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Dumb legal question

We're planning on buying a rig next year in the States in Oregon/Washington, driving it to Los Angeles, then shipping it to our home in American Samoa (a US Territory).

Washington, Oregon, and California states all recognise out of state motorcycle endorsements.

American Samoa doesn't have a motorcycle endorsement (re: http://www.asbar.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=582&Itemid=172 ).

Being a newbie, I have no intention of pushing any sort of speed limits in the first place, or violating any traffic laws, however....

Would anyone know how those states (WA, OR, CA) handle out-of-state licenses for states/territories which don't have motorcycle endorsements?

Suggestions?

If you can legally drive it in your home territory you can legally drive it through the states. I would carry documentation with me that shows that your territory doesn't require an endorsement to ride a motorcycle.

I've no idea about how to help with your situation, I just want to thank you for expanding my knowledge of the world. I had no idea what American Samoa was, so your post triggered a Google search that led to, amongst other sites, a fascinating Wikipedia article all about your homeland. You live in a beautiful corner of the world down there!

Hi Mike,

You're welcome! I've actually never read the article until you mentioned it, a couple of inaccuracies, but nothing dramatic.

The beach where the photo is taken from is from a friend's resort on Ofu Island (Vaoto Lodge), is completely normal, commonplace, and is not retouched.

It is part of the National Park, and it is our opinion, after 27 years we've spent working and traveling in the islands of Oceania , that it is the most beautiful beach in all of Oceania, and well worth the (considerable) drama's it takes to get there (Paul Theroux is a jerk, I met him when he came through here gathering material for his book 'The Happy Islands of Oceania, a travelogue which should be taken as fiction as a by-product of a nasty divorce).

However, in spite of the natural beauty here, we have a 'jones' to see the redwoods and the forests of the Pacific Northwest again, not wrapped up in a cage, seeing, and feeling, them all around us.

Likely, this feeling isn't significantly different than some of you on the board have for seeing white sand beaches with coconut palms blowing in the trades in the middle of your winter! 🙂

If you ever get the urge to come out our way, look us up, and we'll do our best to help smooth waters for you. Odds are high we'll have a Ural needing a tweak! 🙂

I don't know what kind of rig you are buying, but I hope it would be something suitable for the island.
Considering that you don't have a lot of high speed roads but do have some lesser roads, my choice would be a Ural hack fastened to a KLR 650 or some other rig that is easy to maintain and capable with decent ground clearance.
I have been to both Samoas and other than being a bit hotter than Hawaii, I found them beautiful.
I presently use a Honda 750 Aero with a Kenna for road work and a DR 650 suzuki with Ural for the back roads on the big island of Hawaii.
I like the DR better than the KLR but the engine does get hot in the tropics. The KLR might be the better choice where you will be.

(Hijacking my own thread, but worth it).

Phelonious, right now, we're leaning very heavily towards a Ural.

No matter what we buy, there is no local support. Ural has a well-founded reputation for having no qualms about supporting customers remotely. 'Something' is far more likely to occur (in fact, highly probable) with an Ural. When it does, I fix it and go on my way. On another tug, 'something' is far less likely to happen, but when it does, it will be a greater drama to get it fixed.

Edit: Where Arthur uses a torque wrench, Ivan will use a hammer, but Tasi will pick up a rock! 🙂

Used would be the best way to go for our needs, but we just want to pick up a rig in the location of our choice and go - no shopping around, so that says 'new'. I like the work Jay at DMC does, and would prefer to work with him (having owned a small manufacturing business in Fiji, I like supporting small manufacturing businesses), but he doesn't sell tugs, he sells sidecars and modifies tugs.

Your license is all you will need in Washington. If we can help you with a non Ural sidecar rig or build you a rig let us know, we do this all the time. We also have a few demo bikes on hand at any given time right now our demo is the new BMW R1200GSW with our M72DX sidecar
Jay G
DMC sidecars
http://www.dmcsidecars.com
866-638-1793

Jay G DMC sidecars www.dmcsidecars.com 15616 Carbonado South Prairie RD Buckley WA 98321 866-638-1793 Hours Monday - Thursday 6-4:30