle endorsement.
It sounds pretty straight forward, but the devil’s in the details. Let’s look more closely. Let’s go through a private sale.
1. Buy the bike.
You’re going to need papers! If you’re going the private sale route and the owner says something like, “I lost the papers” then don’t bother with the bike, that’s what happened with my first bike, a 125cc Honda Shadow. Never got the papers, and there was no way to get them since the bike wasn’t registered to begin with. There ought to be three papers.
a. Certificate of Ownership (ingam jeungyeongso).
b.Title Transfer Form (yangdo jeungyeongso).
c. Release of Ownership Letter (sayong peji jeungyeongso).
2. Get it insured.
I use Samsung AnyCar insurance. Your best bet is to find a Korean friend who can recommend an insurance company. A coworker should be able to recommend something. Here’s where you can save some time. Ask about having the insurance agent doing the registration for you. In my first case, the insurance agent came to the bike shop, collected everything and returned with my plates! Hooray! Insurance rates have gone up and down in Korea this year. Anyone under thirty can expect to pay between 400,000 ~ 500,000 W for first time insurance. If you’re over thirty it’ll be significantly cheaper. Mine was under 200,000 W.
3. Get it registered.
Hopefully you were able to get the insurance agent to take care of this step. If not, it isn’t the end of the world. With all documents in hand (Passport, alien card, motorcycle papers, insurance info) go to the district office for your area in the city. it’ll be called ~gu Cheong. For example, if you live in Mapo-gu, it’s Mapo-gu Cheong. In Seo-gu it’s Seo-gu Cheong and so on. I didn’t know exactly where to take my stuff so I showed the bike papers to one of the workers who directed me to the correct desk. Be nice! The person serving you probably won’t speak any English but they will walk you through the process and give you a lot of help. I don’t think I would have gotten this level of service back in Canada speaking some strange language and being unable to fill out forms without significant assistance.
Side note: Getting MY bike registered…
I didn’t know about insurance stuff. So I went to the office, four times. Once with the papers, and I was told, sorry no insurance documents. The second time I had the insurance documents of my old bike. Sorry, but the new owner has to come in, get his insured before we can transfer the insurance. The third time with the new owner, the guy stayed for an extra hour past the end of his shift trying to help us. He spoke to the insurance agent on our behalf and even arranged to do a wire transfer to sort out the new insurance. The only problem was the rates had gone up and we didn’t have enough money between us to do a wire transfer to cover his insurance cost. So the insurance guy came in the next day and met us at the office, we paid him the money and got our bikes registered. Throughout all this the guy at the district office dealt with us professionally and very kindly given how unprepared were and how much help we needed.
4. Getting that Korean Driver’s license with motorcycle endorsement.
This may be the most difficult part. First you have to go to your embassy and get a sworn affidavit that you have an authentic license. This rule only started in February of this year. I got mine two years ago, when all they wanted was an exchange and an eye-test. Ah the good ol’ days. Now would be a good time to start dialing 1330 to get some info. Ask for the bus/subway directions for your city’s 운전면허시험장 (oon-cheon myeon-heoh she-heom jang). Remember to take your current driver’s license/affadavit with you along with your passport, alien card, some cash (30,000 ~ 40,000 W) to cover various fees, and some photos for the new license. When you get there go the the information desk and show your documents, they’ll be able to direct you to the correct people. Hopefully you’ll get a Korean class 2 license. This means you’ll just need to take a skills test for the motorcycle endorsement. If you get a class one then you’ll have to take some sort of written test as well. May God have mercy upon you, I have no experience with this, so I can offer no advice or tips.
Once you’ve gotten all of that straightened out you will need to book a skills tests. You may have to come back another time to take it, depending on the schedule. It’ll cost 6,000 won. The course is very simple and it’s all first gear driving. Here’s a diagram to give you some idea of what to expect. All you have to do is stay inside the blue lines. If you drive outside them twice you fail. But you can always re-take the test. Just practice making sharp turns before you go in and you’ll be fine. Once you pass the test take your document back to the 운전면허시험장 (oon-cheon myeon-heoh she-heom jang), and get your new license.
*MY* road test experience.
I flunked the first time. Actually I was the 59th person to take the test that morning and only 7 people had passed before me. I touched the line on each sharp turn in the beginning and that was it for me. I went back to the 운전면허시험장 (oon-cheon myeon-heoh she-heom jang) and set up another test. The second time I woke up at 5:30am and went out to a parking lot and started making sharp turns, I did it for about 45 minutes. The test location was pretty far away so I wanted to this to be the last time. When I got to the test course there were 3 college students practicing on it using a 125cc Mirage bike. I brought mine in and we all took turns practicing the course a couple of times before the place opened up, we even swapped bikes to get a feel for a different machine. After about two laps one of the testers came along and told us we had to get the bikes out. But I felt more comfortable now ahead of the test. The testing went much as it did the last time, four people passed out of the first thirty, but then 4 more passed out of the next ten, this time I was 41st to take the test, and the ninth person to pass.