hello,

my motorcycle is plated in Alberta, but as it is currently outside of canada, my insurance company will not sell me any kind of insurance, so i cant renew my registration...

any suggestions as what i can do?

the plates will expire in aug. 2014, and then im not sure whats going to happen when i cross borders, fingers crossed, nothing at all.


thank you

I doubt you will have a problem unless you volunteer the information, I have crossed several borders without road tax, what we call our registration fee in the UK without a problem, I did give the Australians a bit of BS but even got it into the country there without any.
Out of interest why was your insurance refused?

You're lucky, we have a similar deal in DC but our registration gets cancelled as soon as the insurance is terminated or we get a huge fine. My company (nationwide) allows us to maintain bare bones insurance though they won't cover anything abroad. Maybe try another insurance company? I was able to arrange it totally over email. They really don't need to know where your bike is, only that it isn't being used for commuting-recreational only

If your registration does expire that should be ok though. In our experience border officials wanted to see some official paper with the plate number, sometimes the VIN, make & model. They didn't care if it was the title or registration, it's all "bike paper"

Good luck

Have to prove insurance in Alberta to get registration. It is easy to renew insurance with who ever you used in Alberta previously, just send the money, then you need someone there to physically go to the registry with your renewal and proof of insurance and reregister.
Then you could just 1 or2 weeks later cancell your insurance. Of course you ned insurance for where ever you wil be travelling. Best to have someone in Alberta help you,I am in France now travelling with Bulgarian insurance.

the bike is registered in Alberta (calgary), but the insurance company demands to see the bike in order to insure it..

the complication also includes, a few years ago, while traveling around (the world), my alberta drivers license was about to expire and there was no way i could make it back to renew it, so i traded it up for a hong kong drivers license, in alberta i had a class 1 & 6, they gave me class 3 & 6. so last year i tried to change it back to an alberta license, to my surprise.... they only offered me class 5... argh.

that insurance company was the only one that i could find that would insure my bike as i dont have an alberta drivers license, they charged a small fortune...

last monday, i dropped by the office, in the attempt of renewing it, i tried the "honesty is the best policy" route, but learned my lesson on that one.. PL PD costs cdn$651, i was trying to avoid paying the full premium,

so now, they wont renew my insurance as the bike isnt in the country (doesnt make much sense to me, seems like an easy way to make some cash) but either way, my plates are good until august.....

as for now, im flying back to the EU today to pick up my bike for round 2 of central asia and russia, guess i will find out what will happen...

If you don't plan taking the bike back to Canada for sometime either keep the current plate on it if there is no expiry date or legal requirement to hand it back or get a UK plate on ebay with the same number on it and use that.
I cannot imagine that any foreign police or customs will know the difference and as long as you don't tell anyone they won't know the registration has expired.