Ok, so I am a little new to the sport, well kinda. I have been riding off and on for about 5 years, whenever I could go out and borrow a bike or two. Well now I have my own bikes. My wife has an 04' Blaster and just got a new red sticker. I hear with the red sticker you can only ride certain times of the year in certain places. I would like to go to Glamis and Ocotillo fairly frequently. Does anyone know if you can ride during the off times even with a red sticker and what the penalties are?? Please advise, before I get myself in a mess!

 

Not sure what the penalties are, but I'm going to guess $100-$250.

Here's the Red Sticker Open Riding Schedule.

If you have more questions, search this site for red sticker and my screenname...I guarantee an interesting read. Grab a beer, soda, whatever you drink and a snack...I get long winded. If you can't find an answer, post it up and we'll answer em, if we can.

And welcome to the sport!

[ed.]

Here are the dates/locations you requested:

Ocotillo Wells Oct 15 - May 15
Imperial/Glamis/Gecko Oct 1 - Apr 30

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what does that mean? red sticker vs. green sticker? and whats this about riding schedules? do you mean that youre only allowed to ride on certain days? or at certain times of the year?

keith

 

heywood,

A sticker (whether red or green) is the form of registration for OHVs in California. Just like you register your car, truck, RV, etc. The sticker is the license plate. It is printed with a number like the license plate, and the year it expires. The fees are $25 every two years. All OHV stickers expire on June 30 of that year. This is purely a registration fee, and no other fees, taxes, etc. are levied on an OHV as they are a street-legal vehicle.

Now, comes the interesting part. Do to the levels of pollution out here, standards were set by the California Air Resources Board (CARB for short.) These standards are much stricter than any Federal EPA standard. CARB set out in a policy how much emissions can come from any particular motor. In this case we are talking OHVs, and ATVs (or motorcycles) in particular. A schedule was created based on year (80cc and below, over 80cc). 80cc engines had an additional year to comply. Any OHV that doesn't meet the standard (pollutes more than allowed) is deemed to be "Non-compliant."

Originally, back when the rules were created, if a OHV was non-compliant, it could not be brought into the state, sold in the state, etc. Doing so, would incur a penalty of about $5,000. Come 1997, the OHV manufacturers weren't making enough compliant vehicles. So, a compromise was created in 1998, that allowed for limited use of non-compliant OHVs in California. These non-compliant OHVs are issued Red Stickers. Compliant vehicles are issued Green Stickers.

Based on pollution levels in various regions, a riding schedule was created. Areas of lower pollution (Northern California and say Pismo) have long riding seasons, or even year round. As the pollution worsens (go more south in the state) the riding season gets shorter. As a general rule, the red sticker season is 6 mos. And the exact schedule varies based on the when the pollution is the highest in that area, as seen in my earlier post. They are set off by 15 days.

All non-compliant vehicles carry a "C" or "3" as the 8th digit of their VIN. Whether or not they were manufactures with the intent to be sold in CA. All VINs are standard throughout the US. An agency issues them to manufacturers, or sets the guidelines.

Another wrench, DMV screwed up between 1997 and about 2003. The decision to issue a Red vs. a Green sticker was done manually. The clerks literally had to count the VIN digits out and issue based on that. Being a manual process, things go screwed up. Non-compliant vehicles were issues Green Stickers and Compliant vehicles were issued Red Stickers. A mess ensued. Some people were even supposedly cited for riding out of season, even through their OHV carried a green sticker. (In fact they should have known that they had a "Red Sticker Bike." For the 2003 model year, the state reset the clock.

Currently, All 2002 and older OHVs, whether compliant or not, will receive a green sticker. 1997 through 2002 non-compiant OHVs were grandfathered into a green sticker. 2003 and newer compliant OHVs receive a Green Sticker. 2003 and newer non-compliant OHVs receive a red sticker.

Hopefully that answers your question. It's pretty simple. Most people have issues understanding it for some reason.

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[quote]
Originally posted by: BlackandRedWarrior

Grab a beer, soda, whatever you drink and a snack...I get long winded.

BlackandRed, You weren't kidding about being long winded[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] j/k But, Like BlackandRed form, you are correct in your posting. Lt. Dan

 

Thanks for the info BlackandRed! I guess I will have to wait to ride till Fall. Unless I make a trip out of state. Do any other states have restrictions that you know of?

 

As far as I know, we are the lucky ones. Many states don't even have a registration system. Some do. CA has reciprocity with some of them (they, and CA, accept the registration.) If you are from a state that doesn't reciprocate (either they just don't, or they don't have a system) then CA requires you to get a visitors pass type of registration. I'm assuming some states are like that as well.

This can come back and bite people. I was sure to make sure when I purchased a quad to get a green sticker bike. I can't see paying $5K for something and only being able to use it a few months out of the year. At least your's is only a Blaster so it wasn't as expensive and not as much money just sitting there.

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We did the same thing as you BlackandRed, made sure we didn't buy a bike we had to put a red sticker on. If you must have a 2 stroke, buy a used one with a green sticker. If you do buy a new 4 stroke, watch out, even a few new 4 strokes are getting red stickers. Do some home work first.
I also know that Oregon has you register out of state quads. When I did mine (couple years ago) I think it was $10.00 for a year or two.