"Street Legal"?

grandpaul

grandpaul

VIP MEMBER
Joined
Jan 15, 2008
Messages
13,265
Country flag
Several threads have touched on various aspects of bikes' "legality", such as DOT approved tail light, turns signals, mufflers, fenders, etc.

Anyone been cited/fined for having illegal equipment? Let's hear the stories, and include what state/country.

I know people with no chain guards, fenders, etc., AND squeeze-bulb type horns, that never have trouble.

I have personally NEVER been pulled over for an equipment violation in 40+ years of riding, well over 100 different bikes, many with fairly easy to spot violations. (Laredo, Texas)
 
I couldn't get my white Commando pass the inspection because the idiot doing it said I had a clear rear light (with red LEDs!) while the picture he had of a Commando had a red plastic lens... the same with my flashers. I have been pulled over only once for lack of a muffler, but I hear that the cops have roadblocks on small picturesque roads along the Saint Lawrence (route 138 in Québbec) on weekends to stop bikes with loud or no mufflers.

Jean
 
back in the UK, when I was much younger and, just possibly, rode like a tool, I had tickets for no chain-guard, undersized number-plate (you would have to be from there to understand, the legal plate size is approximately the same size as the trays old ladys serve hot sweet tea on, and cuts the top speed of a Suzuki GP100 by about 10mph), loud pipes (Alfa 4 into 1 on a Z550 - pretty obnoxious looking back, but sounded great to me then) and also, no mirror. I suspect it had more to do with the way I rode, and the attire I wore (mostly denim) than anything else, as I also have very clear recollection of an older me, on a ZZR1100, wearing a nice Arai helmet, in good quality 2 piece leathers, stout boots, Givi panniers attached, coming home from a little tour of Scotland at approx 120mph (speed limit being 70mph) right around Tebay on the M6, glancing in my mirrors - not normally required when riding 50 over the limit on a deserted motorway - and seeing a pretty clean Volvo in my mirrors, nice blue lights on top, you may know the type. anyways, being that I knew I was about to go to jail, I backed off the throttle a little, down to around 100, he pulled alongside, our eyes met, he gave me a nod and just drove on by. Lucky day.
 
Can recall fronting up for an MoT, and trying to switch on high beam, the fuse went zzzt. Fail...
Stray wire strand in the pilot light had escaped and been trapped, touching earthed housing.
(better there than on the highway).

Also recall registering a bike after moving to a different state, and a young lady came out to inspect bike, clipboard in hand, big long checklist.
O oo, here we go, I thought.
But it was soon obvious she knew nothing about bikes, so when she read out 'seat, mufflers, headlight, blinkers' etc I just pointed, and said yes yes yes yes....
Didn't even need to start it. Pass.
 
California, effective 1/1/2013, outlawed -

1) installation of any non-stock exhaust system one any new bike, or
2) the installation of non-stock exhaust on any old bike.

Apparently, non-stock, installed before 1/1/2013 is "grandfathered."

Stock or not is to be determined by the presence or not of an EPA sticker.

Supposedly, under this new law, LEOs can't cite you for it unless first they pull you over for some other reason.

How the heck am I gonna prove to some "twenty something" LEO, likely born after the build date of my Commando, that the peashooters on my bike are stock when the peashooters nearly predate the existence of the EPA, let alone EPA stickers ? ! ? !

The evolution of the regulatory state is one of ever increasing discretion given to regulatory authorities. So . . . . now I'm standing beside the road kissing some LEO's butt? hoping to avoid letters and documents historical magazine pictures and sales brochures and inspections and argument with some other LEO back at their HQ, or some judge, all to prove that my mufflers are stock?

Suppose I have some nice 1970s Dunstalls on my Commando? and I get cited . . . now I have to prove that I did not install them after 1/1/13 ?

