Bill 13 Off Road Vehicle Act for BC

[filterx]

Yes - thank you to everyone in BC who lobbied for this.

I missed how big the sticker is but at least now I can put in around upper part of my fork and not have to deal with it injuring me or losing it

See if you can get one in pink for your daughter and put in on the rear number plate



IMO - I hope this whole thing can some how bring everyone who enjoys motorized access to some of the most amazing areas in the world (which have been pretty free up to now) together so we can protect out rights .

 

[joker650]

This is great news for sure, but from the article



Really? They are going to hand out license plate sized stickers, rather than the fork stickers that are used everywhere else OHV's are registered? Bizarre, and will still look fairly comical on my daughters PW50, but at least it won't be dangerous.

Just cut out a steel plate the same size as the decal and stick the decal on to it. THen mount the plate on the rear fender.......



)):

 

[XRBryan]

Kids' bikes and off-road only bikes

Kids' bikes and off-road only bikes

Trying to connect some dots here, but this is how I read the info from ICBC.

1) Registering ORVs is optional
2) You need liability insurance and a driver's license to ride on FSRs

If these are correct, other than being easier to track down a stolen vehicle, why would anyone register a bike that's not going to be insured? I don't see any other benefit, only more costs.

 

[DirtClunker]

wrongo...

registering an ORV is mandatory if you want to ride it on crown land or prescribed public land. If all you do is ride on private land - like MX tracks or trials areas - with permission - then it is optional.

 

[filterx]

1 - if your operating on private lands no registration is required, otherwise you need to register by Nov 1 2015

2 - if your operating on private lands no liability insurance or driver's licence required, otherwise we have had to have this for a number of years but has been somewhat loosely enforced (in Squamish anyway) until about two years ago. now its a $350 fine. My liability insurance has my drivers licence # on it. I've been asked a number of times for insurance but never actually asked for my driver license though I carry it with me when I ride.

So if the RCMP, Forest Service Officers/Conservation Officers stop you on crown/public/fsr's. You need to be able to prove who you are (drivers Licence), prove your are insured, prove that you are the rightful owner of the bike and its registered.

This is no different that taking your truck/car up a FSR or for that matter any public road or highway and being stopped and asked for the above

Now if they start asking for a class 6 motorcycle licence, that's a whole different story

 

[cactusreid]

i have not heard a word about needing a class 6 licence in order to ride an off road (dirt bike) in B.c. What I am hoping for is that everyone that does occasionally cross a forest service road, or meet up head on with other dirtbike riders on a single track trail in the middle of nowhere, that we will be able to buy a liability insurance policy that will protect us and the other bikes/riders ( no pun intended) that we run into on the trails and roads that we ride. If this comes out of all the expense and hassle that we are all about to,and are going through,I will consider it worth while.

 

[XRBryan]

wrongo...

registering an ORV is mandatory if you want to ride it on crown land or prescribed public land. If all you do is ride on private land - like MX tracks or trials areas - with permission - then it is optional.

I fail to see what part of my post you're referring to that is wrong. Perhaps if I added the following, it would have been clearer?

3) An ORV must be registered in order to ride in crown land or FSRs

 

[gryphon51]

I know I must be reading too much into this. Below is an email from Ken M President of BCORMA. He is answering some of Vic Sumos questions by email regarding the new licensing and registration Legislation.

I know this is a bit out of context but it got me to thinking

From Ken M BCORMA
July 17 2014


I can only wonder where this is coming from? DSBC's has had the most active forum on the new legislation (this thread), and been asking for real answers from BCORMA for some time.

I certainly hope he is not referring to the DSBC site and its members and contributors to our forum. (I like to think of myself as a contributor)

Tom

I love to insert sleazy innuendo whenever possible...

 

[c337b]

Article by Jordan Bateman
Canadian Taxpayers Federation

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/jordan-bateman/off-road-licensing-tax_b_9583116.html

 

[kenf]

A bit of misleading information in there. Liability insurance was always required for FSRs. It's no more or less needed now. But the reg fees for all bikes can add up.

Even with original bills of sale for all my kids bikes, all bought new from dealerships, it still took two trips to the icbc agent and multiple calls to icbc to get the paperwork sorted. And some arguing about taxes that she wanted to charge me again (already paid at dealer as shown on old bills of sale). And yes, liability that she really wanted to force on me (not required on crown land and invalid for kids under 16 anyhow).

