I am possibly hosed

[Dr. Mordo]

I bought my steamer broken, if you recall the sprag thread I posted.  The dude I bought it from had never registered it in his name because it was broken, so the title is in the name of the owner before last, so to speak.  It is signed and everything is legit, but f+cking Texas titles don't have the price on them so you need a separate bill of sale.  So I'll need a BoS from the owner before last.  

I'm military and had planned to register it in Florida, so I called them and they said the previous owner would have to register it in his name,and then sell it to me with a bill of sale.  It is apparently illegal to not register a vehicle in your name after you buy it, and then resell it.

So I tracked down the owner before last's father (Google), and his son who owned the bike, is supposed to call me.  

So, if I can't get a bill of sale, I guess I'm screwed.  I'll be happy to pay the dude for a handwritten piece of paper, but he has to call me first.

[JetdocX]

Good luck.  

Edit:  FWIW, your state should be able to do a lien search on that bike and without lien, you should be able to register it and title it in your name.

It may help to do a bit more pushing.  Your average DMV employee typically needs a bit of motivation.

[JetdocX]

At least you don't have to deal with CARB.

[Dr. Mordo]

What's CARB?

I appreciate the tip about the lien search.  I do have a friend of a friend at the DMV that I haven't talked to yet.  She's a higher up there, so maybe she knows a work-around.

[JetdocX]

Kalifornica Air Resource? Board.

I'm looking at a move back to Cali and need to see if my Steamer can be registered there even though I bought it in SoCal and it was registered.  

Confused yet?

My bike has no evap cans and that was a Cali requirement back in 98.  I'm thinking I'll make some dummy cans to point to when the DMV drone does the visual inspection.  I hope it works.

[Dr. Mordo]

That does suck, especially since you just rebuilt the bike.  Otherwise selling it would be a possibility, but since you just redid it I'm sure you want to ride the wheels off it for at least a year or two.

As far as I can tell, Florida is one of the very few states that still does no vehicle inspection of any kind.  It can be a deathtrap that belches black poison and they don't care as long as I have a bill of sale.

Which, of course, I lack.

[JetdocX]

No, I'm keeping it.  Too much time and effort into it to sell it now.

I have a few friends locally who will let me "relocate" to their house while residing in the People's Republic of Kali.

I'm hoping that I can register the bike there as it was registered there less than a year ago.  I'm just being the glass half-full kinda guy right now, which makes sense since the great beaurocracy of the Kali DMV is going to be involved in some way.

[Dr. Mordo]

Dude, we check this forum way too often.

I wish you luck with the CARB and your Tiger.  It sounds like we are in similar boats on opposite ends of the country.

[Dr. Mordo]

Well, the former owner whose name is on the title called me today and we met so he could sign a bill of sale for me.  I bought him lunch and we hung out and talked about bikes for a while.  He was very cool about it.

So, I am not hosed.

[JetdocX]

Nice, Dr.!

[Mustang]

So, I am not hosed.

no you got a great deal on the best style of tiger there is .

[Dr. Mordo]

Yes, I am very anxious to get this thing on the road!  

To do before I can ride it:

Mount the rear tire I got in the mail Friday
get the carbs back from the dude rebuilding them (they had never been rebuilt)
Register it?  (I doubt I can wait til I'm totally legal)

Talking to the dude whose name was on the title was pretty interesting.  He sold it with 74k miles, a full set of Givi bags, and a Givi windscreen.  When I got it, it had changed hands twice, so the bags and windscreen were gone, but the bike had been ridden almost 4000 miles while still registered to the original owner!  He was a little bummed that the bags and windscreen were no longer with the bike, but pleased that I was going to get it back on the road.  Apparently it had never had the sprag replaced with well over 70k miles on it.

[CBAT]

I'm glad things are looking up for you.

[Stretch]

Congrats on your de-hosing.

[Dr. Mordo]

I am definitely pleased, now if I can de-hose the rest of my life I'll be in good shape.