Saw this this morning, now proposed in NY state - felony to cuss at a cop?

http://www.nysenate.gov/press-release/s ... ce-officer
 
hi guys ive just registered to your site, but have keenly followed alot of the forums for a couple of years now. i live in melbourne australia and have my 72 commando on club plates(59 club) only way i could get a roadworthy!! no chainguard, no rear fender, 17inch shorty megas police leave me alone now. do you have a club permit sheme in the US? cheap rego also, cheers
 
1980, 22 years old and on a 4 lane south of Casper, WY, on my H-D '57 straightleg (factory but raked) rigid-framed / FX Superglide 74 with straight pipes, drag bars, 10 over wideglide, no front fender, you get the picture. See a white car on my tail in the mirror, turn around for a look-see, yep, Wyoming DPS. Uh-oh. No speedo on the hog, so no point in slowing down. I just keep it steady with my eyes on the road. As he pulls up next to me on my left I look over and he's steering with his knees with the index fingers of both hands placed firmly in his ears. Yes, sir, I nod and say with a wave and he heads on down the road. Whew. I had to laugh... Never did put mufflers on that Harley. Thing sounded like a bomb going off when you kicked it to life. 1/4 of a Radial 8. Moms would pick up their kids and cows out in the fields would bolt when they heard me coming... I loved that bike and so did my friends who rode it. It also ran very reliably as strange as that may sound..... H
 
been saying it for quit a while. the straight pipe HD idiots will ruin it for everybody. it is amazing how much noise 50 HP can make without the benefit of forward motion.

xbacksideslider said:
California, effective 1/1/2013, outlawed -

1) installation of any non-stock exhaust system one any new bike, or
2) the installation of non-stock exhaust on any old bike.
Click to expand...
 
bill said:
been saying it for quit a while. the straight pipe HD idiots will ruin it for everybody. it is amazing how much noise 50 HP can make without the benefit of forward motion.

xbacksideslider said:
California, effective 1/1/2013, outlawed -

1) installation of any non-stock exhaust system one any new bike, or
2) the installation of non-stock exhaust on any old bike.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Yeah, well, if I was one of the "straight pipe HD idiots" that had anything to do with "ruining it for everybody", it took the noise 33 years to make it to California..... H
 
The Harley guys helped things in Pennsylvania by running around with strait pipes. They made it so the cops are so used to hearing outrageously loud motorcycles that you can run anything on the street and it doesn't get a second look.

In the 80s I got pulled over by the state police when riding the XR750 with it's open exhaust on a state highway, they made a special effort to turn around and come after me. I am sure now the noise would not even get them to look at me. Every morning Harley guys leave a Bar a block away from my house and it sounds like they are running special drag bikes, you can hear them forever as they fade into the distance. The kids on Jap sport bikes put on custom exhaust that you can hear just as far away. I have run the Norton Daytona racer on the road several times and not attracted any attention, no lights, no inspection and no insurance. Hopefully if I get caught up on the project I will do the same with the Manx and it's original type reverse-cone megga, to run it in and make sure the bolts are tight and bugs are out.

Luck has a lot to do with it too, for some reason I never got any ticket for running open meggas on my 850 Commando back in the 80s for a few years as a daily rider, but the noise may have helped them decide to pull me over for a few other things.

There will be a "bike night" downtown now and a guy on a chopper with straight pipes will rev the hell out of his engine for attention with cops watching and if anything they will cheer him on with the rest of the crowd.

Now days my old ears don't like noise much anymore. If it isn't an actual race bike then I want some stock style mufflers on it, the 60s stock mufflers sounded really good anyway.
 
Thirty years ago, they were fairly tight in some parts of the UK but these were 'construction and use' regulations so generally a moderate fine and no possibility of points on the licence which was always the biggest worry. At that time, many 'Traffic' officers were pretty knowledgeable about vehicles but I'd guess that few nowadays are. If the non-standard part isn't visible on a speed camera photo then the chances of being caught are slight, unless of course the bike is involved in a fatal accident in which case they'll really go to town.
 
