Konker KSM200 – Getting legal

With the bike together and roadworthy, all we needed to do now was to get it road legal. Sigh.

In the last update I introduced you to our long term Konker KSM 200 test bike. Originally acquired in June of 2009, various issues conspired against its registration that year (including a missing front wheel) and so it spent most of the winter under a tarp with less only 20 km on the clock.

Fast forward to April 2010 and though still waiting for the front wheel, the importer offers to send me a used one as a stop-gap to get the project back on track. That’ll do, all I needed now was to get her registered …

REGISTRATION AND INSURANCE PLEASE

Now if you’d read my recent rant about my dealings with Quebec’s SAAQ and registering my KLR, you’ll already know that I’m not exactly the luckiest person when it comes to acquiring the proper documentation and sadly the Konker was to prove to be no exception.

But I was prepared for problems and so made an exploratory trip to the registration office where the nice rep told me I needed three things:

1) A receipt … er, good point … nope
2) A signed NVIS (New Vehicle Information Statement) … er, yes, but not signed.
3) Proof of insurance … I was hoping I could register it first, but okay.

Did you know that the Konker KSM200 is actually a Qingqi QM200GY but rebadged with different decalls? You do now.

So I got the importer to send me a Purchase Order which acted as a receipt, I already had the NVIS, though unsigned — so I signed it myself (it asks for ‘authorized signature’ so I authorized myself) — and the insurance was just a matter of calling my insurer and adding the Konker to my house, car and KLR.

Or so I thought.I used to quite like Moleche-Monnex (a subsidiary of TD Bank) but that was before they told me that the Konker was on their ‘exception list’. Exception list? Yes any bike that is “too expensive, likely to be stolen or heavily modified” goes on the exception list.

But a 200cc, single cylindered, air-cooled Konker?
I explained what it actually was and so none of the exception conditions actually applied. The rep agreed that it seemed odd but couldn’t offer any further explanation. Bottom line was that they do not insure Konkers.

Hmhhh.

It’s also sold in the US as a Q-Link XF200. Now that begs the question, if you were going to rebrand for the US market wouldn’t you come up with something a little catchier than Q-Link?

As you may already know, this shit makes me go a little loopy, so I spent the next day on the phone to all and any insurer to try and find someone who would cover my Konker.

Turns out that anyone with anything near reasonable a quote wanted the car too. Fine, I see no reason to keep it with Moleche-Monnex now anyway.

Now can anyone tell me why insurers need to know most anything and everything about you in order to give you a quote? I mean, why full address when surely the postal code will tell them if you live in a slum area? Or even my telephone number and email address? I don’t need them to call me, they can give me a price now and I’ll call them back if I’m interested.

Then, after 15 minutes of data transfer comes the clincher – “Sorry Mr Harris, we don’t seem to insure that bike”. WTF? 15 minutes of questions and they don’t start by checking if they actually insure the damn bike in the first place? I could hear the wave of junk mail already coming.

I eventually got wise and refused to give them any personal information until they checked to see if they could actually insure the bike, and assuming that I was a model citizen — without any crashes or convictions of insurance fraud in the last 10 years — roughly how much would it cost?

In Canada it’s got the best name – the Konker.

This helped massively and soon enough I had exhausted all avenues and was left with a rather sad quote of $565. About $300 more than my KLR is with Moleche-Monnex. Bugger.

Then I went to check the mail, and as if by some divine intervention there was a letter from the Scotia Bank espousing the benefits of their Home & Auto insurance in a nice z-folded brochure. And look, they even cover motorcycles!

Of course, they wanted the car too, but it turned out that not only was the car cheaper than with M-M, but so was my KLR and the Konker could be insured for a mere $108 … for the year!!

Happy days, now all I have to do is register it …

ZEE PAPERS ARE NOT IN ORDER!

One of three pieces of required paper work for the registration.

One of the most fascinating aspects of dealing with motor vehicle registration  types is the seemingly vast variances of requirements to get a vehicle registered, depending on who you happen to be talking to that day.

I mean you’d think that you’d have to do A, B and then C and you’d be done. However, the A, B and C that I had been originally told had somehow morphed into A, C and D.

The Purchase Order that was fine a few weeks earlier was now lacking ‘vital information’ such as the VIN number of the bike, the parent name of the company and so forth.

I was assured that everything else was in order (pending insurance confirmation since Scotia bank had forgotten to fax proof to them). So I got her to write down all that needed to be done and went away once again to get her done.

For once this was surprisingly easy to fix and it was somewhat anticlimactic when the service rep pulled out a plate demanded some money for taxes and registration and told me I was done.

At last the Konker was registered, ready for the road and even had the choice of off-road or on-road wheels (and in pairs to boot).

GIVING IT AWAY

Zac seems to like small capacity Chinese imports and will be looking into available mods for the Konker.

With any long term testing I like to try and get other opinions from different people as to what they think of a bike. For the Konker the first such person is Zac Kurylyk.

Zac wrote a piece for CMG on living with a Lifan GY5 a while back, has an obvious penchant for Chinese imports and happens to live not too far from CMG headquarters in Sackville.

So no sooner had I got the damn thing legal than Zac popped over and took it away. However she’s in good hands (hopefully) and I’m looking forward to seeing what he thinks of the little Konker as well as seeing what he comes up with as far as what mods and aftermarket equipment there is out there for her.

I guess we’ll all find out after the next update …