BULLETIN - BC Motorcycle Inspections

This bulletin in causing quite an uproar and surprise in the dual sport community. There are currently thousands of motorcyclists that have already taken a bike to a licensed inspector after it has been modified, received a pass, then registered and insured it for regular street use. The main reason is that bikes built for off road use are much more tough and powerful than there street legal versions. But not everyone who rides off road is rich enough, or even wants to buy a truck so they can transport it to a legal off road area, hence the dual sporting of it.

Are existing dual sported RUM bikes going to be taken off the roads?

There is much concern that if a bike has been registered and insured for many years there will be no grandfathering. So someone who lives in Vancouver city, for example, and has used their bike as a sole means of transportation for many years and sunk $10,000 into the bike, could be stopped at any time because the license plate is on the wrong angle, then sent for inspection, then failed at inspection as it was originally a RUM bike. Could this be a possible result?

It is hard to see why only a manufacturer could modify a RUM bike and call it a MC, whereas a person can not add the needed DOT parts and have it inspected by a licensed inspector. Maybe the inspectors need more training? A 2006 KTM 450 EXC is a RUM bike, unsafe for any road use. Yet a 2007 KTM 450 EXC has added signals and horns, etc and is a MC. Besides the added parts they are the same. The manufacturer still buys the same frame from a 3rd party, the same steering, etc, gathers all the parts and assembles them.

I don't see why we cannot buy a RUM bike, add DOT parts to make it comply, then register it as a U-Bilt. Does one need to take a RUM frame from a Honda, RUM wheels from a Yamaha, etc to make it a U-Bilt? I don't think that all the U-Bilt choppers had all of the parts made in their shop....they were ordered from a third party and assembled.