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[9 of 30]

Well it took me just short of 8 hours to finally get the Enertia registered. I ordered the bike from Brammo and they shipped the bike right to my house. Unpacked it and took it out for a spin. I really like this bike!
Anywhoo... On my first trip to the DMV, first they could not find a second VIN on the bike. Federal law or something like that they quoted me. Then the shocker. They handed me a "Notice of Refusal" saying that the bike could not be registered in California. The reason? The bike was not marked as meeting California Air Resources Board as meeting emission standards for California! I looked at this DMV employee as if they were an idiot, but took the notice politely and went home. They must of noticed there was no tail pipe. But state law...
So I went home and looked up CARB on the internet. Sent a message to a Mr. Williams with my predicament. I sent another e-mail to "Drive clean" another Air Resources Board site. The next day, both Mr. Williams and the other ARB site sent me nice e-mails saying that any vehicle that is less than 50 cc displacement is exempt from smog emissions.
Printed those two letters and back to the DMV. (The letter from Mr. Williams even said that he had spent an hour trying to negotiate the DMV phone labyrinth trying to get this message out and that a memo would also be sent out to all offices.) So now I am told that there are three managers at the DMV working on just my bike. So almost an hour later, I'm told to go to window 11. They input the bike into the computer, collected the California Sales tax (I paid no sales tax to Oregon) along with the other regular fees. Then I am told I need to go to the local CHP office and have the VIN verified. Back to the VIN problem. So the next day after work (last Friday) I rode the Enertia down to the CHP office (about 10 miles one way) to find out I need an appointment. The next appointment was for Monday (yesterday) which I took. So yesterday I went at the appointed time and they had me bring the bike to the
inspection area, where they looked for a second VIN also. I told them there was no second stamping that I knew of. I think they had to make some phone calls because I had to return to the office. Then the officer came out with paperwork all signed and I went back to the DMV. My neighbor works there and I was able to hand it off to her (without getting back in the huge waiting line) to be sent up to Sacramento. She had seen the bike and told me that she thought I would have trouble registering the bike.
So at least now I have the temp. registration good through the end of January.
People on the cutting edge sometimes have more interesting lives than they need to.
And the 9 of 30 name is because I have a LE which is stamped with that. They only made 30 LEs. Jay Leno has #5 and I know of another who has #7. I have ordered personalized plates "9 of 30" for the bike.

[Brammofan]

Wow... what a clusterf@ck!

When they handed you the first notice of refusal, you should have told them that you were so distraught, you were going to close yourself up in an airtight room with the Enertia running until you died... of hunger.

Keep us updated... love those ride reports, pictures, videos, etc.

[skadamo]

Congrats on 9 of 30, 9 of 30! Hopefully you are greasing the skids for the next guys and gals to buy.

+1 on the ride report and pic request!

[9 of 30]

Thanks guys.
By the way, I bought one of those "Killawatt" things. You plug it in between any device and the outlet and it tells how many KWH it pulls and you can enter your local power rate (cents per KWH) and it tells you how much it costs to run the device. At 51% charge left, it took 1.85 KWH to charge the Emnertia. At 15 cents a KWH it is about 28 cents!

[skadamo]

Cool, I love how easy it is to geek out on electric.

Nice boxed Enertia avatar!

[9 of 30]

Not done yet! The temporary registration expires on Sunday. I called the 800 number for the DMV. After waiting only 15 minutes, I found out that the process had been suspended for "technical compliance". I will have to go to the local DMV yet again to try and resolve this.
What I need is someone in California who already got their plates for their Enertia. I could give the DMV that bikes VIN number (I really only need the last three numbers - the rest is the same) to show them that the bike has already been registered somewhere else in the state.
Love the bike.
Hate bureaucracy!

Stand by for future exploits of 9 of 30.
Next installment - " Why I hate the DMV "

[Phantom]

Sounds like you will be the CA expert on dealing with the CA DMV for future Brammo Enertia  owners. I will be attempting to get mine registered in MA in the near future, and I'll keep track of the registration process to compare it vs. CA.

I am looking forward to your next installment and I hope it ends well.

Good luck.

[Towjam]

9 of 30,

Thanks for taking one for the team.  You obviously have a much higher pain threshold and tolerance for bureaucracy than I do.

 It's scenarios like this that are keeping me from pulling the trigger until the bikes are actually available from a local dealer. Hopefully, there'll be some announcments regarding this in the not too distant future.

[9 of 30]

I sent an e-mail to a Mark Williams at the CARB in Sacramento last Friday. No response yet, but he knows of the emission standards sticker problem. I won't be able to get to the DMV till Tuesday. I better get used to saying "Can I speak to your supervisor, please?" I am hoping they can at least get me an extension on the temp. registration. I had an idea to e-mail Jay Leno about this if the DMV thing doesn't work out. He has "5 of 30" and may have connections. Then the local TV stations would just love a "David vs. Goliath" story.

David

[9 of 30]

I pulled up at 3:45 this afternoon to the local DMV. The line was a half hour wait - just to get in the door. Got back in my car and went home. Try again tomorrow!

[9 of 30]

After another 2 hours waiting, I found out it can take 4-5 months to get registrations done. I got another temp. registration good through the end of April. But it still is a bureaucracy!

[Phantom]

In MA, I might have avoided the registration trouble by claiming my Enertia was 1 cc. The computer at the registry would not accept 0 cc, so the clerk entered 1 (I'll call it rounding up).  I still need to get it inspected, so I am not completely out of the woods yet. I did get it insured and I have my new license plate and registration. The VIN# entered by Best Buy on the certificate of origin was missing a zero, but I did get the correct VIN# on the registration by getting the number directly from the bike; it could come back to haunt me later.

It is too bad there is so much hassle in CA. I hope you have better luck.

[9 of 30]

Got the plates (note Avatar) that I ordered. Took in the Certificate of Title and got the personalized plates.

[Phantom]

So cool! It sounds like you finally made it through all the red tape.