SFC1000

The emissions label and associated inspection is only required when importing a motorcycle into California from out of state. Not for sales within California.

AAA is great for vehicle registration, a very useful end run around the government DMV office. It’s amazing that they are authorized to do government business, but they are.
 
Whot no mention of "Green Stickers"....aaah the Golden State of Confusion. I can remember back in the
1960's when CA Highway Patrol etc used to stop chopper riders and measure handlebar heights from the
ground with possible bureaucratic enforcement/oversight. Things and regulations are in constant states
of mutation=revenue streams if at all possible. Next....helmet laws !
 
EncinoBoy said:
Whot no mention of "Green Stickers"....aaah the Golden State of Confusion. I can remember back in the
1960's when CA Highway Patrol etc used to stop chopper riders and measure handlebar heights from the
ground with possible bureaucratic enforcement/oversight. Things and regulations are in constant states
of mutation=revenue streams if at all possible. Next....helmet laws !
Click to expand...
What is a 'Green Sticker'?
 
In California a ‘green sticker’ is related to the state registration of off road vehicles using the huge swaths of public land in the state. The program was established in the early 1970s. There also red stickers, with green or red depending on the emissions compliance of the off road vehicle, and a Byzantine and ever changing set of rules relating to when and where vehicles with a green or red sticker can operate.
 
If memory serves the Green Sticker program was started in the late 60's (?) from the CA
DMV to register and collect a fee to enable you to ride your dirtbike in a public accessible off-
road environment. Since I was a motocrosser then and not a desert rider I never paid this hit
but everyone who wanted to ride in the desert or open spaces of State land were so taxed. I
am now informed there is a Red Sticker programme as well....bureaucracy run rampant. Perhaps
current CA residents can clarify my fifty year old thoughts.
 
From memory of stuff I read in USA magazines, it got to the point that anything dirt bike-related couldn't get rego. People found interstate loopholes to register competitive off-road bikes in California. We in Oz had something similar, but the loophole here was a couple of businesses who put converted Japanese MX 2 strokes with lighting kits through our Australian Design Rules for rego, not an easy thing. Bert Floods in Victoria, and another on the NSW Central Coast, maybe Warren Willings was another. Been here before, but one thing the Yanks would constantly go on about was the lack of something called a spark arrestor on mufflers and the well-known myth of thousands of these bikes causing bushfires everywhere in summer. That's a mesh screen across mufflers that stopped backfire sparks, causing bushfires. These screens would end up blocked and stop bikes from running. Nobody in Oz with similar fire risks has ever heard of these things. We got mesh screens in Airboxes cause every blue moon, an air filter would catch fire from a backfire, but never mufflers. Just that and loud sound effects resulted in a huge law crackdown on off-roading on bikes
 
If not looking to be bored with California bike licensing requirements, skip my post.

The green and red stickers in California are for all vehicles that are operated off road on public lands. If operating the vehicle on private land, no sticker is required. Also if the vehicle is registered for on road use and has a license plate, a sticker is not required to take it off road. And again the sticker is only required for use on public lands. It does not matter what the vehicle is (motorcycle, ATV, dune buggy and snowmobile) all need the sticker.

If made prior to 2002 it gets a green sticker.
If made after 2002 and is emission compliment, it gets a green sticker.
If made after 2002 and not emission compliment (two stroke engine) it gets a red sticker. Red sticker vehicles can have restrictions placed on them as to where and when they can be used.
If made after 2022 and not emission compliment, (two stroke engine) no sticker will be issued so you can only ride on private land. So four stroke bikes are OK but not two stroke.
Some state parks which allow off road use, will not allow any red or green sticker vehicle and it must have a license plate.

In California you can make an off road only bike street legal but it has become very difficult in the last few years. Remember my previous posts about 1978 and newer bikes needing a Federal emission label? This did not used to be a requirement as I have a 1996 Honda XR400R that was off road only and had a green sticker, it is now street legal and I can ride it anywhere.
 
Silvaire said:
@Laverdalothar the one advantage that California has over Germany and other places is no TüV or MoT inspections for our bikes, and therefore unlimited modification without approval. No official technical inspection has ever been done on any of my motorcycles, ever, since new. So we scurry about making fake emissions compliance stickers to get the bike registered, but nobody cares at that point or forever if the only ‘correct’ thing on the bike is the sticker.

