FWIW... American (52), living in Wroclaw for a few years now, been riding for decades... (North & Central America, Continental Europe), bought an '83 BMW R80RT in driveable condition via Allegro.pl (Polish E-bay) from a used bike dealer/importer in Rzeszow (Rzeszów) about 4 years ago for 6000zl (exchange rate was about 3.50-4.00 to 1 USD - now it's about 2.80 :( ... the dealer took care of most of the paperwork - inspection, etc. registered in a Polish friend's name at the time as I was an Alien ;) Insurance - "Ubezpieczenia Samochodowego" - (liability only) is about 166zl/yr. (PZU - the biggest in Poland, or Alliance, etc.)- the bike is insured, not the driver and is based on engine displacement; insurance is good for the EU... you need to ask for a green International Motor Insurance Card - "Międzynarodowa Karta Ubezpieczenia Samochodowego" - for places like Ukraine.
Some notes, particularly for non-EU (i.e. "Aliens")
Brought my '91 BMW R100GS Paris-Dakar over last November ('09) - for Ukrainian highways... and beyond :-0 - from Chicago to Warsaw - Polish company in Chi-town "PolAmer" cost about $750, including crating. Submitted the original, clean title to customs for "permission" to "export"... the whole process, from riding it to PolAmer in Chicago and picking it up at PolAmer in Warsaw took about 5 weeks (by ship) - they FedEx'd the title back to me in Poland - and cost less than $900 and as good as no confusion. Brought it in as a "Tourist", had to run into the city, to the main PZU office to buy the insurance (at this time, branch offices aren't familiar with how to do it)... insurance can only be purchased monthly - currently 11zl/month. Tourist import papers are only good for 6 months, have a Polish translation of your title at all times, particularly if you are non-EU... they get "curious" when you're driving around with a Wisconsin license plate ;)
Drivers are agressive, you should be too, drunks aren't any worse here than Wisconsin farmboys in pickups, splitting lanes is basically mandatory - cage drives look at you wierd if you don't - in Wroclaw traffic ("katastofal"), it's like Moses parting the Red Sea... standing traffic will actually inch over to let you by... prety cool.... even if it's the only "plus". I see alot of crotch-rocket drivers here... typically doing extended wheelies down one of the six-lane main drags... right past the police station... haven't figured that one out yet.
Follow the mountains along the southern Polish border - west to east - turn right (south) into Slovakia and right again, into Czech Republik, stop in Prague, then head north to Gdansk and you probably won't be disappointed. I've heard Masura is pretty cool... you need a shotgun for the mosquitos ;)
That's about it for now, not sure if I'll monitor this forum much... if I get an e-mail, I'll pop back in... feel free to drop me a line... or drop by... cześć, na razie
BTW... my wife is Polish and speaks Ukrainian/Russian fluently
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