Street quads legal in NZ?

**Drogen Omen** · 15th May 2009, 16:31

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** · 15th May 2009, 16:33

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** · 15th May 2009, 16:40

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

**jim.cox** · 15th May 2009, 16:42

Originally Posted by Drogen Omen

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** · 15th May 2009, 17:16

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

**Cloggy** · 15th May 2009, 21:51

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

**yod** · 15th May 2009, 22:05

and they sound good too

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

**Hitcher** · 16th May 2009, 22:38

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** · 17th May 2009, 08:35

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** · 17th May 2009, 09:17

Originally Posted by DangerousBastard

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** · 17th May 2009, 11:24

Originally Posted by Blackshear

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** · 18th May 2009, 12:01

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** · 18th May 2009, 20:31

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** · 18th May 2009, 20:55

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.