Track only motorcycle in California

Does anyone know if registration is still needed with the DMV to operate a motorcycle (Canadian 2021 V4) only at raceway/speedways/tracks?

You do not need to register a motorcycle if you are only going to ride it on a closed track.

Its a great place to bring stolen bikes

PNO registration

PNO or Planed Non Operation is for vehicles that were registered and you are no longer going to drive/ ride them on a public roadway. If you convert a road bike to a track only bike then yes a PNO is required. DMV will literally garnish your wages to recover back registration fees owed. However if you are bringing in a track only bike to California then no registration is required. Now if you get caught riding it on the street then you very well might get a ticket.

I stopped registering my V4 once it became a track machine. PNO is only useful if you have intentions of getting it back on the road again at some point. If you try to register something that lapsed, you have to pay the registration for all the time between now and the previous registration expiring + fees (to an extent, I believe max is 4 years but I can't remember). The DMV does not garnish wages, they just won't let your vehicle be registered until all the fees are paid.

So yeah. Zero consequence if the machine will never go back on the road. Register it as PNO if you intend to get it back on the road at some point to avoid paying fees when you register it as operational again.

Hey Mav they literally did it to me. They garnished my wages to cover the expired registration. I could not believe it myself. I let the registration expire as I turned it into a track only bike. Did not ride it on the street. After the 2nd year they got a court order and sent it to the city I worked for and garnished my wages.

When I finally spoke to someone at DMV there response was “ What if you ride it on the street?” I told them that if I did that and got stopped I would be in violation of 4000a of the vehicle code and have to pay a fine.
I asked them why I have to pay the state of California for the privilege of not riding my bike on the street. They had no answer.

That's pretty wild, I stand corrected. My V4 was last registered in WA, I didn't know CA had a different process for that. In WA, they will fine the .... out of you for not registering, but only when you go to register it again. If you never register it again, they don't really care. Had a buddy buy a car that hadn't been registered in 6 years, previous owner never got fined, but my buddy had to pay for 4 years worth of registration (they nicely waived the extra fees).

So it seems like the only option is non-op status. What a cancer state.

Yeah it completely blew my mind. I figured if I am not going to ride it on the street then I don't have to worry about paying the registration. I looked at the PNO as why should I pay California a fee to not ride my bike on a public roadway? But in the end DMV is a much more powerful organization than I am and they stole my money. I have to say I used to love living out here, the weather is great. maybe a little hot where I live in the summer but you can ride year round here. But the rest of it is too much. The wife and I just finished a conversation about its time to leave this state. Its going to go under. there is no way it can maintain things the way they are. The top 1 % are not going to fund everything they say they will. As of today 87 octane gas at Chevron is $459. per gallon. I live in a small town just south of Fresno so nowhere near the really expensive areas. A 2 bedroom apartment with a single garage will set you back $2000 per month! Sorry for the rant. This brought up a lot of old .... which added to the ...., of a out of the area developer building a 3 story low income/ homeless/ mental health complex in the neighborhood where I live and 20 yards from our business. Partially state funded and subsidized for the "vulnerable population" , this project has been in the works for the last 3 years but was kept very quiet until escrow closed on 1-31-22. It got out to the public on 2-1-22. So for those of you who love this state, you can have it. Again folks, sorry for the off topic rant.... Hey, how about them Ducati motorcycles!!!!!!

Sorry to hear that, we have a similar rule which is that you as an owner have to opt out of vehicle registration otherwise they assume you are still using or planning to use it. I know it sucks but thats how it is, I understand that its because douches would skip annual registration for a month or more and end up paying for 10 months or less of the year so they tightened it up. Its real easy here, you just go online and put the rego on hold until further notice, I think it has to be for 3 months or more.

Ya, it's like that. I left Cali and 85% of everyone I knew left before I did. More followed. I'll go back and visit.