Buying bike with no title

I went through the bonding process when making my "dirt-only" DRZ-E street legal.

The no good, lazy, rotten original owner had never titled it, and, had also misplaced the MSO as well as the receipt from purchase. Some people, huh?

The original owner, is me. After freight delivery I uncrated and assembled the new bike in 2000, yet still had to do the whole bonding dance a couple years back to title it.

The process is very straight-forward, just follow the step-by-step.

Shop around for the bonding insurance, I got mine for $100 through my local agent.

Use the nearest regional office to submit the application, rather than the county office. The regional folks are more familiar with the process and can give good advice if things aren't quite right.

As Meriden mentioned, there are several threads on TWT about doing this. A quick search on "bonded title" ought to turn up a plethora to select from.

Old I know, but just letting yall know it all worked out. Only problem if I didn't state it earlier was for the insurance company to approve their part, I had to go to a website and pay $20 or something and it let me print out as much of the history on the bike that was available. Pretty much if theirs not a lien or police report on it, you're going to go.

It is a time consuming process.... I bet 1/2 off all the bikes - atv's on Craigslist were never paid for, ie in title limbo.

Rangerscott said:

Gotta love tax offices and all the different answers you get. One lady said you cant sell anything without a title. Other lady said the current owner has to get the info but technically he's not the owner since he never registered it.

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Don't ask those people anything.

Someone above said it. $15 at you regional tax office for rejection letter take that to an insurance agent that sells surety bonds $100. Take surety bond, and rejection letter, to tax office. Pay taxes. Boom. Bonded title will be in the mail. I've done it 3 times.

Now.... theu USED to make you pay taxes on the SPV (standard presumptive value) of the vehicle.... not anymore. Now they make you pay taxes on it as if it were a $4000 vehicle. Period.

Every "no title" thread turns out the same. Some folks saying it couldn't be easier, while others say it's a nightmare they'd never do again. The latter are deterrent enough for me to shy away from the whole ordeal.

Annhl8rX said:

Every "no title" thread turns out the same. Some folks saying it couldn't be easier, while others say it's a nightmare they'd never do again. The latter are deterrent enough for me to shy away from the whole ordeal.

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Probably a wise decision for you.

Annhl8rX said:

Every "no title" thread turns out the same. Some folks saying it couldn't be easier, while others say it's a nightmare they'd never do again. The latter are deterrent enough for me to shy away from the whole ordeal.

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Not a bad idea. My experience wasn't a horror story, but it was a giant pain in the butt, and the process added roughly $125 to the cost of the bike, plus a lot of man-hours to the registration process. To me, the reasons to go no-title again would be:
1) The mother of all bargains, or
2) A collectible that otherwise probably couldn't be had.
But I wouldn't roll the dice and put myself through the headaches just for a typical bike at a slightly better than typical price. There are too many other good bikes out there at very fair prices.

Perhaps the ultimate lesson is that it's all about money, i.e. the bureaucrats would like to extend the life of their inevitably-doomed pensions for a few more seconds. Pay the fee, get your papers. It's just a question of how much headache one is willing to endure. Frankly, I think tshelfer hit the nail squarely on the head.

I will pay way more $$$ for a bike / dirt / street / atv with a clean title. I have spent way too many hour chasing titles. Bonded etc. what a pain.

It was a fine process for me. I wasn't in a hurry. Only time I'd seek it a problem is if the bike was stolen or money's owed on it.

I got my 71 Honda CL70 I'm going to restore and gonna have ever to do this again. Gotta sell this bike first though.

I was given an orange 1971 CT70HK0 (the model with a 4-speed trans and a real clutch, and the early faster engine with bigger carb) in pretty good condition (no dents or scratches but dried out seat rubber, tires, fuel lines, etc.) Runs fine after rebuilding the carb, air filter, points, and plug.

In Tennessee $125 for bond, plus normal registration, license, city, county, and other fees. All together, just under $200. BUT: if someone pops up with the original title, or requests a duplicate title ($15), before three years pass, the bike is theirs, even though the numbers show clean now. After three years, the bike can't be claimed. Stupid rule, but the bond repays my investment.

Anywho, it has the later model hydraulic forks and shocks, round speedometer, and tapered roller bearings in the steering head. I've already ordered tires, tubes, rim strips, gasohol resistant O-rings and seals, new sprockets, an o-ring chain, etc., since someone has already wasted collector price with the suspension upgrades. I'm not cutting anything so the bike could be restored if someone wanted to scrounge the parts.