My wife is Bavarian so I’m roughly familiar with the comparison. Neither Germany or California is as good as e.g. Montana or Florida for lack of bureaucracy and reasonable costs, but unfortunately those latter places don’t have so many twisty Alpine roads!
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I am not sure if having no regular inspection is an advantage really. Yes, it can be annoying, no doubt. However, the TÜV equivalent called DEKRA has found at least twice issues on my bikes I wasn't really aware of. Once it was the scooter of my son, which we wanted to upgrade from 25km/h to 45km/h speed limit (different driving licenses - don't ask...). I recognized that China banger was behaving weird (self turned to the right), but could not tell what it was. When the TÜV-guy jumped on it, it took him just 2-5 meters of driving to tell me that something's wrong with the stearing head or the fork.

At home, i found the lower triple clamp (well - it just has a lower one actually) was bent and the while wasn't straight. Did not really recognize that... Bought a used one for 25€, new bearings and all of a sudden, you could ride that thing freehanded!

Similar issue on the Vespa of my wife: it was actually running fine and straight, but turning was a bit of an issue sometimes. DEKRA guy controlled the headstock and found it was not freely turning. Returned home, took things apart and found the grease to have hardened. removed it, put in a new bearing (allthough the old one was still good, but I had it handy...) and voila - free turning headstock!

1000 SFC once was at OCT years ago. TÜV guy said, the rear wheel bearing wouldn't be OK anymore. Roger later tested it again and said that he can not find anything wrong. Told him I want to go to italy with the bike and he said that should be fine with no problems. 400km later, the rear wheel bearing was so damaged, the rear wheel started turning sidewards...

I understand the US point of view of being responsible yourself for the things you do. However, how many Motorbikers are really good mechanics? I have several ones and am not a good one either... Further to that, it's not only about protecting you: if you have an accident with the bike due to a technical failure, the bike can slide into other people and kill them.

Regarding tuning: I have done so many things to my bikes, all of them have TÜV-approval. Even the 3-1 Megaphone exhaust is still in the papers, it might be illeagal though (and defenitely not environment friendly or good for the relationship to my neighbours... ;-)

So - there is good and bad in both systems.
 
Interesting California discussion. When I got 3184 from the Romanelli eBay auction, after putting it together I went down to the DMV and inquired what I had to do. They directed me to the California Highway Patrol for a VIN verification. You would have thought I was trying to register a Klingon warbird. It didn't help when they took the bike back for inspection, and while sitting there, they were explaining to the fellow next to me that he either had to take his bike out of state or destroy the engine, as he didn't have proof it wasn't stolen. I had the MSO, so I was good there, but when they came out they had riveted a plate to the downtube, and registered it as a special construction vehicle. WTF !

But here I am, many years later, with my 916 on BAT and contemplating the SFC, which has 1875 KM. Not encouraged by the 1200 that was sold today, but a totally different beast; mine is bone stock but for Witt ignition. Bad hip is going to be someone's good luck. Here's a very recent video after following Wolfgang's very complete carb rebuild instructions. First try !
 

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Tyrrell018 said:
But here I am, many years later, with my 916 on BAT and contemplating the SFC, which has 1875 KM. Not encouraged by the 1200 that was sold today, but a totally different beast; mine is bone stock but for Witt ignition. Bad hip is going to be someone's good luck. Here's a very recent video after following Wolfgang's very complete carb rebuild instructions. First try !
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Please let me know if you’re interested in selling the SFC to a good, local home. I believe you and I may have interacted very briefly on BaT after I saw the SFC in the background of a photo attached to another bike sale and my interest remains. I’d like to be the guy with the “good luck” in this case.

I’ve also sent a DM with more details. Thanks.
 
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At some point, I was trying to reregister some old bike I owned, and if it stopped being road-registered for 3 months, you need a more complete inspection called a blue slip. Not many businesses bothered to qualify to do bikes. Anyway, the place I picked decided either the frame or engine number looked dodgy and insisted the bike got trailer to something called The Scientific Squad, I guess now known as Phorensics at the biggest Cop Shop locally. So I made an appointment and turned up. The bloke came out, spent 30 seconds looking, and signed some form. I slept soundly knowing my $500 Dirt Bike was okay legally. Why I got rego was the Government had decided riding unrested Dirtbikes a couple of hundred ks in the middle of some state forest was now the crime of the century and set up Motorcycle Cops on off-road bikes to crack down, The fine for riding unregistered was $900, rego for my bike back then was $400.
 
California does not know what a SFC1000 is as this model Laverda was never sold in the USA. Not even Canada or South America got them.

To the California DMV, they say what is a SFC1000 as we have never heard of one? So they assume it is a special construction bike made by the owner.

I don't know about the other few SFC1000's in California but mine is registered as a 1982 1200TS as that is how it got by customs and California.

As best as I can tell there are less than ten SFC1000's in the USA and four are in California.
 
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