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Mark Hinchliffe·
NewsMotorbike news
··9 Comments·1 min read

Extend rego, warranty during lockdown

extend warranty

If riders are not allowed from take their motorcycle out for a ride during the current pandemic lockdown, then governments and manufacturers should extend registration, warranties and servicing periods.

Authorities won’t call it a lockdown, but effectively is!

Some people can still ride to work, to get grocers, visit the doctor or for a few other valid reasons.

For all other riders, their bike is just up on the stand in the garage on the trickle charger, burning registration money and running down the warranty period.

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Extended warranty

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We notice that in India, KTM, Royal Enfield and Benelli are extending warranties and free service offers for all models.

Benelli is also extending its roadside assistance program.

In Australia, Uralhas extended warranties by three months.

All new motorcycle sales up to June 30, 2020 will also have the extended warranty on top of the standard two-year manufacturer warranty.2017 Ural Australia

What a great move to ensure the loyalty of customers.

Be aware that just because your bike may be idle and not racking up the kilometres to the next scheduled service, it may still need a service. Check your bike’s manual for the maximum time interval between services.

If you don’t rack up the distance, it probably still advises an annual service.

Click here for more details on how to hibernate your motorcycle.

Extend regoBenzina number anti-theft plate holder plate scam cloning

As for registration, it is made up of an insurance component and a payment to help maintain our roads.

If you are not riding, you are not an insurance risk and you are not doing any damage to the roads (not that motorcycles do much road damage anyway!).

So state governments should offer an extension of registration periods for these mandatory lay-offs they have enforced.

In New Zealand, they are extending vehicle registrations and warrants of fitness (annual roadworthy certificate) for six months.

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Mark Hinchliffe
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9 Comments

  1. It is about time we had a sensible registration system based upon the usage of our vehicles. Myself, I have 4 registered and insured motorcycles and 2 cars. I can’t use all at once but try to ride each bike at least once a month and one car is only used for shopping locally and the van is used for a few trips away each year. A lot of my income is used up keeping these on the road.

    1. The only point I do agree on is the comment, regarding more sensible registration system.

      I have a friend with around 10 vehicles, yes he is well off but his registration bill is nearly $10,000 per year. One is on club registration but that means he basically cant use it (the QLD system is extremely retrictive, you cant use a club registered vehicle for any normal purpose eg driving to work one day a year).

      Me, I have a motorcycle and two cars which are restorations and not yet registered but I will be up around $2,000-2,500 a year and still only able to use one (last check the bike is nearly $480 and the cars will be something like $850 each).

      1. Agree. logically, green slips should be on your licence, not your vehicles, as vehicles can’t drive/ride themselves. Again, doing this will affect the bottom line for greedy insurance companies, and end up costing all of us more for health/medical services. Well thats what politicians would tell you if you could actually get them to comment on such a proposal. The only issue there that I’m not sure of is what happens with unlicenced drivers/riders? Are the people that they might injure covered the same as they would be if the green slip is on the vehicle? Probably not, but someone who understands the system will have more idea than me.

        1. Maybe pay for plate registration instead of vehicle registration. Have a set of plates for motorcycles that can be rotated between a nominated set of motorcycles and a set of car plates that can be rotated between a nominated set of cars but the plates can only be on one vehicle at a time ensuring only one of the vehicles nominated can be in use at any one time. The plate holders could be of a locking type and keyed alike to enable easy plate transfer & help prevent theft. So if you had a motorcycle & a car you’d still have to pay for two regos as they’re different vehicles but if you had multiple motorcycles you’d only need one plate & if you had multiple cars you’d only need one set of plates.

        2. Most states have a nominal defendant levy or scheme, for situations where they need cover but the person whose insurance should cover them does not have it.

          As for greedy insurance companies I can’t agree. People expect an insurer to be there with a payout of $5,000,000 on a premium of a couple of hundred dollars, to have those funds laying around for every xase that needs it, remain financially viable through the toughest of times, etc.

          There’s really not a huge amount of money in many lines of insurance, in fact 20 years ago when I was working with the industry it was commonplace for insurance business to run at a loss (!) and only make money off the fact they had the money invested for months or years before the claims actually occurred.

