Street legal requirements?

[Johnny_5]

Hello,
Wondering if it is possible to take a "Dirt bike" such as a DRZ400E or KTM400 exc and get it licensed as street legal in NZ. Of course the bike would need signals, lights, street tires etc but would it be possible?

In the US it is very dependent on the State, Arizona = one of the least restrictive, California = not worth your time.

Thanks!

[Ixion]

Largely depends on whether there was ever a road going version. If so the basic design will be certified, and you are in effect "upgrading" to the road version. If not, probably not.

NZ is fairly liberal in such matters but it's still a timeconsuming expensive bureaucratic business.

[Ixion]

In theory, you might be able to get it certified as a scratch built. But it would involve a HELL of a lot of time money and argument. You'd probably have to take it all to bits and reassemble under supervision. In *theory* most things are possible. In theory.

Problem is , a new registered vehicle ahs to be able to be shown to comply with various international design standards, proving suitability and safety etc.

In the case of a model sold new for road use, this is done by the importer, backed up by (lots of) documents from the manufacturer. Once done once, everybody else can piggy back on that initial proof. So if your Poopmocycle MX is basically the same bike as the Poopmocycle DP, then you can point to the latter and say "It's the same deal as that one".

But if there's no analagous machine where compliance has been proven, you'd have to do the whole deal yourself. For a private individual to get that level of support from the manufacturer for a vehicle they stopped selling a while ago, is problematic.

Old (vintage) vehicels can bypass a lot of that, and if you pay enough people enough money something can be done. But it would be cheaper to hire a helicopter to fly the unregistered bike back and forth.

[Johnny_5]

Well for the DRZ obviously there's the S model that would be used as justification and in the US one of the KTM lines are now street legal of the floor (exc?, exf?, too many letters) but I don't know if the same is true in NZ.

More or less sounds like a pain and obviously not a common occurance. Are bikes not required to be street legal for enduro's?

[cooneyr]

Hello,
Wondering if it is possible to take a "Dirt bike" such as a DRZ400E or KTM400 exc and get it licensed as street legal in NZ. Of course the bike would need signals, lights, street tires etc but would it be possible?

In the US it is very dependent on the State, Arizona = one of the least restrictive, California = not worth your time.

Thanks!

Largely depends on whether there was ever a road going version. If so the basic design will be certified, and you are in effect "upgrading" to the road version. If not, probably not.

NZ is fairly liberal in such matters but it's still a timeconsuming expensive bureaucratic business.

Both of those bikes have been sold as street legal in NZ so providing it meats a WOF standard (mirrors, indicators, tyres, tail light with switch on both front and rear brake levers etc etc) they will be able to be road registered. You will need to prove ownership (receipt from purchase).

You should just above be able to find a DRZ400, or WR400/426/450 alread road reg if you look around enough. It you are really lucky you may find a KTM exc 400/450 already road reg and there are a slightly larger number of KTM exc 525's road reg (get one with a set of the motard wheels as well if you can ).

Good luck.

Cheers R

[cooneyr]

....More or less sounds like a pain and obviously not a common occurance. Are bikes not required to be street legal for enduro's?

Not sure about the club enduros requiring road reg but most 400ish bikes are not bought for on road or even enduros so many never get registered. There will be quite a lot of ktm exc and yammy WR road legal kits floating around in sheds in NZ.

Cheers R

[warewolf]

AFAIK the KTM EXC series have always been road-registered models world-wide, except in the USA for some bizarre reason. Ditto similar bikes from other manufacturers such as the DR-Z400E. "Plating" a bike as the Yanks say is only done here to (big) kids bikes etc when people with Duck's Disease want a short dirt bike for adventuring.

Equally bizarrely, for enduros over here you don't need to be road legal. Headlight is often the only thing required. So most dirt bikes that are road-registerable aren't registered, and few people hang on to the bits to pass on to the next owner. Registered bikes therefore command a price premium.

MX bikes with re-tuned suspension are common in enduro and cross-country races (and trail rides). When NZ hosted the ISDE in 2006 they got special dispensation to either register MX bikes or exempt them, as local riders didn't want to buy a different bike for 6 days' racing. Something along those lines, anyway.