Good Morning,

I am an resident of the State of Alaska, serving on Active Duty. My bike and cages are all registered, legally, in that State of Alaska. Drivers License is State of Alaska, etc, etc, but I reside, due to military orders, in the State of California.

The law here in CA that I am referring to is this:

CVC 27202.1. (a) Notwithstanding any other law, a person shall not park, use, or operate a motorcycle, registered in the State of California, that does not bear the required applicable federal Environmental Protection Agency exhaust system label....
(d) (1) This section is applicable to a person operating a motorcycle that is manufactured on or after January 1, 2013, or a motorcycle with aftermarket exhaust system equipment that is manufactured on or after January 1, 2013.

My first question is for CA residents. Do you have after market exhaust on your bikes? Do you have exhaust that was manufactured after the above date w/o the mentioned stamp on your bike? Have you had any issues?

Second question for military members in CA. To preempt, I had a bike the last time I was stationed here, a whole 12 months ago, but was completely stock. So, has anyone who is on a bike not registered in CA, but living here, "gotten away" with having after market exhaust that wasn't stamped? I could "claim", in the event of being "caught" that I had the exhaust (Vance and Hines Big Shot Duals) on the bike (a 1996 Road King BTW) since I was in Alaska. Not sure how that would be received by the issuer. I don't want to be the only "loud" bike in the neighborhood or tri-county area.

I haven't installed yet. I ordered off Amazon to my Dad's place in CO, and he is bringing them to me on a road trip he is taking, so theoretically, I could return them, and get "CA Legal" exhaust, but ugh, would it even be worth it? Anyway, thoughts?

 

Thanks for your service. This law is for a 2013 or newer bike

As for aftermarket on newer bikes, many with an HD do aftermarket exhaust on them with no issues. Now if you ride like an *** and a policemen wants to punish you ..well...thats another story

 

That is what I am hoping. Like, I can't be the only loud bike around, but don't give them a reason to dig deeper.

 

Exactly.

 

the key is that you are a resident of Alaska, your bike is registered in Alaska. as long as you keep your bike registered in Alaska, you should be safe.

as jacapps said, don't ride like an ***, and you shouldn't be treated like an ***.

disclaimer-never lived in ca. but my experience is with 21 years in the military living in different states while still maintaining my fl residency.

 

I have loud pipes and a loud stereo on the bagger.....I got a ticket for the stereo.

 

Maybe he didn't like your choice of music ?

 

No problem with the pipes from most local police. Your bike is exempt from the muffler stamping rule due to it's age.

Bigger issue might be that California only gives you a 10 day grace period to register your vehicles after moving into the state. If on vacation...no problem, but if you are living here...10 days.

Only a few communities enforce noise violations. Usually busy beach towns. They hate loud bikers rapping their throttles, trying to look bad and get attention. Typical comment is that you are riding in a way to attract attention, you will also get attention from the police.

For the most part, California police and Harley riders get along pretty well. They are more after crotch rockets driving at breakneck speed around corners.

Even loud Harleys rarely get more than a nod from the police. We seem to coexist pretty well.

Your base will most likely have their own regulation on bikes. Some require wearing orange vests for visability, but I see lots of loud Harleys going on and off the base at Miramar.

Might be a good idea to keep your stock pipes in case this becomes an issue, but for the most part, California is pretty motorcycle friendly. (even lane splitting)

 

Don't sweat the 10 day thing about switching tags I ran a year with out of state plates and half the cars you see here are out of state tagged , there's too many people constantly coming through for the cops to worry about it and besides isn't there some exemption for you being military ?

 

yes, being military, he is not going to be required to register his vehicles in ca, nor transfer his driver's license.