HELLO from OREGON

A big hello from the land of bogus and broken LAWS. what brings me to this forum is research. I built my first bike back in September and loved it, but had to build another even better, more beautiful chopper style bike. sold the first one for the money. have been riding my "green machine" for over 9 months and never had any problems until riding season. I have even had good conversations with some of the police here to find out the legalities of these things here in OR. no one seemed to have any problems and most cops seemed to admire my bike, but now all of a sudden, they are saying it is illegal.
I am tired of Oregon's taxation through Citation policies.

at any rate I have court on Tuesday and thanx to the forum and some links I think I have some pretty good Arguments to present to the Judge.

could you imagine have we had the cops today back when Harley and Davidson or even Henry Ford were building their Machines.......?

LOL
i will post the out come as long as i can retain my freedom. and yeah. i miss the days when it was exeptable to throw a pie or rotten tomato in the face of bad poloticians. try it now and see what happens.

Hi
thanx. /\ /\
but, I'm always lost. with or without gas. | see the name? up there? |
LOL, good on ya bra.

mabman said:

If your motor is over 35cc's here in OR you won't have much of a case I am afraid. Although the Federal Regs allow for 50cc and under each state is allowed to set their own regs and OR has set theirs at the lower limit. At this time a 35cc Honda/RS/clone friction drive is probably your best and cheapest bet to ride under the radar here. Good luck in getting it resolved!

Click to expand...

Moped
According to ORS 801.345, a moped:

1. Is designed to be operated on the ground upon wheels;
2. Has a seat or saddle for use of the rider;
3. Is designed to travel with not more than three wheels in contact with the ground;
4. Is equipped with an independent power source that is capable of propelling the vehicle, unassisted, at a speed of not more than 30 miles per hour on a level road surface; and if the power source is a combustion engine, has a piston or rotor displacement of 35.01 to 50 cubic centimeters regardless of the number of chambers in the power source; and

** 5. Is equipped with a power drive system that functions directly or automatically only and does NOT require clutching or shifting by the operator after the system is engaged.**

I got a DWS for riding a "moped" but under section 5 it clearly states it is only a moped if....
mine has a clutch!
am I wrong about this? I would really appreciate any ones interpretation. with this it might make my bike an actual Motorcycle now, according to the ORS. which wont help me win but get us closer to a clear definition of the laws here.

mabman said:

Sorry I must have missed the fact that the DWS was for a moped.

Click to expand...

No, that's what it says on the ticket. they classified it as a moped. its a diamond back mountain bike with chopper forks and a 48cc china girl.
but I did fail to mention in my original post what I got the ticket for so, my bad.

also, when I read the ORS I took the clutch thingy to mean the difference between a centrifugal clutch and a manual clutch. most mopeds have centrifugal clutches. I don't know and court is tomorrow. I think that is the only leg I have to stand on. probably gonna get thrown in the hooscow, but oh well.

thanx for you input and interpretation, I want to say it was helpful but leaves me with more questions.
any way thank you.

thanks Dan
but I have copied the entire ORS in text format to my phone along with the OR. bicycle manual and motorcycle/moped manual and more, shoot I even grabbed some Washington laws and put them on there.

OK.
don't know if anyone is actually following this but here is what happened in court today.
the judge turns out to be my next door neighbor, gotta love small towns uh?
I wasn't going to say anything about it until my name got called and the judge brought it up. so he says "MR. Hanson, you are my neighbor? is that correct?"
my response "yes sir that is correct"
the Judge. "depending on the out come of this case, your not going to........"
me. chuckling. "No sir, I'm not going to do anything to ya"
I didn't want to say in court that He is the one how give me my new helmet a few weeks ago.

so it goes on.
he reads my charges and tells me my options which I ponder briefly. then say to him "I believe my only option at this point is to plea 'not guilty' only because this law is very unclear and I think I need to see a lawyer or legal aid to help define them more clearly."

simple as that. plead not guilty and waiting for notification for counsel and trial.

on a brighter note, my neighbor "the judge" is a bicyclist. one of those earth muffin types that peddles for the environment and his health, and has actually stopped a few times to check out my bike. he has seen a lot of the changes my bike has gone through.
I'm pretty sure he thinks it kind of ridiculous and defeats the purpose of the bicycle having a motor on it, but I know he appreciates the alternative form of transportation theory behind it.

I guess for lack of a better place to post on this case I will continue to post the outcome here.
If anybody is following this.