Selling a motorcycle, couple logistical questions.

Selling my first bike. For a cash in hand seller plan was meet at a bank and they can verify cash and I sign it over or whatever.

But what's that process look like. I have the title, then there's somewhere on the title for transfering or is there another form of some type? Plus generic bill of sale from the internet printed off?

The plate is registered thru october. Is there any big reason I would not want to just let them have the plate for them to re-register it? I suppose I could keep it if we get the wife something other than her 125 but then the hope was shes selling the 125 for a real bike so we'd still have a plate.

If they get into a wreck with your plate, the other person usually ends up notifying YOUR insurance. Same with any traffic violations, toll roads, etc.

I hate that I'm trying to justify keeping the bike even though I have no "real" use. Already have a much faster big street bike for a commute. This would be more fun in town at slower speeds riding with the wife once she gets her endorsement etc perhaps. Doesn't specialize and do anything unique like a dirt bike.....

Just such a gorgeous bike, wish they'd make a ninja1000 version (this is a ninja 650 on a cruiser)

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You're making this a lot harder than you need to. You don't need to meet at a bank...unless there's a lien on the bike. Then it might be handy.

Otherwise, take cash, sign title (pretty self-explanatory) and give to buyer, give bill of sale to buyer, give keys to buyer. Take your plates off. If you get another bike you can transfer them to your new bike for a small credit if they aren't yet expired. The plates are yours and should not go to the buyer.

Pretty much no difference between selling a car or a bike so if you've sold a car the bike works the same way.

As previously mentioned, keep your plates. I actually knew a guy that sold his bike and let the buyer take the plates. The new owner must have loved being able to take E470 for months at my buddy's expense.

Always done vehicles thru a dealership, all.... 1 trade in I've done in my life? Some of us hold onto cars and are young enough to have not had to do it much.

@Bailey. Yes it's a got a payment on it. Bought it used in october before moving up to a liter bike in short order. I was going to get the title cleared up before the sale. Meeting at a bank is so I don't end up with counterfeits etc, nice public place etc. Don't want to screw with money orders and other things that have even more risk.

But question answered yes keep my plates since I guess nothing making them change the registration over right away.

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Originally Posted by Bailey Guns

You're making this a lot harder than you need to. You don't need to meet at a bank...unless there's a lien on the bike. Then it might be handy.

Otherwise, take cash, sign title (pretty self-explanatory) and give to buyer, give bill of sale to buyer, give keys to buyer. Take your plates off. If you get another bike you can transfer them to your new bike for a small credit if they aren't yet expired. The plates are yours and should not go to the buyer.

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Um, isn’t a notary stamp still required on private vehicle sales, on the title ? So, a bank or Notery would be required. And a bank to verify currency of the buyer, especially of large bills. Heck, any bills, people are passing $20 bills of funny money at garage sales for cheap items and getting real money in change.

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Originally Posted by SideShow Bob

Um, isn’t a notary stamp still required on private vehicle sales, on the title ? So, a bank or Notery would be required. And a bank to verify currency of the buyer, especially of large bills. Heck, any bills, people are passing $20 bills of funny money at garage sales for cheap items and getting real money in change.

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I haven’t ever had a title notarized. I’ve never heard of that being a requirement.

Must be a requirement in KS. I was living there the last time I sold a vehicle to a private party and not a trade in to a dealer.

No...no notary required. Just seller(s) signature(s).

No Notary. if there's a bank note on it then yes meet at bank. Payoff your note, buyer gets title, they go to DMV. keep plate and any other items you're not including with sale. There's a section on the title you sign, fairly self explanatory

Bill of sale is nice, mostly for you to say "THIS IS AN AS-IS SALE" so no coming back a week later when he ran it into a curb trying for money back and pissing and moaning.

Once you get acceptable form of payment in your hands, you then sign the back of the title, being careful to do it in the right spots for date, signature, and printed. Then they sign it, don't let them jump titles. Take a pic of the front and back. Take off the plates, throw them the keys, have a nice day. If they buy between 9am and 5pm, they're supposed to come with paper temp tags to drive away, but if it's after 5pm, the bill of sale lets them drive it home. Pretty crazy huh...

