Buying/registering as non US citizen in California

[JimmyF]

I've read a few other posts regarding buying and registering in California, but still have reservations. My wife and I are hoping to fly to LA from London in May, purchase a couple of Vstars or similar and cruise around the west coast for a couple of months (perhaps standard for some but a long awaited trip of a lifetime for us). We do have an address we can use in California and we had hoped to spend no more than a week, purchasing and registering the newly bought bikes, but we've recently been advised that to get a title document from the DMV, we need a Cali drivers licence and a 4-6 week wait for the fresh registration plates to come through. Really??? Others don't appear to have had a problem, but its a long way to go on the chance of failure. Perhaps its our age, but it would be great to have a little more confidence to know its possible. Any help/comments would be greatly appreciated, there must be somebody out there who has done this recently who could perhaps point us in the right direction.