California OHV Stickers: Green, Red, and Now Tan

Mo G
Last verified: October 27, 2026

California now issues three off-highway vehicle sticker colors. A green California OHV sticker covers CARB-compliant machines and model year 2002 and older. Red covers noncomplying model years 2003 through 2021. Tan, new as of February 11, 2026, covers noncomplying 2022 and newer. The DMV fee schedule prints one OHV total: $54 for two years.

If you own a dirt bike, a quad, a sand rail or a snowmobile in California, you have probably had the green-or-red conversation at a trailhead. That conversation is now out of date in two separate ways, and the page most riders check has not caught up.

The DMV added a third sticker color in February 2026. The red sticker riding season, the single most consequential thing a red sticker ever meant, ended on December 31, 2024. And the DMV’s own consumer-facing off-highway vehicle page, updated as recently as October 19, 2026, mentions neither of those facts and gets the model year boundaries wrong by two years. Here is the current picture, with every source named and dated.

Three colors, and what each one actually tells a ranger

Color is not decoration. It encodes two things: whether your machine meets California Air Resources Board exhaust emission standards, and what model year it is.

How do you know if your machine is noncomplying? Look at the eighth character of the VIN. Manufacturers code a “3” or a “C” in that position to flag a vehicle that is not certified to CARB standards. Both the DMV and the Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Division confirm that convention.

Definition: what an OHV sticker is

An off-highway vehicle identification, which the DMV also calls an OHV identification plate, is a numbered sticker the DMV issues for a motor vehicle used only off public roads and highways. It covers all-terrain vehicles, trail bikes, racing motorcycles, electric motorcycles, dune buggies and snowmobiles. These machines do not get normal highway registration. They get the sticker instead, and it must be displayed. The Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Division is blunt that “registration” and “identification” mean the same thing here, and that a title is not registration.

The riding season is gone, and the DMV page never mentions it

For two decades the practical meaning of a red sticker was a calendar. Red sticker machines could only ride in designated public OHV areas during a published seasonal window, which varied by riding area. Get the season wrong and you were cited, no matter how legal your sticker was.

That ended. Per the Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Information Bulletin 24-3, dated December 19, 2024, which expressly supersedes the earlier bulletins:

• The red sticker riding season ended December 31, 2024.
• Beginning January 1, 2025, red and green sticker registrations are equally valid year round in designated public OHV areas.
• Off-road motorcycles and ATVs previously registered under the red sticker regulation may operate year round in those areas.

Two things worth noticing. First, the DMV’s consumer OHV page does not mention riding seasons at all, in either direction, so a rider checking the DMV site learns neither that seasons existed nor that they ended. Second, the OHMVR Division’s own public FAQ still describes the change in the future tense, saying these machines “will no longer be restricted to a riding season,” which reads like something upcoming rather than something nearly two years in the past.

So if you have been parking a 2015 non-compliant bike from spring through fall out of habit, you have been giving up riding days you were entitled to since the start of 2025.

Registration and riding are two different questions

This is where most of the confusion on forums comes from, and the sources do reconcile if you read them in order.

The OHMVR Division’s public FAQ says that starting with model year 2022, the DMV no longer issues red sticker registrations to noncomplying ATVs and motorcycles, that these are classified as competition vehicles, and that they may only be used on private land or at sanctioned competition events.

Bulletin 24-3 says the DMV continues to register competition motorcycles for model year 2022 and later under Vehicle Code section 38010.

And DMV memo VIN 2026-03, effective February 11, 2026, resolves it: a noncomplying model year 2022 or newer OHV may be registered, and it receives the new tan sticker. The memo states the purpose directly. The tan color exists to distinguish those vehicles from older ones and to help park staff and law enforcement identify them.

Put together, the rule is clean, and nobody states it in one sentence: you can register a 2022-or-newer noncomplying machine, and that registration is not a trail pass. The tan sticker is an identification document, not an access permit. Public OHV trail riding is the part that changed, not the paperwork.

What a California OHV sticker costs

Every figure below comes from the DMV registration fee schedule, last modified October 14, 2026. The schedule prints a single OHV total with no separate line by sticker color.