When we were trying to get the Commando certified for US regs, in late 1967, it was the noise stuff that was the most difficult. There were two tests. both using directional micrphones 20 feet (I think) off the the side of the track and about 200 yards apart in the direction of travel.

The standing start acceleratiion test was relatively simple. You approached the start line at 20 mph in 2nd gear and wound it wide open, changing up one gear if necessary to avoid over-revving.

The constant speed test was the most diffcult to meet. Your rode past the two microphones in top gear at a speed that was 75% of the maximum capability of the bike. We failed several times before I got permission to bring in an audio engineer from MIRA to assist. We discovered that it wasn't exhaust noise that was the problem, but the flow of air through the cooling fins. I think it was due to the fact that the engine is tilted forward in the Commando installation. The MIRA whiz-kids came up with some fixes that enabled us to get the certification, along with better mufflers.

I was amazed to find, when we emigrated, just how noisy H-Ds were. No way could they qualify. I suspect that there was some regulatory "help" for Harley by keeping some of its overseas competitors out of the US market.
 
frankdamp said:
The standing start acceleratiion test was relatively simple. You approached the start line at 20 mph in 2nd gear and wound it wide open, changing up one gear if necessary to avoid over-revving. .
Click to expand...

Somewhere a bit later in the Commando's history, wasn't 2nd gear raised slightly (slighter taller geared) purely so it would pass the noise tests ?
Geared a bit taller, it didn't rev out quite so quickly, so was a bit further from the microphone when it got to 'full noise'.

No need to quieten it down, just raise the gearing so its out of range of the microphone !!
Smart engineering.....
 
35 years ago I had a US spec T150v with 16" rear, over length forks and the loudest 3/1 exhaust I ever heard, I got stopped all the time by the cops but strangely I was only ever given a producer (UK Docs. check ) and fined for no tax, my excuse was being skint , it didn't work !. After the Trident I had a Combat Commando and me being young and reckless the bike spent it's life at max revs, got stopped for speeding many times and always the cops would let me off with a bollocking and a slow down order (ha) . First time I ever got done for speeding on a bike was on a run around Z650, leading me to the conclusion you could ride like a twat as long as you was on a Brit bike.
I remember fondly the days of being irresponsible.
sam
 
trident sam said:
First time I ever got done for speeding on a bike was on a run around Z650, leading me to the conclusion you could ride like a twat as long as you was on a Brit bike.
I remember fondly the days of being irresponsible.
sam
Click to expand...

About the same sort of time-frame I had a 1957 650 Triumph. I broke down on it near Wigan. A guy on a Commando was going to help me tow it to somewhere to park it until I could get a trailer, etc. Anyway, two coppers happened along. They offered to store the bike for me in the yard by their police station. And, they helped me push is there. Once it was parked they noticed that I had no tax on the bike. So, I too got a bollocking, and was told to make sure I taxed the bike before I put it back on the road after it was repaired, but no ticket. I was a raggety-arsed student at the time and could barely afford petrol; perhaps they felt sorry for me. And they still kept it for a week or so until I could get back to pick it up. I doubt they'd do that these days.
 
That bike in my avatar had a 2-1 C&G exhaust on it, muffler cut down to about 10". I thought it sounded great, but was young and stupid. Inevitably the self tapping screw holding the muffler bit inside the exhaust fell out and the padding and perforated tube exited the bike, and disappeared in the road verge. Being skint that never got replaced, boy was it loud. I eventually got pulled at a set of traffic lights, by a local Bobby(what you Yanks call a beat Cop). With an allo allo whats all this illegal exhaust thing then, he proceeded to demonstrate his point by sticking his truncheon up the exhaust and produce a very tinny sounding clang, clang sound. Good point, unfortunately my bike never ran that well, and said truncheon came out rather oily and sooty, and lacking anything else, he had to wipe it on the bottom of his trousers. I got a fine for that, but probably because I didn't keep a straight face. :lol:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top