          CTP insurance, particularly, relies on investment as it is what they call ‘long tail’ business. They collect the money over many years… a claim finally occurs… then the money is not paid for years more as treatment to reach the final ‘disability’ level on which someone is paid can take years, plus also any fights over liability can drag things out. As a result the money collected from the thousands of customers, for the one eventual claim, is invested and reinvested and that’s where a lot of the profit has traditionally come from.

          Also at times like these things like insurance fraud are a massive issue. People lose their jobs, they need to offload assets but can’t because noone else has money… oh wait I have a piece of paper guaranteeing me $15,000 for a bike I cant get $9k for *cha ching* anyone having a claim at the moment should reasonably expect to be investigated especially if it is just a bike going walkabout etc.

          Sorry got off topic.

  2. I live on a minor regional road just outside an inland city in NSW, and the amount of traffic that I see heading in to and out of town each morning and afternoon is pretty much the same as prior to Covid 19. Motorcycles are included in the vehicles, so I guess, from my point of view, the people who live outside of the city still need to travel to town pretty much every day for work etc. In town, there is slightly less traffic as times, but often, I see no change to the volume of traffic around. At work, there is a slight dropoff of customers, but not as much as I thought.

    It might be different in the bigger cities, but I suspect that there is not a majority reduction in the number of vehicles on the road, so actually working out who could’nt ride/drive their motorcycle/car would be impossible, unless it was across the board.

    Whilst I love the idea of getting a refund or extension, I just can’t see any government forgoing the revenue they’d lose, particularly when the stimulus measures that they have taken has cost so much, and will cost us all in tax dollars for a long time to come. I’m lucky in that I still have a job, and I can still ride to work, but thats it, as I can’t really get groceries on the bike. I’m afraid that this thinking, whilst right for some in my mind, will simply not happen. At the end of the day, this virus will cost us all, and the load must be shared, so I’ll just have to cop it. BTW, I have 4 bikes on full rego and a couple on historic, so I’ll keep all in good nick by rotating them through commuting duties. Unfortunately, my trip to work is only about 15 in total, so I’ll just have to make sure I enjoy it as much as I can.

    One other point, I could probably justify going for rides on the weekend, particularly as I can refuel at home, I have access to someone in my household with a ute if I broke down, so I would have little chance of actually coming into contact with anyone else, but I was reminded the other day that things can go wrong. I saw a report that a mountain bike rider was airlifted to hospital after a bad accident. Now I’m not likely to have a crash and end up in hospital, but I do know that is the last place I want to be, so that is another consideration in going for an “exercise” ride.

    Just stay at home, and we’ll all get throught this sooner than if they extend the restrictions because so many keep looking for reasons to go out.

  3. I don’t think this is thought through in any real way, Mark. Why would anyone extend registration of a vehicle that you CAN still use for the prescribed reasons for leaving your house?

    I think its disappointing that so many articles here appear to be thinly veiled attempts to complain about the situation or find loopholes around the current situation. As you now know, despite the information you were legitimately reporting on earlier in this saga, your exercise argument as a reason to ride is likely not going to fly, yet people are still quoting your original information in this regard and riding as a consequence……how about some responsible journalism on this topic? Lets all be part of the solution – stay at home and only leave for necessary reasons – and use your bike for these if you wish.

    Arguments from individuals that their actions (riding solo) are completely safe are simply selfish nonsense. If even one person dies as a result of such encouragement, its tragic. And it borders on conspiracy theory stuff to suggest the current regulatory situation is somehow the thin edge of the wedge, which is clearly the message you ran in another article.

    I know you are doing your best to keep articles relating to motorcycle riding going at a difficult time, but I think you still need to make sure people are aware that earlier arguments such as exercising are off the table now, especially as we are coming up to a critical weekend in terms of this pandemic – lets behave accordingly. Take care.

  4. Thankyou for this article as i have been wondering about this exact question?
    Thankyou for being on the ball.

  5. In a fair system a percentage of the fuel tax would eliminate the rego rip off.Last time I tried I could still only drive or ride one vehicle at a time.If I want to park up for winter a rebuild or a virus no loss.

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