Mini chopper rego

056cripz, Mar 28, 8:02pm
Can anyone tell me why they stopped letting 50cc mini choppers become road legal? and why the ones that are legal can still be registered?
jason_247, Mar 28, 8:04pm
im guessing because they are dangerous as hell?
motorboy2011, Mar 28, 8:05pm
Anything can be legal if it has all the approved safely equipment, such as dot approved lights etc. Allow need have a vin inspection, in the old days they didnt
056cripz, Mar 28, 8:06pm
then why can the ones that are road legal still be registered? bit confusing to me.

why are they so dangerous?
bill-robinson, Mar 28, 8:09pm
you get a better class of accident, doing more damage to you, on the road, than in a paddock somewhere
stevel_knievel, Mar 28, 8:16pm
Same reason you can register a Morris Minor. Although it doesn't meet the requirements now, it met the requirements when if was first registered.

Dangerous because no one can see you.
056cripz, Mar 28, 8:16pm
but yet they can still be registered why not just not let them be registered if they are so dangerous.
petal_91, Mar 28, 8:26pm
Sounds like a good idea to me. Loads of older cars like the Morris Minor or even early 1990s cars that lack airbags could be forcibly deregistered for safety reasons.
motorboy2011, Mar 28, 8:50pm
If it's registered now then at the time it passed all applicable laws. They can remain registered. New ones that aren't registered can't be. Well they can, if they have everything needed to comply with today's applicable laws.
kazbanz, Mar 28, 10:11pm
the main reason is that they changed the law regarding 50cc "scooters'
used to be you walked in with your paperwork and got it rego'd -as a new vehicle.
now They get one inspection on arrival. Guess what -there aint no way on gods lil green pebble that those things are even close to being legal
The ones currently rego'd don't get inspected so continue to slip below the radar.
jason_247, Mar 29, 3:11am
the reason they cant make the old ones unregistrable is because that would screw over the people who already have them.

Imagine you go down for your reg in your car and they say oh your car uses the wrong brakes so its dereg now. you would be spewing.

I know in other countries they do similar but make it unregesterable if the ownership changes so it eventually weeds alot of them out.
bitsy_boffin, Mar 29, 11:44pm
Even if the NZTA did decide to retrospectively revoke registration (there is precedent for this, but very rare), it would be all but impossible to actually achieve in this case because there's no requirement for an inspection and probably the actual registered details of the mini bikes are not going to be specific enough to target them in the revocation, probably they are often just recorded as "motorscooter" or something.
kazbanz, Mar 30, 6:07pm
The whole reason the law was changed was in response to those horrible piles of cack.
The first thing that happened was that several of them are rego'd as 49cc but are as big as 150cc
I hate those mini choppers with a vengeance.
Truly they are just downright dangerous on so many fronts.
Bad frame welding. Indicators and lights working always on total loss from the battery. Brakes that should be on a bicycle. Theres a fairly long list.
They got to be allowed on the road due to a loophole in the law.
My view is NOT that they should automatically be forced off the road but that all scooters currently registered should have to have a WOF inspection before the rego can be done again.
richardmayes, Mar 30, 7:30pm
There's something almost. Darwinian. about those things.
dajoki, Apr 4, 10:13am
17 year old nephew of the wife was riding one on the footpath at speed, decided to move to the road, shoots out of driveway. opps there is a car using this space, swerves to left to avoid it. straight up the rear end of parked ute. no damage to helmet as it was still on top of wardrobe at home. A few weeks in hospital and he recovered. I have tried to entwine my sympathy into this post, but by God it is hard.