961 California Import

lcrken · Dec 2, 2021

City Garage said:
We have a 2015 in the shop apart right now and the sticker says it complies with both standards. I think this is because there are multiple states that have as stated above adopted the same CARB standards.. 2twc(catalytic converter) 2HO2S (heated oxy sensors)View attachment 83175

That's the same label that mine has, except the date is 2013. The bike is titled as a 2014, but was manufactured in January of 2015.

Ken

lcrken · Dec 2, 2021

City Garage said:
California has cracked down on out of state purchases without titles. The Skorpion was CARB approved so unless the label got lost it could be registered here with less than 7500 miles

I owned a 1998 Skorpion that I recently sold to a friend. When I had trouble trying to transfer the current 1997 model, I went over and looked at the 1998, which had both the Federal compliance sticker, and a California emissions compliance sticker. The 1997 does not have the California compliance sticker, and there is no evidence of one having been removed, so I concluded it was a 49 state model. The DMV here (Ventura, CA) concluded the same thing, and would not transfer on a bill of sale. They said if it had the Calfiornia compliance sticker, they could transfer it with just the bill of sale. I realize that different DMV offices may not always read the rules the same, but this was my experience. When I bought the bike, the previous owner told me he had been unable to get it transferred at his local DMV office (Monterey, CA), for the same reason. He said he had bought the bike from New York on eBay, and the seller could not provide a title, only a bill of sale. On the good side, because of his problems, I got it for a really good price,

Ken

City Garage · Dec 2, 2021

lcrken said:
That's the same label that mine has, except the date is 2013. The bike is titled as a 2014, but was manufactured in January of 2015.

Ken

Thats funny. You would have thought it would have been dated 2014 at least!

City Garage · Dec 2, 2021

lcrken said:
I owned a 1998 Skorpion that I recently sold to a friend. When I had trouble trying to transfer the current 1997 model, I went over and looked at the 1998, which had both the Federal compliance sticker, and a California emissions compliance sticker. The 1997 does not have the California compliance sticker, and there is no evidence of one having been removed, so I concluded it was a 49 state model. The DMV here (Ventura, CA) concluded the same thing, and would not transfer on a bill of sale. They said if it had the Calfiornia compliance sticker, they could transfer it with just the bill of sale. I realize that different DMV offices may not always read the rules the same, but this was my experience. When I bought the bike, the previous owner told me he had been unable to get it transferred at his local DMV office (Monterey, CA), for the same reason. He said he had bought the bike from New York on eBay, and the seller could not provide a title, only a bill of sale. On the good side, because of his problems, I got it for a really good price,

Ken

That's interesting because CARB approved them in 1997. Again a 49 state bike issue I guess. We have used CARB's own files to get bike registered when the sticker is "missing". You are right about who you talk to. Thats why its easier to have a private verification done then present the paperwork to DMV

https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/defaul...id--4-2169__itr--1_660_0d8_h__mfralt--muz.pdf

lcrken · Dec 3, 2021

City Garage said:
That's interesting because CARB approved them in 1997. Again a 49 state bike issue I guess. We have used CARB's own files to get bike registered when the sticker is "missing". You are right about who you talk to. Thats why its easier to have a private verification done then present the paperwork to DMV

https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/classic/msprog/nvepb/executive_orders/EO Files/HMC/1997/MUZ/muz_hmc_m-024-0002__year--1997__ver--orig__uid--4-2169__itr--1_660_0d8_h__mfralt--muz.pdf

Thanks for that document. I'll take it along when I try to use the Vermont registration to get it titled and registered here in CA. I don't expect any problems with that, but you never know. I did consider going through a professional service to get it registered here, but the DMV was quite firm about it not being possible, so I didn't pursue further. In hindsight, I probably should have looked around for a local service. Might have cost a little more (Vermont registration is bargain priced), but would have been worth it for the time and effort saved. Live and learn.

Ken

lcrken · Dec 3, 2021

City Garage said:
Thats funny. You would have thought it would have been dated 2014 at least!

Suprised me too, but that's how it is. And I know the history of the bike, so I'm pretty sure it came that way from the factory. I'm the second owner. The first one bought the bike new from GP Motorcycles in San Diego. I bought it from him in January 2018 with only 402 miles on the odo.

Ken

City Garage · Dec 3, 2021

lcrken said:
Thanks for that document. I'll take it along when I try to use the Vermont registration to get it titled and registered here in CA. I don't expect any problems with that, but you never know. I did consider going through a professional service to get it registered here, but the DMV was quite firm about it not being possible, so I didn't pursue further. In hindsight, I probably should have looked around for a local service. Might have cost a little more (Vermont registration is bargain priced), but would have been worth it for the time and effort saved. Live and learn.

Ken

If you run into that again let me know. As long as you have a title the vin verification people are great to work with.

lcrken · Dec 3, 2021

City Garage said:
If you run into that again let me know. As long as you have a title the vin verification people are great to work with.

Thanks, I will. One other thing that made the Vermont route so attractive is that, because of COVID-19 concerns, they waived their normal requirement to have an approved verification person look at the bike and verify the VIN, etc. All I had to do was send a photo of the VIN tag along with my application. I'm not sure how long that will last, but it saved me a lot of trouble, and some cash.

Ken

961 California Import

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