Register an Untitled bike

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Thanks to @Patmac6075 for getting permission from MCNews to reprint this article and submitting it for our use.

 

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MCN-1701-Untitled-Bikes-1.pdf

 

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For future reference, I have also copied this to the General Tech Library and stuck it at the top.

[Doug royal86]

I purchased a 1980 yamaha 250 that had no title. Dealing with old car club people they led me to International title out of Vegas. I called the company they told me all i needed was a check to see if it was stolen insured and picture and of course $150. In 3 weeks I got a registration and plates from Maine. In a few months I took the registration to DMV . With no questions they looked up the law in maine issued my Indiana title. Any bike over 15 years old in maine only uses registration for transfer. I was told other states does the same but i am not sure of the states. Also i did ask a state trooper if this was legal.

[Patmac6075]

When I bought my '84 XVZ12 it had no title and I was just going to tear it down and part it out ( heck the TCI and carbs would net me three times what I paid for the bike), but once I got the bike home and got it started, I couldn't destroy such a fine machine....I was able to track down the last registered owner and convince him I was legit...gave him the vin # and he went to the DMV and submitted for a lost title, signed it, and sent it to me so I could get it titled in my name....my problem with that was, he could have easily just called the cops and claimed the bike (fortunately he wasn't that sort of guy....but they do exsist!).

So, that's one way to get it done....

I get this magazine (absolutely the best, albeit expensive, motorcycle mag you can get...it's targeted for guys just like us!), and I ran across this article, and I know a couple times a year this subject comes up and just thought it would be nice to have a well researched, definitive, go-to article for anyone who needs to title an unregistered bike. Yeah, I'm sure every state has a different protocol, here in Wisconsin it's impossible to register a bike without proper documentation.....so this is an easy way to get it done.