The process of getting a non-US model like the SFC 1000 registered in California is based entirely on luck, and how the individual that inspects the bike is feeling towards you. It is illegal to register the bike in California, to be clear, and the way that the friendly inspector gets it done for you anyway is to decide it’s a special construction bike, for which there is some regulatory accommodation and the possibility to bypass the non-US VIN. It is equally possible that bad things might happen, although given that the (25 years or older) non compliant bike can nowadays be imported legally into the USA and legally registered in other states, the worst case is not nearly as bad as it once was. Most likely I think they’d just send you away.
If the bike was e.g. a two stroke RG500 or similar blatantly non-compliant bike (the RG was also never sold in the US, but was sold in Canada) I think things would go in a different direction with the attempt to register in California.