So yeah, know the rules and have your papers well sorted out before you head to the broker.

 

[bkoz]

I have no issue with the registration of ORV's. IMO it has more pluses than minuses.

But the whole collection of tax on used ORV's, vehicle's, etc, etc is crap. I hate to think how much the government has made on a 25 year old Corolla.

 

[wrstu]

Tom, as a dual sport owner (KTM500EXC), as far as I know, I currently have 2 choices: 1. Buy ICBC insurance and display my valid plate while I ride, or 2. Convert my bike to a RUM so that I can get an offroad decal, and then have it inspected by an ICBC approved shop before I can plate it again. According to the MVA, riding my bike with an expired plate is not a legal option. Have you or anyone else at DSBC lobbied anyone at ICBC to change the MVA so that we could either, 1. Legally ride offroad with an expired plate (this certainly solves the identification objectives of the offroad act), or 2. change back and forth between RUM and street legal without requiring an inspection (needless and costly)? This is an important issue to many like myself in the interior where we don't want/need to insure our dual sports year round, but we still want to ride (trailer the bike to a riding area) while the bike is not insured. Currently, both options are costly and discriminatory. I have 2 bikes, so ICBC is already getting enough of my money with insurance for one (and I can't ride both at the same time....).

 

[skidmark43]

Thanks for reviving the discussion, Stu.

1 - your bike is identified as a street-legal motorcycle; same as a Goldwing.
2 - you cannot convert it to a RUM
3 - operating a motorized vehicle on public land requires that it / you carry liability insurance
4 - DSBC is not a lobby group (it is simply a FREE web-forum for BC-based dualsport enthusiasts)
5 - Lobbying ICBC is not an option anyway; they carry out the mandates of government as legislated.
6 - BCORMA has been lobbying on behalf of dirtbikers here in BC for several years. It is unknown whether they have the bandwidth, finances or mandate to lobby on behalf of your specific issue - perhaps contact them directly & post your findings here?

Tom, as a dual sport owner (KTM500EXC), as far as I know, I currently have 2 choices: 1. Buy ICBC insurance and display my valid plate while I ride, or 2. Convert my bike to a RUM so that I can get an offroad decal, and then have it inspected by an ICBC approved shop before I can plate it again. According to the MVA, riding my bike with an expired plate is not a legal option. Have you or anyone else at DSBC lobbied anyone at ICBC to change the MVA so that we could either, 1. Legally ride offroad with an expired plate (this certainly solves the identification objectives of the offroad act), or 2. change back and forth between RUM and street legal without requiring an inspection (needless and costly)? This is an important issue to many like myself in the interior where we don't want/need to insure our dual sports year round, but we still want to ride (trailer the bike to a riding area) while the bike is not insured. Currently, both options are costly and discriminatory. I have 2 bikes, so ICBC is already getting enough of my money with insurance for one (and I can't ride both at the same time....).

 

[kenf]

3 - operating a motorized vehicle on public land requires that it / you carry liability insurance

Shouldn't that read "FSRs"? I was pretty sure trail riding on crown land did *NOT* require liability insurance, only registration. Has anybody actually checked with ICBC to see if street registration (even with expired insurance) would satisfy the new regs? I'd certainly think it would, but haven't bothered to ask as it's cheap enough for me to keep my Husky insured year-round anyhow.

 

[caesarleigh]

Shouldn't that read "FSRs"? I was pretty sure trail riding on crown land did *NOT* require liability insurance, only registration. Has anybody actually checked with ICBC to see if street registration (even with expired insurance) would satisfy the new regs? I'd certainly think it would, but haven't bothered to ask as it's cheap enough for me to keep my Husky insured year-round anyhow.

kenf, correct. Plate for identification/ownership. Insurance to cover operation on fsrs, & finally the license portion thru ICBC to cross at designated street/road/highways. Where I ride it is impossible to not at least cross an fsr so I have the liability. I also unload next to a public, paved road so I took the licence part too. Not cheap, nearly $200 for the year, my small dualsport is less for 6 months w/same level of liability & I can go where I want.

Expired plates are just that, expired. Pay the man.

My suggestion to anyone who has a street plateable dualsport is KEEP it that way! For the couple of dollars you will save it is not worth it! When you are street legal you can go ANY where save for closed areas. You can also plate for as little as three months, the OHV plate is yearly only at the moment.

