I asked this in the Off Topics section but.....

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

It just got pushed to the bottom with no interest...(not a hot enough issue I suppose).

Anyways, thought I'd ask the "family" over here, in case you checked into it??? I'm still looking for info:

"We're trying to decide if we want to ship his Harley and Norton motorcycles over here. Anyone here done this? Is it a pain to get them registered?"

Bruce replying here:

I've not imported a bike to the US, but I have imported a car. If you're importing to Northern CA, it'll probably be shipped into LA. I can put you in touch with a very good shipping agent in the UK if you like, who arranged everything for me at that end. They will find you a receiving agent in the USA who will sort out receipt stateside.

I'm interested in bikes as well (I have a '67 BSA here) and would be cautious whether a HD is economically worthwhile to import here: values are lower than the UK. The Norton is a different matter: they're sought-after bikes here and always attract interest.

I've not had to register an import in CA and can't say much about it, but from memory bikes are exempt from smog checks (look at the DMV CA site to confirm). You'll probably just need your import paperwork and the UK V5 documents to register.....along with a lot of patience. The CA DMV are very helpful, so a call to them before you decide would probably yield some useful info.

Good luck!