Around one year ago I became a motorcyclist. I got a LAMS (learner) approved motorcycle to get me started, and was pretty excited to think that I could derestrict it from 39kW to 53kW once I had my full license. When I eventually got my full license, I started looking into derestricting my bike to access this latent power. The fix itself is pretty simple per this video (remove a screw to get 25% more out of the throttle and remove a wire in the ECU to change the fuel mix) but no shops would touch it. Not taking anyone's word for it I finally called Vicroads to get their take on it. Their response may help others thinking of doing the same thing:
- No, you cannot derestrict a LAMS approved motorbike
- Vicroads have no way of tracking modified LAMS bikes
- If you eventually sell the derestricted bike to a learner and they are involved in an accident, there will be insurance and potentially other legal ramifications
I did not contact my insurer but there may be issues there even if you choose to derestrict your bike whilst you own it and ride it under a full license since the bike may be regarded as having been modified - this may even be the case if the 'modifications' make the bike equivalent to another model already sold in this country (eg 650L 'modified' would just be a 650R).
I'm still an inexperienced rider and having ridden a few hundred kilometers around the Victorian Alps I didn't find the restricted bike under-powered so will get a few thousand more kilometers under my belt before I think about getting something with some more grunt.