The nonresident permit figure comes from the OHMVR Division rather than the DMV fee schedule, which does not carry that line.

The June 30 cliff, and why buying in May saves you nothing

OHV identification does not run on a rolling anniversary like your car. It runs on a fixed state date, and two rules on the DMV’s OHV page make that expensive if you miss it.

1. Your sticker expires June 30 of the second calendar year after the original identification was issued. You get a new plate every two years at renewal.
2. Fees cannot be prorated, even if you pay late. Register in May and you pay the same $54 you would have paid in July for nearly two extra years of validity.
3. If renewal fees are not received or postmarked by June 30, a flat 50% late fee applies. It is not a sliding scale that grows week by week. It lands all at once.
4. If you neither renew nor file a PNO, the DMV warns the account may go to collections.

So the calendar discipline here is simple. If the machine is not getting ridden this cycle, file the planned non-operation before June 30 and pay $28 instead of eating $54 plus $27 in penalties later.

How to register an off-highway vehicle in California

Based on the DMV’s off-highway vehicle registration page, last modified October 19, 2026.

1. Check the eighth VIN character. A “3” or a “C” means the machine is not certified to CARB standards, which determines whether you are looking at red, tan or green.
2. Confirm the model year against the color table above. This decides which sticker the DMV will issue and, separately, where you may legally ride.
3. Complete the Application for Title or Registration, form REG 343. This is the base application for an original OHV identification.
4. Get a Verification of Vehicle, form REG 31. The DMV requires a physical verification of the vehicle for an original OHV application.
5. Gather proof of ownership. Acceptable documents include the manufacturer’s certificate of origin, the factory invoice, an out-of-state title, or bills of sale.
6. Pay the fees and any use tax due. The DMV lists $54 for the two-year identification, plus use tax where applicable.
7. Submit it. The DMV’s page lists an office visit for an original OHV application. For a noncomplying 2022 or newer machine, expect extra time, for the reason in the next section.

Depending on your situation you may also need a Certificate of Non-Operation, form REG 102, an Application for Duplicate or Transfer of Title, form REG 227, an Application for Replacement Plates, Stickers and Documents, form REG 156, and the existing identification plates themselves.

Why the tan sticker takes longer, straight from the memo

Memo VIN 2026-03 contains an operational detail that nobody outside the industry would ever see, and it matters if you just bought a new competition machine. The DMV wrote that applications for noncomplying model year 2022 and newer OHVs are finalized at DMV headquarters, because the system is not yet programmed to issue the tan sticker.

Read that plainly: the newest category of OHV paperwork is being handled by hand, routed through Sacramento, outside the normal automated pipeline. That is not a field office counter transaction with a sticker in your palm before you leave.

The same memo tells Business Partner Automation participants using the Virtual Clerk system to contact their First Line Service provider for indicia guidance on these vehicles. In other words, the DMV’s own instruction for this category runs through its licensed business partner channel. Sticker Quicker is a licensed California DMV Business Partner with full online access, DMV Occupational License #90656, one of only a handful in California at that level of access.

Three ways to get OHV paperwork done

For renewals, transfers and replacement indicia, which is the recurring work on a machine you already own, your options look like this.

The difference is not just speed, it is error catching. DMV-connected real-time processing means a problem surfaces while you are still in the conversation, not six weeks later in an envelope. For fleets and dealers running multiple machines, that is the Sticker Quicker fleet service, with the Virtual Garage dashboard tracking every renewal deadline so a June 30 cliff never catches you.

What is not published, and we are not guessing

Three things a reader will reasonably want that no current official source provides:

• A separate fee for the tan sticker. The DMV fee schedule prints one OHV original and renewal total, $54, and no color-specific line. We are not going to assert that the tan sticker costs the same until a page says so.
• Whether existing red stickers will be replaced with green at renewal. The December 2021 bulletin said that decision had not been made, and no later source we could reach resolves it. Bulletin 24-3 only establishes that both colors are now equally valid year round.
• Verbatim statutory text. The code sections below are named from the agencies’ own citations. The California legislative text site is not retrievable to us, so nothing here quotes statute directly.

