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Originally Posted by theunchosen
I really don't think so. Most people are not that familiar with cars overall. A police officer that is very familiar with cars will know this is a custom job.
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I'm pretty sure most police officers would notice a Honda car with only three wheels isn't exactly a motorcycle. Most officers aren't incredibly knowledgeable, so they probably wouldn't pick out model differences, but a three wheeled Honda registered as a motorcycle is something most people could pick out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by theunchosen
There are two reasons the officer will not do anything about his suspicions that something is amiss.
1.) The vehicle carries a legitimate rebuilt title that checks out when he runs it through his system and states that the Motorcycle was wrecked and then used to be rebuilt(there are no specifications that demand it look or use any of the original parts. I could take a Deed of destruction and slap the VIN on anything with 3 wheels and for all intents and purposes it is the old vehicle.) In essence the officer has no provision to do anything. You are the legal owner of a rebuilt vehicle that matches these specifications.
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If we were doing this with something that's obviously a trike, even with a bbc in it, then I'd be more inclined to agree, but this will look mostly lke a car, less one wheel in the back, and that will set off bells even with an officer who doesn't know much about cars if it's registered as a motorcycle. The exception would be modding the car to the point where it looked like a MC, but at that point it is for all intents a MC.
Quote:
Originally Posted by theunchosen
2.) Its extra paperwork for something that won't count towards his quota and the risk of getting entirely chewed out for irresponsibly harrassing a law-abiding citizen is pretty high.
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It's not that much extra paper work, at least given their behavior. They give people many free passes to the state ref for stuff as small as an exhaust or air intake w/o a CARB sticker, so I don't think paperwork will stop 'em w/ something that looks a lot like a car registered as a MC.
Quote:
Originally Posted by theunchosen
I'm not proposing the OP do anything illegal or even new. When the officer pulls up the information through his database on his car laptop it will show that its a motorcycle with a deed of destruction-to-rebuilt title, which he will know as I stated that the new vehicle can be whatever it wants and be called the old one.
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It may be whatever the old owner wants it to be in other states, but in CA the classification of something like that is up to a state ref, not the owner. For something that's not obvious, like swapping different engines in older smog exempt cars, diesel swaps, motorcycle swaps, and stuff that can look OEM, someone can probably get away w/ it, but for something that looks like a car w/ a MC registration, I don't think they would let it slide, unless of course the owner knew 'em.
Quote:
Originally Posted by theunchosen
Now if he leveraged a state that allowed him to register a 4-wheel vehicle as a motorcycle with the same technique he may get in trouble because the officer can clearly see that its got 4 wheels putting it outside MC range in California.
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Looking like a car with a car's running gear would put it outside of the MC range in CA, which is the problem. Simply taking off a wheel and adding a different rear suspension is not enough to make a car/drivetrain requiring smog a MC AFAIK. Course, I could be wrong, and that's something a state ref could settle.