[Nevada] Xpro Zuma Templar X 250

[vividpixel]

Today's quick trip down the road for a VIN inspection (pre-registration requirement) took a turn I didn't expect. This is typically not much of an inspection but rather just confirming the VINs are legit and you have some proof of ownership.

Upon arrival, the inspection station employee is giving me some real CSI vibes with the way he's looking over my Templar with his flashlight. Then he gets to checking out the tires. They're both the same Chinese-brand knobbies other than size, but lucky me, the front tire does not have the DOT stamp.

"Were you sold this as a street-legal motorcycle?"

Well, I do have the MCO that states it is a motorcycle, and all the street-legal equipment is there, so I responded with, "It's supposed to be..."

He goes inside, runs the VIN and comes back to show me this message:

Manufacturer is not registered with NHTSA for sale or importation in the U.S. for use on U.S. roads

He concludes that I'll have to go through the process for off-road to on-road conversion. Ugh. I doubt that'll happen by next week, and that means pushing my registration appointment out even farther than I had to while waiting on my custom plate. And I'm now worried they will be destroying it before I am able to get this motorcycle officially road-legal.

I went inside the DMV, stood in line constantly wiping sweat off myself, spoke to the Information desk about the license plate situation, and then decided I wasn't ready to give up today. There was still time to try another inspection station.

The closest open one was pretty dang far, but I still had time before the rest of these stations would close. Unfortunately, when I reached that station, it was a bust; they don't do VIN inspections.

I check the map again. It's over 20 minutes away, and I'm so damn hot and thirsty despite chugging the entire Gatorade I had to stop to buy, and it's all for nothing if that inspection station ends up rejecting me as well. I didn't even intend to ride this far since I'm trying to take it easy while my fractured rib is still healing.

I get there with 5 minutes to spare. The inspector starts looking over my MCO and the bike, then says with some disapproval, "Made in China...why not a Harley or something!?"

I found that humorous not only because of the idea that my potentially not street-legal dirtbike should be replaced by a Harley-Friggen-Davidson, but this recommendation was also coming from an Asian fella who had an accent that, to my untrained ears, was possibly Chinese.

He goes in, and through the window I see him standing at the computer a while, another employee by his side participating in some way, so I'm thinking this is probably going to go just as well as my first inspection stop.

It's now 4:00 pm. The inspector walks outside and visits a customer to inform them the station is closed and they'll need to come back Tuesday, before returning to me.

"This wasn't in our system so I had to put everything in manually, took a few extra minutes."

He hands me the passed-inspection paper and I almost can't believe that this wasn't just a big waste of time! It's 4:01 pm and he tells another arrival that they will need to come back Tuesday.

I was ecstatic the whole ride home. I will be registering the Templar next week and picking up my vanity plate, as planned.

[vividpixel]

Good news, urrbody...


The bike did of course cause some delay due to its foreign origin, requiring getting a supervisor involved to complete the process. It ended up getting registered under the X7-CB250F model name.

You can buy a motorcycle on Amazon!?

Safe riding, everyone. Happy freedom day.