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Help please: Insuring a PNO (Planned Non-Operational) track bike

ThinkFast

ThinkFast

Live Long
Joined
Apr 10, 2007
Location
San RiffRaph
Moto(s)
2012 BMW R1200GS
Name
Tom
I’m sure I’ve seen threads about this before on BARF, but for the life of me can’t figure out how to surface them. “PNO” is too short for the forum search engine; ‘Planned Non Op’ ignores Non and Op for same reason, so hits are only with word Planned. So please don’t flame me - I tried. :rolleyes:

Anyway - bought a Yamaha R7 from a guy who had it plated (expired) and ridden on the street. Did the deal at a DMV, and he paid the back fees and penalties to get the registration up to date. And I registered it PNO at the same time.

I’ve since taken the plate off of it and pulled the turn signals and a few other things. This bike will not be operated on the street, just the track for trackdays.

Trying to figure out what the insurance angles are on this and would like some BARF wisdom on it.
1. Does the state of CA care if I use my PNO bike on a race track only? And if they do care, do they also care that it doesn’t have insurance on it? (It currently does not).
2. Will my umbrella policy insurer care if I have a PNO bike sitting in my garage under PNO that I use for trackdays and have no coverage on? (I just spent 15 minutes going in circles with the Geico/RLI agent on this very question and we couldn’t resolve it, mainly due to lack of clarity (on both our parts re question 1).

What has been y’all’s experience with this? TIA for any insights/advice/tips.
 
pretty sure "PNO" means CA does not want to find it outside of my garage?

that's the way I treat PNO, anyway ... in other words, when I had race-only-motorcycles, I did not have them on PNO status, and if I was putting them on a trailer and they were PNO, I paid the registration and made the reg current, first.

there's some piece of paper you can get to legally have a non-registered for highway use vehicle out on public roads on a trailer. Someone with more recent experience will chime in about that piece of paper, and your other questions, hopefully. :ride

edit, the AI answer about PNO:
Q: can I have my PNO vehicle towed on public roads in CA?

A: No. Under California law, a vehicle with Planned Non-Operation (PNO) status cannot be driven, towed, or parked on public roads or highways at any point during the registration year.The specific regulations and legal exceptions for moving a PNO vehicle include: Strict Prohibitions: According to the California DMV PNO Guidelines, placing a vehicle on "Non-Op" means it must remain off public roadways completely. Attempting to tow it on a public road violates this status and can result in citations, back fees, and the risk of being impounded by local police.​

:dunno
 
PNO vehicles can be transported, but wheels cannot touch the public roadway(s), including public parking lots. PNO vehicles can be insured. The owner on title is what matters. Most Race bikes aren't even PNO; they sell without titles, etc. Your umbrella will likely only care about listed vehicles. Vehicles not noted in your policy will likely not be covered under your umbrella. Race tracks are not considered "public" use. A PNO is fine to transport a bike on a trailer/ truck bed/ van, etc.

A REG 712 is for race bikes w/out an original VIN from the manufacturer.
 
Holeshot said:
PNO vehicles can be transported, but wheels cannot touch the public roadway(s), including public parking lots. PNO vehicles can be insured. The owner on title is what matters.
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Exactly what I just learned after 20 mins in online chat with DMV agent. Transcript below (with text about affadavit of nonuse hightlighted in red):
Me (Mon Jun 01 2026 14:04:48 GMT-0700 (Pacific Daylight Time)):Thank you. So then what is difference between PNO and affidavit of non-use?
Me (Mon Jun 01 2026 14:05:16 GMT-0700 (Pacific Daylight Time)):Why would I want to have one or the other on this motorcycle?
Agent: PNO means that the vehicle will not be driven, towed, stored, or parked on public roads or highways for the entire registration year.

Affidavit of Non-Use is you notifying the DMV that a currently registered vehicle is not being operated or parked on any California roadway, and that the liability coverage has been cancelled to avoid registration suspension. The Affidavit falls off the record every year

Agent: PNO does NOT need to be renewed.
Click to expand...
 
PNO = NO, correct Tom?
 
Holeshot said:
PNO = NO, correct Tom?
Click to expand...
If you mean NO= non-op, not entirely. It means you can't operate the vehicle on a public road, park it in a public parking lot, or have it moved in any way where it's wheels touch the road. In other words, if you only ride it on a closed course like a race track, then you are still in compliance with the PNO rules.

The advantage of PNO is that if you ever want to change the registration to regular, you won't owe any back fees/penalties for an expired or suspended registration. The agent also told me that PNO does not need to be renewed (which an affadavit of nonuse does each year).
 
