Moving to Finland From the USA

[Millsy]

Hello everyone!
My name is Matty and I'm moving to Finland with my beautiful wife of 8 years in a few months. I will be bringing my 99 buell m2 chopper with me to keep me sane. As part of the deal with my wife for uprooting myself and moving to a new place where I don't speak the language. I've had good luck talking with a lot of people from Finland with English! Sorry I don't read or understand much Finnish yet, but I'm working hard on it and hope to take some language classes once we are situated in Kuopio.  

A little background on myself.....I'm 27 and love anything with wheels and a loud fast motor! I love choppers most of all though. I'm hoping to build myself a nice Triumph long chopper in the classic 70's style. I like them so 70's you get a little contact buzz!
I'm looking forward to moving and getting into some metal fabrication schools and becoming a finnish citizen! I'm a pretty laid back guy and love making new riding and wrenching buddies. I'm planning on importing some vintage parts and already working with a forum member to bring in some goodies! If you are in or around Kuopio ( Siilinjärvi) message me and maybe we can ride together and have some drinks!!  here is pictures of my choppa!

thanks!
and again sorry for my lack of finnish
Matty Mills

[Webmaster]

Welcome to Finland (even though I´m in Japan currently) and Finnbikers forum Matty.
You have very nice Buell chopper. I hope you get registration plate on that from Finland.
Don't worry about your Finnish skills, your moving to Kuopio, they don't speak there Finnish either 
They have own beautiful dialect.
But anyway, nice to have something different to this forum. Keep on posting here your journey in Finland.

[Pepedro63]

Welcome to Finland Matty and hope everything goes well in your moving. If you ever find yourself near Ylivieska, message me. Allways have bed, food, beer and sauna ready;-) Nice chopper you have, boys in clubhouse sure like to see it.

[Tuusulan T-Bone]

Welcome indeed!

A rather exotic Buell You have... Although it does not meet the modern, exhaustive Chopper Standards in Tuusula , I may have some ideas just how to legally register it in Finland despite the massive bureaucracy and flood of rules. Some modifications are required in any case, but the idea is to keep them as little as possible.

[Hemuli]

As we already briefly discussed on Facebook, you might run into some issues since your bike is titled as Buell - yet it doesn't have much left of the original bike. But as they say - "where there's a will, there's a way". In this case, most likely it will be enough that your bike has been registered as it is in US - you will have to add stuff like front brake, turn signals and some kind of muffler but nothing you won't be able to accomplish.

So you say you're going to move here in few months? Are you shipping the bike before you leave so it'll be here sometime beginning of 2013? You might want to start the registration process as soon as possible in order to be able to ride next summer.

There is also option of bringing the bike here as a "tourist vehicle" - meaning that your permanent residence is outside of Finland. Then you could ride it here with US plates for six months within a 12 month period. That way you'd have time to figure out the registration process and not miss riding next summer.

But anything you need to know, don't hesitate to ask. I just got off the phone with the fellow who replied to you above, "Tuusulan T-Bone", and we'd be happy to help you with the process.

[Millsy]

I'm glad you all like my Buell, it doesn't get a lot of attention here because it's not a panhead or knucklehead or shovelhead.
Thanks to you for your help and advice on getting my bike into Finland. I really hope I can register it without too much headache. Like Hemuli and I talked about the the motor is the only thing that's buell about it. The bike was built by a shop here in the states to be a show bike {Ardcore choppers Its a Dirty game). I bought it and changed everything but the drivetrain and frame. New wheels, seat, fender brakes, bars, some wiring,tail light and its getting a new gas tank painted up by a really good painter here named Michael Geltz. He paint's for a lot of my buddy's with HEAVY and is cuttin me a good deal! I'm not much of a fabricator yet but I plan to attend some classes for metal working and machining.

Who should I contact in finland about the paperwork I will need? I do need to get working on that. The bike is going to be shipped pretty soon here. The cost isn't too bad it will be under 2000$ usd for me with customs fees and shipping from my home In iowa to the transport facility in nyc then to Finland. I will be keeping the bike at my Father in laws shop in kuopio till I can find an apartment with space or a house with garage. I'm bringing my basic hand tools and will need access to grinders and saws and a drill press!

I'm already very happy to have help and compliments with the process and I'm looking forward to living and riding in Finland with a new group of good people!

Thank you all for helping to ease my worry some! 

[Tuusulan T-Bone]

Who should I contact in finland about the paperwork I will need?

Me. E-mail: teemu (at) testmill.fi

[Millsy]

T-BONE email sent! thanks man!

[hirvenjalka]

Welcome to Finland & Kuopio!
Here is not enough cool bikes yet - so we need that buell indeed.

[Kiwi]

Welcome!

And next you are going to buy Psycholasses Triumph? 

http://finnbikers.fi/foorumi/index.php?topic=5742.0;topicseen

[Millsy]

Funny you mention that Triumph I was looking at it on Nettimoto haha.. I want a triumph long chop. Maybe someday soon!

Thanks for all the welcoming's I'm very excited to Move to finland! Looking forward to lots of riding and plenty of beers in the sauna!

[mirka]

Welcome to Finland and to Kuopio.
You should remember that the dialect of language in Kuopio is quiet funny to listen as Jarppi earlier mentioned.
Kuopio is nice city. And buell choppers are wanted bikes to this web site and to finland..

[Millsy]

So many people have told me that Kuopio has a different dialect, I tease my wife because she says its kind of like having a southern drawl here in the USA if you live in the southern states! kinda hillbilly redneck hahaha!

[Jack]

I bet you gonna find out that living in Alabama is better than in Kuopio...

[Smokie]

Why so, I bet nobody knows about muikkukukko at Alabama