Alabama registration headache, please help!
 

Hello everyone, first off thank you for this awesome site and the wealth of knowledge I have already picked up. It has been invaluable while working on and tuning my Hawk.

Now, to the headache (bear with me, TL;DR at the bottom). I purchased my Hawk off of Amazon, received a few days later, got the MCO, all paperwork, insurance, and thought I was set.

Went to my local DMV to get the tag, because based off all my research, it should be no problem getting registered and a tag in Alabama.

1st trip: arrive, tell the clerk I need to get a tag for my bike, she see's it is purchased out of state, says it will need to be inspected. Ok, cool, I've never purchased a vehicle out of state so I learned something.

2nd trip: arrive with bike, clerk and her supervisor go out, "inspect" it, which consisted of writing the VIN down, and we go back in. It is at this point she says the signature on the back of the MCO is illegible and I will have to send an affidavit to the dealership, have them sign it, mail it back, and I would be set. Fudge. Whatever. Ok.

3rd trip: arrive, again, at the DMV, will all my paperwork, affidavit, bill of sale, insurance, everything, and now they tell me the bike has to have a metal plate on the bike saying it is for on road use. I said the MCO has motorcycle on it, not off road use only, plus the bike has lights, horn, etc, and she says well we have to have that.

So my question, especially for the Alabama guys, did you have to go through this many hoops? I spent the rest of the afternoon at work today trying to find specific laws or regulations on Alabama's DMV site and nothing. I can do the Vermont route as a last ditch, but I honestly did not expect it to go like this. Plus now it will be longer than 20 days to register so I will get hit with a late registration fee because of all this.

TL;DR - getting a different story each time at the DMV and cannot register and get a tag.

Any advice? Please help!

Thank you

Not from Alabama but if you have a local notary/tag shop i would go there. The DMV will not put any extra effort into helping you. The Notary/tag shop will take the time to get you registered as that's ho they make money. I've done this will all three of my china bikes. Usually takes about 15-20 minutes in and out the door. I wouldn't even attempt to go to the DMV here. Usually an hour wait before they see you and guaranteed that you will have some piece of paperwork missing weather you need it or not.

Send a Private message to timcosby on here. He's from Alabama and had no trouble registering his.

Anybody that believes socialism is a good thing has never spent any time at a DMV . Lol.

I'm in alabama. Macon county. I didn't have any issues I had the mco and a purchase invoice. It took a few minutes to get all the info typed on as it didn't show on their list .and title came back in about a week. I would also agree with Jerry a notary could help

Turns out in Alabama it is required to have a FMVSS sticker and for the MCO to specifically say it follows federal road rules. But online and even the people at the DMV have no idea about it until you show them. News for anyone in AL thinking about a hawk-250, get the DLX that has the stickers!

I,m from NW Alabama. Purchased my X-PECT from txpowersports, mco and bill of sale arrived a few day,s later. No problem at all registering and tag here.Jenkins must have had a real “B” where he is. 200 mi and climbing on Lifan .