I would only non-op a bike if it wasn't running and I didn't know when it was would be fixed. Just to avoid DMV back fees.

A track bike? I would just pay my insurance and registration and have at it. The insurance company doesn't need to know it's a track bike. If the bike is for going to be 100% on track, I would forget about registration either way.
 
I would keep the registration, non op, and all paper work current. You might want to sell the bike sometime in the future, and a pink slip goes a long way for a buyer. No other way to tell if it's legit. Someone may want to put it back on the street, even if they only want the frame for a build.
 
Pay the small one time fee for non op once, it's good until the bike is brought out of it, could be 20 years.
Stop paying registration, fees start accumulating.

Do yourself and any future owners a solid and just non-op any bikes you own that you don't want to ride.
I used to say keep everything registered, until the damn registration fees skyrocketed. Not worth a couple hundred dollars a year each to keep bikes actively registered if I only ride them once twice or never a year
 
augustiron said:
Pay the small one time fee for non op once, it's good until the bike is brought out of it, could be 20 years.
Stop paying registration, fees start accumulating.

Do yourself and any future owners a solid and just non-op any bikes you own that you don't want to ride.
I used to say keep everything registered, until the damn registration fees skyrocketed. Not worth a couple hundred dollars a year each to keep bikes actively registered if I only ride them once twice or never a year
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It's worse than that. Reg requires insurance, which now needs to be the SAME coverage for ALL vehicles, at least by my carrier. That could be a change in the law, someone can look that up. I just non-opd my DR because it's a secondary bike if main bike breaks. I start it and ride it around the yard and maintain it as if I was riding it. So it sits waiting patiently for me in good working order, or for a friend to borrow if they want to eat the reg and insurance fees.

Sounds like OP wants the bike insured for replacement (fire/flood/theft) but not on the road. Auto/moto insurance won't do that, it's not how they are structured around the regulations. Any sportbike you are willing to toss down the track should be a you-only liability, not one absorbed by ratepayers for an inherently high-risk activity. That said, I'm not judging you OP. And, if it's a public course it's a public road unless you have specific policy provisions, so my insurance company asks up front. "Do you plan to use this for RIDESHARING (lol), TRACKDAY USE, or blah blah blah?" You can, but rates will adjust up accordingly. The ROI on claiming comprehensive damage for a solo "public road" crash is terrible. Upped rate across your policy and the data is shared.

Insure your ass when you ride the track and eat damage to the bike if and when it occurs. my 2c IMO
 
Hagerty sells daily/ weekend/ annual HPDE insurance, but it's expensive. They also sell theft only insurance which is much cheaper if you have a few vehicles with them. I insure my race bikes for theft only....almost no one insures their trackbikes for damage.
 
Holeshot said:
Hagerty sells daily/ weekend/ annual HPDE insurance, but it's expensive. They also sell theft only insurance which is much cheaper if you have a few vehicles with them. I insure my race bikes for theft only....almost no one insures their trackbikes for damage.
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Theft insurance is a good point I didn't factor into my thought process. I've been to the track countless times but it's never been a dedicated track bike so I had full coverage all the time.

Currently my bike is not running so I keep up the registration but I dialed the insurance down to the most basic level primarily because it's cheaper to insure my car and my bike than either of them alone because my car is old and the bike is technically my secondary vehicle which is a lot cheaper than if it was primary. If someone is a good enough thief that they break into my garage and manage to maneuver the bike out from the back of the garage in front of my car, well I guess they "earned" it...
 
One day we'll hit the track up, luck willing!
 
Holeshot said:
One day we'll hit the track up, luck willing!
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It's low priority right now just based on all the expenses involved as I know you know what all that is. I'm not swimming in that kind of disposable income currently.
 
I ended up adding liability-only coverage to the new track bike. It was about $40/6 mos. Comprehensive is what I was actually going for in case the bike is stolen off the trailer while I'm parked at a motel overnight, but that would have added $500/yr to my insurance, and I figured it wasn't worth it. The liability, however, is important - and maybe even required if vehicle is PNO (?). Either way, turns out that in order for my umbrella policy to cover me, I need to have the same liability coverage on the bike as on my other vehicles. Otherwise, if something horrendous were to happen at a trackday and someone came after me, I'd be totally exposed without umbrella protection. $40 is cheap for peace of mind, and anything else that happens to the bike I'm willing to take the risk of having to eat it. So I guess that's it - good go. Next track day is Sonoma, 6/15. :ride
 
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