On November 27th I went to the satellite city hall to register the Honda. Although I had checked with the DMV over the phone, I was still concerned about a couple of things. One, the Honda had not been registered since 1998 (nine years). A lady at the DMV assured me that I would only pay one year's registration and would not have to pay the past registrations. Two, the former owner had given incorrect mileage when he brought the bike to Hawaii ten or so years ago. The title showed 37k miles and the odometer now reads 30k.
It took some research by the clerk at satellite city hall, but after ten minutes or so she issued me a new title with the correct mileage and I only paid the current registration fee ($77). That was a relief. I've had problems registering old bikes in the past and it's no fun having a classic bike that you can't legally ride on the street.
Hawaii also has a safety inspection process. Nothing fancy, they just make sure the lights, horn and turn signals work. And of course the registration documents must match the number on the frame.
I went to Cycle Tech in Moili'ili, a shop that's been around since about 1980. The owner's name is Al. When I was attending UH-Manoa starting in 1982 I first went to Cycle Tech to get work done on my '74 RD350. Subsequently I bought a '77 Suzuki GS750 and later an '83 Kawasaki KZ1000R (Eddie Lawson Replica). Cycle Tech is a good shop and close to UH, so I would go there to get maintenance work and tires changed.
Al checked out the Honda and gave me the safety inspection, now everything is legal. Great!
Next: changing some parts on the Honda. It currently has a touring seat and I'd love to get a stock-appearing seat back on it. I searched the web and found http://www.mrcycles.com/. I was happy to see that they had parts and ordered a new seat and some other things. The next day, I got an e-mail saying all of the parts are out of stock - permanently. Shoot.
A company with listings on http://www.ebay.com/ has a reproduction stock seat for the Honda. I ordered it and am waiting for it to come in.
1 comment:
Wow sounds like you had quite an experience with your motorcycles. I am so happy to hear that everything squared away with the safety inspection.
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