Are monkeybikes road legal??????

[fiddyduke]

Hi ..there are many honda monkey bike clones made in China now. Are they road legal. We will be moving near Wujiang shortly and don't really want an ebike.

Also....how much do the old Cj750's sell for in average condition with plate?
Can you still you still buy a new engine and assembly yourself?

last question: how much is a plate in Wujiang/ Suzhou Districts?


thankds in advance

and hope to see some ofyouon the road this Spring!

pic is my Honda Monkey R in Canada

[bikerdoc]

Can only offer answers on a couple of questions...
No, monkey bikes are not legally available in PRC.
There're loads of imitations, whether any of these are legal or not can't answer that... one often gets what one pays for in PRC. A too good of a deal means likely some cost savings some place, meaning a cost to your wallet IMO YMMV.

CJ750's aren't up to much IMHO, but each to his/her own. Plating these Chiangjiang's is a major issue, but most CJ's sellers and dealers will try to convince you otherwise with the usual BS. Think about it logically for a moment, motorcycles are given anywhere between 9-11 years of usable lifespan for legal road use in PRC, after which, means plates have to be removed and the bike details are removed from the 'Traffic PSB' license plate registration system. Effectively the bike cannot be used on a public road thereafter. This often referred to as the scrapping date. No matter one keeps their bike all shiny and parked up for all those years, from the moment it is legally plated, the clock starts ticking. Depending on where the ride was registered, come 9-11 years later, it is meant to not be used on the road again. Who knows if or when this situation might change. Oh, and I use the term plate and registered interchangeably as the two go together.

What year was the last CJ750 manufactured ex factory? A rebuilt CJ750 doesn't qualify... as registration is based on date of first registration etc.

I have a mate here near Ningbo, that has a CJ750 27HP in the army green, that sits around and doesn't get used much... he'd sell it for around 5K. Perfect for a rebuild and shipping overseas... IMO.

As for fitting a different/new engine well think about that engine number and how that ties into the registration documents... not so simple in PRC. If a legal bike needs a new engine, then this is where buying a locally manufactured bike is better, in that the manufacturer can usually offer a new engine stamped with the old engine number ex-factory, or provide the necessary documentation to facilitate changes to the registration documents, which is never easy at the best of times.

If I was looking for an outfit/sidecar I'd buy a brand new Jialing JH600B (manufactured in Chongqing), with 4 forward gears, 1 reverse, modern electrics, ECU/ECM, and easy availability of parts etc. Price just a tad North of some dreaming CJ750 owners/sellers asking prices...

Again, it's my opinion and YMMV.

[fiddyduke]

Thanks for the reply. I've recognized some of the engine names in the prc monkeybikes and no some of them are road legal in Europe......you'd think they'd be legal in prc, too.

It's a shame they are so picky with the paperwork there.