The key with motorcycles is, the test ride. Buyers want to do it, sellers shouldn't allow it. If someone has a motorcycle endorsement on their license already, then maybe I'd let them sit on it and rev the engine, etc. I'd ride it up and down the street for them, maybe let them ride bitch on the back so they'd feel how smooth it is.

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Originally Posted by SideShow Bob

Um, isn’t a notary stamp still required on private vehicle sales, on the title ? So, a bank or Notery would be required. And a bank to verify currency of the buyer, especially of large bills. Heck, any bills, people are passing $20 bills of funny money at garage sales for cheap items and getting real money in change.

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You must be old (like me), the notary used to be a required, been gone in Colorado for gosh, 20 or more years.

Just as someone says, you don't even need a bill of sale, the back of the title has the bill of sale info. You might do a bill of sale for your records, just in case they don't re-title it.

NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER LEAVE THE PLATE ON!

NEVER!

NEVER!

So here's the deal: In Colorado if you buy a motor vehicle or a trailer from a private seller, and it's after 5:00 or on a weekend, you can legally drive that vehicle without a license plate for up to 72 hours to transport it from the place of sale to the place it will be stored.

I buy and sell lots of vehicles from private owners and I usually prepare a bill of sale with the following: Description of vehicle, date, time and place of sale, and then I append this to the bottom of the bill of sale:

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42-3-115, Registration Upon Transfer
...

(b) A transferee may operate a motor vehicle on the highway before registering it if:
...

(III) (A) The transferee has purchased the motor vehicle within the last thirty-six hours from a person who is not a motor vehicle dealer under article 6 of title 12, C.R.S.;

(B) The vehicle was purchased either on a Saturday, on a Sunday, on a legal holiday, or between 5 p.m. and 8 a.m.;

(C) The vehicle is being driven from the place where the transferor stored the vehicle to the place where the transferee intends to store the vehicle;

(D) The owner possesses, in the vehicle, a bill of sale that shows the time and date of sale and that is signed by both the buyer and seller; and

(E) The owner possesses, in the vehicle, proof of insurance as required by section 42-4-1409.

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Leaving a license plate on a vehicle is a nightmare. You are leaving yourself open to parking citations, toll citations,etc.


So in case it wasn't clear from the above

NEVER LEAVE THE LICENSE PLATE ON THE VEHICLE!

A few other odds-and-ends: The back of the title has the place where you have to write in the mileage and the buyer has to acknowledge the mileage reading. As the seller you print and sign your name. When I sell something, that's all I do. I let the buyer fill in everything else including the purchase price

I sent the OP a PM but I'll make this offer to anyone else here: I have a blank bill of sale in Word format that I'm happy to send to anyone here. That BoS includes the description of the vehicle (Make, model, year and VIN), the date, time and place of sale, and specifically includes the words "SOLD AS-IS WITH NO WARRANTY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED" Whenever I sell a vehicle I always print two copies, one for the buyer (so he can show it if he gets pulled over for no license plate) and one for me (in case the vehicle is later reported stolen or otherwise involved in some nefarious act.) The buyer and I sign both copies.

It also includes the above-described quote from the CRS that shows that a license plate is not required if buying from a private seller.

I've bought and sold probably at least a dozen cars, motorcycles, trailers, etc using this BoS and I've never had anything come back to bite me so I assume it works.

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Originally Posted by ChadAmberg

Bill of sale is nice, mostly for you to say "THIS IS AN AS-IS SALE" so no coming back a week later when he ran it into a curb trying for money back and pissing and moaning.

Once you get acceptable form of payment in your hands, you then sign the back of the title, being careful to do it in the right spots for date, signature, and printed. Then they sign it, don't let them jump titles. Take a pic of the front and back. Take off the plates, throw them the keys, have a nice day. If they buy between 9am and 5pm, they're supposed to come with paper temp tags to drive away, but if it's after 5pm, the bill of sale lets them drive it home. Pretty crazy huh...