PS Has anyone actually been stopped by any official yet? I thought there would have been at least one major enforcement effort in the lower mainland area by now.

 

[Shuswap]

Seeing as I've only encountered one LEO, a CO, in almost a decade of off-roading in the Shuswap/interior....I haven't been able to get too freaked about enforcement(which costs the gov't money)
That said, we'll plate/register everything and get the Dual sport insurance, if not the FSR insurance for the dirtbikes.

 

[kenf]

Expired plates are just that, expired. Pay the man.

The only issue I have with this is that as far as the registration/identification part goes, you aren't getting anything in return for "paying the man" once the registration has been done one time. After that, it's just a number. If it's an OHV, you register it one time, and one time only, and never pay again (for the number). You pay yearly if you want insurance, but you don't pay yearly for the registration. So I tend to disagree in this case -- if somebody really never crosses a road and really doesn't formally require the liability insurance where they ride -- say they only ride trails at Bear Creek -- then why should they be paying an annual fee? I care about this because I have two kids under 16, which means it is not possible to get liability coverage for them, no matter what or where they ride, so I only paid the one-time fee for them to get their decals for their bikes. I don't see somebody over 16 riding in the exact same locations should be required to pay annually just because they happen to be on a bike that could be licensed but they have chosen not to.

All that said, I'd certainly recommend anybody that can get liability coverage actually do so, but that's a separate discussion entirely.

 

[wrstu]

Skidmark, I'm afraid that you don't have your facts straight. You CAN convert your street legal bike into an RUM, and register it as an ORV. HOWEVER, if you want to go back, you will have to have the bike inspected to make sure it complies with the MVA (this will cost between $150-200, depending on the shop). I have correspondence from an ICBC official that verifies this fact.
I ride my bike year round. To do it legally, I would need to insure it year-round. That's a waste of money if I'm not riding it on the road or FSR's. Laying down and "paying the man" is not my style.
I have been in contact with BCORMA and they are aware of the issue, but have not made any progress.
If we don't lobby ICBC, there certainly will not be any change. The squeaky wheel gets the grease!

 

[tomcycle]

Skidmark, I'm afraid that you don't have your facts straight. You CAN convert your street legal bike into an RUM, and register it as an ORV. HOWEVER, if you want to go back, you will have to have the bike inspected to make sure it complies with the MVA (this will cost between $150-200, depending on the shop). I have correspondence from an ICBC official that verifies this fact.
I ride my bike year round. To do it legally, I would need to insure it year-round. That's a waste of money if I'm not riding it on the road or FSR's. Laying down and "paying the man" is not my style.
I have been in contact with BCORMA and they are aware of the issue, but have not made any progress.
If we don't lobby ICBC, there certainly will not be any change. The squeaky wheel gets the grease!

I love it when someone catches Mark on an error

For anyone that follows how our provincial federation operates you will understand why BCORMA can only pay lip service to this issue.

BCORMA is membership based, and relies on the clubs for operational funding. Not for profit, registered clubs are the only members in BCORMA (not individuals). So BCORMA's mandate is dictated by it member clubs ie DSBC. There are about 20+ member clubs in BCORMA and DSBC has one vote. As you can see that that is not a lot of influence on BCORMA board decisions. So what might be very important to Dual Sport riders, may not be that important to Dirt Bike Riders (who have the majority on the BCORMA board)

BCORMA also get some funding thru the BCORMA Trail Pass, which many of you support. That is not a membership in BCORMA, the Trail Pass is a support mechanism for fund raising. However the Trail Pass system has never been fully supported by the BCORMA member clubs and is in my opinion nothing more than chump change compared to the money BCORMA needs to get some of their initiatives done. As the official numbers are not out I would be guessing here, but I am sure the rider penetration here is probably under 2 percent of the total number of off road riders support the BCORMA Trail Pass, with the yearly purchase of the Trail Pass.

As I see it, the issue is the lack of support for our provincial federation BCORMA. BCORMA already has the ear of the government, but only speaks with a squeaky voice, and can easily be ignored (presently). What BCORMA needs is a well funded board, that can go to these meeting and pound their fist on the table, so not only will we be heard, government will understand there is a large contingent of voters behind the representatives at the table.

So until we all as dirt riders pony up and support an organisation to represent us, we might as well roll over and take what is handed to us by our illustrious government

DSBC BCORMA Trail Passes available thru JavaJude

Tom