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All Chinese bikes are very similar with only subtle differences between any of them. Unfortunately to the DMV its all about what the official paperwork says. When an importer brings in any new bike they need to pay a lot of money to get it certified and pass various levels of inspections. This cost money and takes a lot of time. It's much cheaper and quicker to list the model as an off-road bike because you don't need to pay to have it DOT inspected. Lifan got sued a few years back for bringing in I believe street bikes and saying they were off-road bikes so they could skip the inspection process. When the bikes ended up on the street through various loopholes as mentioned above the government decided to sue the manufacturer because they wouldn't pass emission tests (not required for off-road vehicles). This was see as a huge setback to Chinese manufactures at the time and speculation was that some may never import bikes to the US again. There seems to be more bikes available now then ever so if there was a minor setback it must have ran its course already.
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