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Dave Harlan (president of the O.C. Dualies) sent the below e-mail out to all members this morning.....be aware;

Dualies,

This is from a trusted source within the club who "personally verified" a revocation letter from the DMV for his friends bike. This made me a little nervous so even though I'm riding orange, I verified the VIN's on my bike and looks like I'm OK. I also found and downloaded the DMV handbook for registering motorcycles and OHV's. If you want the entire handbook, let me know and I can send it to you but the specific page is shown below. You may want to review this in case there is a possibility that you are registered illegally. I would like to make everyone aware of this possibility in case it happens to you. If it does, please let others in the club know and let me know when you buy your new KTM so we can go riding again.

DMV Reg Handbook -OHV

(see sections 13.030, 035, 040)

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DAVE - I just got this letter from a "friend" and thought club members would be alarmed. I know this to be 100% factual as I saw the Revocation Letter from the DMV Involuntary Transfer Section. For anonymity purposes, please don't forward my name or others on this doc. Just erase all the headers and pump it out the club roster. Thanks

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I received a letter this week revoking the license plate for my Honda CRF dual sport bike.

It was the result of a license audit conducted by the California Air Resources Board. They polled all recent motorcycle license records, scanned the VINs for the 4th-8th characters and determined which bikes were legally equipped with street-authorized emissions systems. No smog certification = no plate. I was instructed to return my title (now canceled), registration, plate and tags to the DMV.

It didn't matter that I moved here with the bike from another state with a plate already on it. Their opinion of that? It was illegally registered in that state due to lax controls. But it did not comply with Federal emissions there so it was illegally licensed.

I phoned the ARB and DMV about this revocation and learned a lot about their activities. They have already sent out 1500 revocation notices, have 300 more going out today and many more to come. They told me that ALL off-road bikes that have been street licensed in the past 3 years should expect to receive this notification. The letter is plain and simple - "Your bike fails to comply with California or Federal emissions standards and cannot continue to be licensed for street use".

There are no exceptions, except the one we all know: - if your "off-road only" bike was purchased in California before 1/1/04 and a California Street registration was initiated by 1/31/04, it will be grandfathered in under the old law. This is considered a courtesy registration as California law calls for any bike after 1978 model year to comply with emissions to get a plate.

They expect many thousands of bikes to be involved. The title is canceled immediately, so the bike cannot be sold or transferred in an attempt to evade the law. If stopped by a traffic officer, the computer will identify the bike as unregistered and the bike can be impounded on the spot. The bike cannot be sold, as it is untitled, and a new off-road title must be obtained before transfer.

The only possible courses of action I see currently are as follows:

1) appeal the decision. Chance is slim, but perhaps as the number of complainants builds, it will help-

2) turn in the title and plates and apply for an off-road title and green sticker- move it and title it in a different state and deal with those issues

3) sell the bike out of state using the revoked title to transfer ownership. This MIGHT work according to DMV but numerous states are closing this option in a variety of ways. Example - Nevada now conducts smog tests on street licensed bikes, incl dirt bikes, so if there is no Emissions sticker, you fail and lose your plate.

4)Cheat by adding an Emissions sticker taken from a legal street bike and you've committed a Federal crime per the lawman.

According to my conversations, ARB feels they have an airtight case and no appeal will succeed. There will be no waivers or sympathy approvals. If you have street legal smog, you're in. If not, you're out.The price of legally plated dirt bikes is about to go up. Buy now! In the next two months, it is going to get very interesting ... again. Reminds me of 2003 and the big waiver, but this time, they say "no way". Smog expenses are too high and they have to enforce existing laws in order to comply with their charter. Hope this helps prepare club members and their friends.

Please don't identify the author of this note if you send this on. Thx guys - the Grim Rider. I'm thinking of switching from red bikes to ... orange. Akkkk!

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There are no exceptions, except the one we all know: - if your "off-road only" bike was purchased in California before 1/1/04 and a California Street registration was initiated by 1/31/04, it will be grandfathered in under the old law. This is considered a courtesy registration as California law calls for any bike after 1978 model year to comply with emissions to get a plate.

Example - Nevada now conducts smog tests on street licensed bikes, incl dirt bikes, so if there is no Emissions sticker, you fail and lose your plate.

This is conflicting in it self. If you are going to grandfather a 2stroke cr500 with no smog from factory, how could you not grandfather all bikes prior to 04. I suspect that will be their cut off. To hard to go back and make all bikes comply. Rules were to unclear. I bet they set a standard, and make all bikes THAT ARE STREET LEGAL after 04 pass a smog test. That will severely hurt the aftermarket industry.

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The selling price of my dualsport CRF 450R 2002 just went up since itis grandfathered in. :lol::lol::lol:

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Looks like the first step of many to mandate smog checks on motorcycles. If you modified keep the stock setup, just in case. :lol:

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The Motorcycle Manufactures need to get current, and start producing bikes with EFI. Cars did it in the mid eighties, now it is time for the bikes. This will give them the Steet Legal Emissions compliance.

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Dave Harlan (President of th eDualies) put out a follow up e-mail to members this morning - same subject:

Dualies,

Looks like I stand corrected and I could have my 2003 KTM plate revoked.

I've since learned the DMV and ARB say the 3 or C in the VIN doesn't matter any more. It has to do with whether you have a Federal or California Emissions sticker legally on your bike.

Here are two web links that spell out their agenda

Bottom-line – in my interpretation of the attached, your bike and mine will probably be recalled unless we stop ARB and DMV with a TRO or Cease and Desist letter:

arb

dmv

If after reading these memos, your convinced that these changes are accurate, then we need to fire up some activism to make our voices heard before its too late

Any ideas ? How about writing as letter to the AMA? I'm sending this out to all industry contacts as well to help spread the word and lets try to keep our bikes on the road.

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