Which digit in VIN designates vehicle for on road use?
 

I havent seen any mention of it on here, so this may be something you could do a little writeup about skidmark.
Offroad dirtbike conversions are no longer legal, and I read somewhere that you can tell by looking at the VIN to see which vehicles are legal and which arent for registering for on road use in bc?
Also I heard that they're talking about implementing some sort of offroad vehicle registration (dirtbikes etc..)?

It comes down to the Fed Govt Transport Canada designation for that make & model being designed for on road use. If it IS, right from the start, there are particular mechanical and equipment standards to be met by the manufacturer. Everything from metal strength, tyres, lights, brake stoppin distances etc. etc.

If it is not required to meet these standards and is intended for off road use only, then they are not built to the same quality and performance. A shining example are the brand new $600 pocket bikes and some of the stuff on sale in places like Cdn Tyre.

Some of this poor unregulated quality stuff has been registered by uninformed ? insurance staff and the crackdown was started. Some of the "conversion kits" being sold were of the same quality as the illegal "HID conversion kits" being sold. The stuff legal for road use will have a TS designation sticker somewhere on it. I'm not aware of any specific VIN designation for legal bikes.

oh ok, from what I was reading (I cant remember the source for the life of me) it was saying some of the digits in the vin will designate it for on or offroad use.
The suzuki drz400's for example, there are multiple models, some that are insureable and some that arent (or have been converted) but now that conversions are no longer being approved, if I were to pick up a converted model and they decide to make the law retroactive or i got tagged with an inspection (supermoto bikes are still fairly uncommon) i'd end up stuck with an expensive off-road only bike (lots of people use the DOT approved factory parts for the conversion)

The problem with some" DOT approved" factory parts, is that they are not really. Some offshore maunfacturers put DOT on the parts because they sell better that way. Even if they actually are, individually approved bits, there is no way of knowing that the parts will work in an approved manner on every single application. You can take a DOT approved HID bulb, glue it onto a halogen base and sell it as a DOT approved bulb...it's being done all the time. The best thing to do check with the manufacturer of the bike to see if they say it is certifiable to be ridden on the road with upgrades they have approved by DOT.

You can try a VIN decoder like this:
http://www.motoverse.com/tools/vin/yamaha.asp

Maybe after it decodes a yamaha bike, if one of the digits is what you say it is, it maybe be the same for other manufacturers too?

Most manufacturers do not have a specific digit in the VIN that specifies whether the vehicle is off-road only or road-legal.

Fords have digits that represent engine and transmission and model, whereas Porsches only have digits that represent the model.. nothing for transmission or engine.

You'd have to check with the manufacturer to see if that particular model was road legal or not.

fair enough, i wish i remembered where I saw it

i'm talking about things like taking the entire OE headlight assembly & wiring harness off of a wrecked drz400sm and putting it on a drz400e

Once again the question has to be answered...why was the DRZ400E not certified for on-road use by the manufacturer. As I said above, there are erquirements other than just lights to deal with. Contact them and get the correct answers...save, money and avoid problems.

It's already on my site:

http://www.drivesmartbc.ca/governmen...le-inspections