Advice on Selling Vintage Motorcycles Without Titles
Summary: miccl-3987 is trying to sell a 1973 Honda trials motorcycle without a title, seeking advice on pricing and effective marketing strategies. onlinecentral advises ensuring that a new title is obtainable to avoid buyer disputes, while chapeau-noir shares their experience of selling a similar bike with a lost title and suggests offering a price reduction. aeparts1 recommends checking the VIN with the police to ensure it's not stolen. Other participants suggest filing for a lost title before selling and emphasize that some buyers might not mind purchasing without a title, especially for off-road use.
I recently came across an interesting situation with my 1973 Honda trials 110. It has some new parts like a head cylinder, piston, rings, timing chain, and gears, but it still requires a coil, condenser, new tires, and timing advance springs. I've lost interest in it, and since the title has been lost, anyone interested would need to handle filing for a new one. I'm asking $600 or best offer, sold as-is with the buyer arranging shipping or pickup.
I'm curious to hear from others who have sold or bought vintage motorcycles without titles. How do you determine a fair asking price? What are some effective ways to market a vintage bike like this? Have you faced any challenges when selling or buying without a title, and how did you resolve them? Looking forward to your experiences and advice!
onefootflipper
·2 weeks ago · EditedThe model you listed does not exist. In 1973 they made the CT90 trail. The CT110 didn't come out until 1983. Of course either the size or the year could have been an easy typo.
Don't list it on ebay. It actually likely won't be hard to sell with no title, those are the kind of bikes that just aren't likely to ever get registered in the first place. Either it will go to someone who has 9 of the things already and definitely doesn't have plates on most of them, it will go to someone who will only use it off-road. The market actually looking for one that they are going to license and drive on the street is probably going to only be looking at one that is ready to ride right now.
Heck, I put about 4000 miles on a 1983 Honda Passport with no title and no plates when I was younger, and had zero problem selling it when I was done with it.
chapeau-noir
·2 weeks agoI noticed that, and you're probably right about the title - though my background is bicycle trials quite a few of the competitors came from motorcycle trials, and pretty much just transported their bikes to the courses. No, they were not going to ride them on the road with no license plate.
onefootflipper
·2 weeks ago · EditedIn my experience the police generally ignore the tiny old Honda bikes, often assuming them to be 49cc models that fall under moped laws. Since I was specifically a C70 guy (I owned several more later and managed a lifetime total of 20,000 miles on them before I got out of them, I properly licensed and insured all the ones after the first one), I always notice them, and I have seen several that even had one of those plastic license plates that said 49cc.
chapeau-noir
·1 week agoThose were all over the place here back in the day - I don't even remember noticing if they had licenses or not. They were all called 'scramblers' whether they were or not. Now we have electric motorcycles all over the place, which is fine except they also want to drive around on the bike/ped trails.
chapeau-noir
·2 weeks agoIn Washington State one has to bring the motorcycle in to a few DOLs to get a title. My bike was not running at the time (it was a fixer - I got started on it but work situation kept interfering). I would have had to find a hitch, a trailer and haul it into the DOL. The guy buying it was willing to do all of that himself with an affidavit.
Caveat - we knew each other so the deal was solid.
Agree with making sure the bike wasn't stolen, but honestly, titles get lost. Mine was lost in a divorce paperwork shuffle, sometimes they get lost in a fire, etc.
The OP asked for experiences, and that was mine. Hopefully they'll find something helpful in our various ideas, though.
kensgiftshop
·2 weeks agoWhy not file for a lost title?
I wouldn't buy any vehicle without a title.
bashort
·2 weeks agoIf the title is in your name why would you not get the title replaced?
If it is not in your name that is a completely different story and depending on the state it could be near impossible to get it titled
aeparts1
·2 weeks agoI would have the police run the VIN before I did anything, to make sure it wasn't reported stolen.
chapeau-noir
·2 weeks agoI sold my 1963 Honda Dream with a lost title - I knocked $75 off the price for the individual to get the title themselves, and signed the affidavit that the title had been lost for them (I had taken a lot of trouble to find it, too).
grann-4629
·2 weeks agoI had a Dream when I was younger. I put about 12k miles on it in one year cruising across the country. I had to use it as a down payment for our first home, started to get the DT's about a week after that, then went out and got a Honda 350XL and had a ball playing in the dunes and racing trains for a couple of years. I never did get back to a regular street bike after that.
Now, I can't even balance myself on a bicycle 😞
chapeau-noir
·2 weeks agoI went from riding motorcycles to bicycles - I wasn't getting any exercise on a motorcycle, though I vastly enjoyed riding one. Funny thing - every cyclist I rode with in our little chain gang also rode a motorcycle or had ridden a motorcycle.
Two wheels better than four! (though sometimes three wheels is cool).
onlinecentral
·2 weeks agoSince the title has been lost, anyone interested would need to handle filing for a new one.
I would browse my state's DMV rules to clarify, with certainty, that the buyer can get a duplicate title without my involvement. If need be, I would get the duplicate squared away before listing the bike. I would want to prevent a return/dispute from an irate buyer.