Quote Originally Posted by slabo View Post
I registered mine in ~3 hours. I was probably the only one registering a bike that week in Anning, so they really had nothing else to do. It takes as fast as you can hop between three places on your bike. Not sure about the order, but roughly: Get the green book, motorcycle inspection, insurance. Now that I write this, I remember Andre's thread about registration. Goes into all the gory details >> http://www.mychinamoto.com/forums/sh...Kunming-Yunnan)

Remember, proof of residence is just a paper from some police station that states you live at some address. All you need is some landlord to say that yes, this guy does live here, he pays rent. The police will call the landlord to confirm. At least 'down here' where I am, that's all they did.
Clegg and Slabo,

The process of registering a bike is essentially the same here in Shanghai as in Kunming, though the vehicle management bureau is an extremely busy and somewhat chaotic place because there are thousands of folks getting their cars registered and collecting their precious plates. As noted in my write-up on getting legal in Shanghai, there are agents there who can help you through the process and, in my opinion, provide excellent value because they know which bureaucrats to approach for which process, and how best to approach them. I can help you find these guys if you'd like.

As for the cost, if you live outside of downtown Shanghai, and don't have a burning desire to scoot around inside the Inner Ring (and who would?), I don't know why you'd go for anything but the suburban 沪C plate, which costs less than one fifth of what the 沪A plate costs. It's also transferable, so it's presumably an appreciating asset. People ride 沪C bikes inside the Inner Ring all the time, and the worst that would happen is a 200 rmb fine (or more likely just a warning). I've never heard of a legal 沪C bike being confiscated at a downtown traffic stop. Being legal is everything.

I'm around all month. Sounds like time to organize another Bike Night. Hopefully this time WITH bikes (and no alcohol).

good luck!