One more caution, and it is on the DMV’s page rather than ours: that page lists golf carts both among the vehicles that receive a green sticker and among the vehicles exempt from OHV identification. If you own one, confirm with the DMV rather than assuming either reading.

Code sections cited by the agencies

Memo VIN 2026-03 cites Vehicle Code sections 4000, 24007, 38010, 38012 and 38070, and California Code of Regulations Title 13, Division 3, Chapter 9, Article 3, sections 2410 through 2415. Bulletin 24-3 cites CCR Title 13 sections 2412(f) and 2415 for the red sticker program, Health and Safety Code section 43001(a) for the racing vehicle exemption, Vehicle Code 38010 for DMV registration of 2022 and newer competition motorcycles, and Vehicle Code 4460(b) for the return of confiscated indicia. The DMV’s fee schedule cites Vehicle Code 4604 for planned non-operation.

Frequently asked questions

What does a tan OHV sticker mean in California?

A tan sticker identifies a noncomplying off-highway vehicle of model year 2022 or newer. The DMV introduced it effective February 11, 2026 under memo VIN 2026-03, so park staff and law enforcement can distinguish these machines from older ones. It is an identification document, not a public trail access permit.

Is the California red sticker riding season still in effect?

No. Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Information Bulletin 24-3, dated December 19, 2024, states the red sticker riding season ended December 31, 2024. Since January 1, 2025, red and green sticker registrations have been equally valid year round in designated public OHV areas.

How much does a California OHV sticker cost?

The DMV fee schedule, last modified October 14, 2026, lists $54 for an original or renewal OHV identification covering two years, broken out as $33 registration, $10 CHP, $7 service and $4 license. Late penalties total $27. Replacement of a lost plate or sticker costs $28.

When does a California OHV sticker expire?

June 30 of the second calendar year after the original identification was issued. A new plate is issued every two years at renewal. Fees cannot be prorated, and if renewal fees are not received or postmarked by June 30 a flat 50% late fee applies.

Can I ride a 2022 or newer noncomplying dirt bike on California public land?

No. The Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Division classifies noncomplying model year 2022 and newer ATVs and motorcycles as competition vehicles, limited to private land or sanctioned competition events. The vehicle can still be registered and receives a tan sticker, but that registration does not grant public OHV area access.

How do I tell if my OHV meets CARB emissions standards?

Check the eighth character of the vehicle identification number. Manufacturers code a “3” or a “C” in that position to indicate a vehicle that is not certified to California Air Resources Board standards. Both the DMV and the OHMVR Division confirm this convention.

Keep your tags current while you are at it

The truck that tows the machine is the one that gets pulled over. An expired registration sticker on the tow vehicle is its own citation, and it is the easiest thing on this entire list to fix.

Renew your California vehicle registration with Sticker Quicker’s registration renewal service and you skip the field office visit and the six to eight week mail wait: DMV-connected real-time processing, next-day FedEx delivery, online statewide or walk in at Fremont. Licensed California DMV Business Partner #90656, with more than 500,000 customers served. Just sold or bought a machine? Handle the paperwork through Sticker Quicker’s California title transfer service and have it handled correctly the first time.

Primary sources

• California DMV, Off-Highway Vehicle Registration, last modified October 19, 2026
• California DMV, memo VIN 2026-03, Issuance of Tan OHV Identification/Stickers, effective February 11, 2026
• California DMV, Registration Fees, last modified October 14, 2026
• California State Parks OHMVR Division, Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Information Bulletin 24-3, December 19, 2024
• California State Parks OHMVR Division, Frequently Asked Questions (undated)
• California DMV, Vehicle and Occupational Licensing Industry News Memos index

Related reading

• California motorcycle registration: fees and rules
• California registration sticker replacement: cost and steps
• California DMV fee increase 2027: the new fees

About the author

Mo G is the founder of Sticker Quicker, a licensed California DMV Business Partner with full online access and DMV Occupational License #90656. He has spent decades handling California vehicle registrations, titles and fleet compliance for more than 500,000 customers, from a single renewal to multi-state fleets. Sticker Quicker is headquartered at 38003 Mission Blvd STE B, Fremont, CA 94536 and serves all of California online.