Street quads legal in NZ?

[Drogen Omen]

I was wondering if Street Quads are legal in NZ...

I have been looking at either building or importing one of these street quads.

My wife is ready to get a bigger CC bike but is way too short for anything taller than a GN250's seat height. we have even looked at a Buell Lightning XB9SX it is still too tall.

I have all the tools to build one and would make a nice project to accomplish...

But its just the Legal side of things... A trike is still classified as a bike so is legally allowed on the road but quads have that extra wheel which classifies them as a car and need to pass car regulations.

The red Honda Hornet Trike looks cool...

Any idea's/thoughts...

[jim.cox]

Quads and trikes don't lean for corners, and can't lane split or filter

So get her a Hog if she's a short in the leg

Just my $0.02

[Drogen Omen]

yeah we are looking at the Suzuki VZR1800 M109R at the moment.

[jim.cox]

yeah we are looking at the Suzuki VZR1800 M109R at the moment.

Nice motor

Shame about them beating the bike with the ugly stick though

[Drogen Omen]

This could be the answer... should have the same legal road rights as the Can-am Spyder.

[Cloggy]

Why don't you just go for the Can-Am Spyder?
They look good, go well and solves any legality questions.

[yod]

and they sound good too

but they ain't anywhere near as much as two wheels

[Hitcher]

I thought that quads were supposed to have four wheels, not three?

And trikes are legal in NZ. Two wheels at front = car. Two wheels at rear = bike.

[CookMySock]

If you build something yourself and get it certified, you can register and ride anything you want on the road. There are all manner of claptrap around, some of it particularly dangerous looking.

The problem occurs mostly, when you get an imported vehicle that was declared "For OFFROAD USE ONLY" and they are really hard to road-register.

Steve

[Blackshear]

If you build something yourself and get it certified, you can register and ride anything you want on the road. There are all manner of claptrap around, some of it particularly dangerous looking.

The problem occurs mostly, when you get an imported vehicle that was declared "For OFFROAD USE ONLY" and they are really hard to road-register.

Steve

Claptrap, you say?
A few months ago in my foggy memory, I saw some crazy motherfucker in a trike... With the engine on the single back wheels swingarm... AND IT HAD THE BODY OF A PLANE, Fucking damn near crashed laughing in awe.
Sounded like the engine had decent poke, but.

[CookMySock]

Claptrap, you say?
A few months ago in my foggy memory, I saw some crazy motherfucker in a trike... With the engine on the single back wheels swingarm... AND IT HAD THE BODY OF A PLANE, Fucking damn near crashed laughing in awe.
Sounded like the engine had decent poke, but.Yeah there is some funny shit around. Have you seen the trike with a V12 in it? It's fookin maaaasiive!

It's a grand and old kiwi tradition - bolt a motor, fuel tank, wheels, and supercharger together, and wrap a skinny shell around it and go do wheelies in it. Long may it last IMO. These days it has given way to to hotting up jap import cars.

I quite like the moped way of thinking. The motorised shopping trolley thing got me started - under 50cc, under 50k/hr, any drivers license is fine. All manner of absurd things could be ridden around the street in hilarious fashion.

But quads, yeah I would be keen on a big-banger quad on the streets. It's just if it has "OFFROAD USE ONLY" stamped on it, kinda you are screwed after that. Maybe at least one of them comes in without this.

edit: I see a few quads are road-legal in the UK, one of them being the Hyosung Rapier TE-450. If they are road-legal there, then that will be valid logic to register them likewise here.

Steve

[CookMySock]

Further to this ;

I checked if the Hyo TE450 quad is imported as "OFFROAD USE ONLY" and it is not. This means it should go through the VIN process quite painlessly.

I got an offer from Peter at (team at emoto.co.nz) to "come in and grab it and try and comply it" but I'm too far away and I'm broke, so someone in Christchurch might take him up on his offer if they were interested.

Steve

[Drogen Omen]

Check out this website

http://www.lazareth.org/lazareth.php

They do Awesome Street Quads and Trikes... they were made for the movie Babylon A.D. and now they sell them to the public... a bit pricey though...!!!

Trike - Triazuma
Quad - Quadrazuma

[Hitcher]

The worst trikes I've ever seen are the ones that are sold in the USA, usually customised Harleys or Wings. They're great lard-arsed things. The proportions are all wrong. Trikeworks does a much better trike build. They should use better diffs and then export to the USA. They'd clean up, IMHO.

[Hazza]

This could be the answer... should have the same legal road rights as the Can-am Spyder.

These things are stupidly fun they go rather quick and they do mean skids. But i'm all for 2 wheels because three just isn't right

[bungbung]

Why not? this caught my eye:

[Drogen Omen]

But i'm all for 2 wheels because three just isn't right

What about for those people that aren't tall enough in the leg to ride a 2 wheeler and doesn't want a cruiser or scooter but they love riding bikes...???

A Trike or a Quad would be the best option to allow them to keep riding...

Quads and Trikes are still classified as bikes...

Remember that I didn't ask whether or not YOU guys prefer 2, 3 or 4 wheels...

[CookMySock]

Someone said quads weren't legal on the highway because they had a solid rear axle.

Steve

[roadracingoldfart]

Back in the late 80s we converted a TRX500 for a guy with a leg injury. He got a grant from some organisation and we converted the tyres to radials and installed a go cart diff still with chain drive..

There was some rule about the clutch being the catagory the bike fell into for helmet or not.
Hand clutch was a bike so wear a helmet and foot clutch a car so dont have to wear a helmet. Something like that anyhow.

Yer i know that was in the 80s , still a good story , that guy got a life back.

[fredie]

http://www.jfks.co.nz/cart.php?target=product&product_id=210&category_id=260:Punk:

[fredie]

Why not? this caught my eye:is that rego :jerry::Police:

[jono035]

One of these, definitely...

http://www.superbike.co.uk/imageBank/p/P10100095.JPG

I remember my old man saying something about registering a quad as a bike or a car, something about having to have seat belts if it was registered as a car but not having to wear a helmet. Probably goes with the clutch differences too...

[marty]

The worst trikes I've ever seen are the ones that are sold in the USA, usually customised Harleys or Wings. They're great lard-arsed things. The proportions are all wrong. Trikeworks does a much better trike build. They should use better diffs and then export to the USA. They'd clean up, IMHO.

come on hitch - you've been there - you can see the sense in having one on those long freeways across the nevada desert....

[Hitcher]

come on hitch - you've been there - you can see the sense in having one on those long freeways across the nevada desert....

It's not their performance, it's their styling, or rather the singular lack of said.

[pstar]

Sorry for bringing up a old thread. Just wondering if there was a definitive answer to whether atv/quads can become road legal in NZ