Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Gedday,
I bought a 1983 red coloured japanese road bike with an inline single cylinder of 500cc to do up and mess around with.
It's for my wife to get her licence on (but really for me to mess with), she previously had a Z250C in the early 1990s.
Is there cheaper rego for older bikes or are you slugged with the full whack.
Whats the go on insurance - third party only? (bikes worth about $2k).
Thanks,
TC

inline or upright?
well to be honest r.e. vintage registration, i think you have to be a member of an official club like vjmc (vintage japanese motorcycle club) and have to keep logbooks of km's ridden, and you can't really use it as a daily rider. It is also naturally a damned sight cheaper.

I may be wrong, but that is my understanding of what the rego is about.

For NSW it has to be 30 years old before you get club rego or historic plates as some call them. You have to call the RTA (I think that is who you call) and advise them of when you are driving it, to where and why, as you fall under a blanket 3rd part insurance deal. They log that you took the vehicle out and if you have an accident where someone is injured you are covered.

Rego in NSW with 3rd part is less $100 where normal rego is about $700 all up. Big difference, not sure about VIC though.

Nick

In most states - its a 30-year rolling cut-off for 'Historic' rego. Its also a *shitload* cheaper - here in ACT, the full cost of rego for a bike with a historic plate, is under $100 a year.

You do have to belong to a club that is affiliated with the 'controlling body' in your state. Here, it is the ACT Council of Motorsport Clubs. Only a certain number of clubs are allowed to utilise the historic rego scheme, so it will pay to check.

For your XL500 , the best bet is to join the VJMC. These guys have all the info you need for historic rego. But you won't qualify for this type of rego until 2013.

Once your bike has an historic plate, there are certain restrictions. Don't ride it to work every day, if the bronze see this, you will lose your rego and they will have more ammo to have this scheme removed entirely. There are nominal limits to annual mileage as well. Its about 3000km pa down here, but this is a nominal limit - some of the annual club runs can chew up your mileage amount in 1 trip.....

Basically - if you only ride the bike every weekend, you will be sweet. There are requirements to carry a log book, and you are obliged to record each trip - but trips can be for anything from collecting parts, to test-rides after a tune-up..... - down here, its actually written into the rules that a trip around to a friends house to show them your bike, is a legitimate reason for riding !!

I know a lot of the guys in the Victorian Z Owners club are all running club (historic) rego plates these days, as their old Zeds are not used as daily runners. Its definitely worth checking out the Vic branch of VJMC for more info, but you do have a few years to wait until you can use club plates.

Thanks guys!
I didn't know about the VJMC and I'll check it out.
The bike is an FT500 and won't be used as a daily runner. I bought it in May but work has interrupted any messing with it. Ideally I'd like to turn it into a cafe racer type of jobbie. Saw an SR400 yesterday on my way to work that was real smick (rearsets, megaphone, polished tank/light/fender/clip-ons) which got me off my arse to do some work on mine.
I saw a bunch of guys on Japanese singles coming down the black spur several months ago as I was going up on the REX so that may have been the VJMC.
Appreciate the info.
TC

Just checked out the VJMC website. Cut-off for conditional club registration is 25 yrs for all states other than NSW (NSW is 30 yrs).
The bike has to be in "close to original condition" - not sure how this is decided - mine has a different headlight / tail / rear fender.
Again, thanks for the link / info.
TC