The key with motorcycles is, the test ride. Buyers want to do it, sellers shouldn't allow it. If someone has a motorcycle endorsement on their license already, then maybe I'd let them sit on it and rev the engine, etc. I'd ride it up and down the street for them, maybe let them ride bitch on the back so they'd feel how smooth it is.

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+1. You can ride it after I have the cash or maybe title to vehicle you arrived in/on.

True story time: About 20 years ago my brother had an old Scout. The thing was a beast but after 4 or 5 years he got tired of sinking money into it and put it up for sale.

Foolishly, he left the plates on, thinking "what could possibly go wrong?" :rolleyes:

Well, six months later he started getting inundated with notices of a parking tickets, warnings that the vehicle would be booted, towed, bills from towing and storage companies, etc etc. It was a real PITA that I think lasted over a year before he finally got it resolved. Apparently the "buyer" never registered the vehicle so it remained in my brother's name, along with the soon-expired license plates.

Now I don't think it cost him any money but it certainly cost him a lot of time, phone calls, explanations, etc and probably some sleepless nights as well.

"Average" people learn from their mistakes. "SMART" people learn from OTHER PEOPLE'S mistakes. So be smart and learn from my brother. ;)

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Originally Posted by buffalobo

+1. You can ride it after I have the cash or maybe title to vehicle you arrived in/on.

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My rule with MC sales is: If you want to test ride, you hand me my full asking price in cash. After that I'll toss you the keys and you can ride it. Bring it back intact and I'll give you back your cash and we can talk price. Drop it, wreck it, or damage it in any way, I sign the title over to you and its yours.

In the many years I've been doing this (over 20) I've only had one potential buyer actually do that (and that was when we were selling my wife's Intruder to another female rider. She was a beginning rider and wanted her dad to ride the bike to make sure it was OK.)

Most of the time they just come, look at the bike, start the engine and then once they've verified that it's in decent shape, we start talking price.

Blank bill of sale. Feel free to copy and paste into a word processor of your choosing:

***********************Motor Vehicle Bill of Sale***************************

I, _ of _ ___ (hereafter known as “seller”) being the lawful owner of the following motor vehicle:

__________________________, VIN: _______________________________________

Do hereby transfer all right and title in ownership of said vehicle to the following person:

______________________________of ______________________ in exchange for the sum of $____________ , ____________________________dollars, paid in the form of: _CASH IN HAND_______

Seller transfers all right and title to Buyer of this vehicle “as-is” with no warranties expressed or implied.
This transfer took place on _ at _ _ P.M at the following location:

___

____

_________________________________

Signature of Seller: _________________________________ Date: _______________

Signature of Buyer: __________________________________ Date: _______________

42-3-115, Registration Upon Transfer
...

(b) A transferee may operate a motor vehicle on the highway before registering it if:
...

(III) (A) The transferee has purchased the motor vehicle within the last thirty-six hours from a person who is not a motor vehicle dealer under article 6 of title 12, C.R.S.;

(B) The vehicle was purchased either on a Saturday, on a Sunday, on a legal holiday, or between 5 p.m. and 8 a.m.;

(C) The vehicle is being driven from the place where the transferor stored the vehicle to the place where the transferee intends to store the vehicle;

(D) The owner possesses, in the vehicle, a bill of sale that shows the time and date of sale and that is signed by both the buyer and seller; and

(E) The owner possesses, in the vehicle, proof of insurance as required by section 42-4-1409.

C.R.S. § 42-3-115 Registration upon transfer

(1) Whenever the owner of a motor vehicle registered under this article transfers or assigns the owner's title or interest, the registration of such vehicle shall expire, and such owner shall remove the number plates.  The owner, upon applying for registration in such owner's name during the same registration period of another motor vehicle, may receive credit upon the fees due for such new registration for such portion of the fees paid for the cancelled registration as the department may determine to be proper and proportionate to the unexpired part of the original term of registration.  A transfer fee of one dollar shall be paid in all cases.

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Originally Posted by Martinjmpr

My rule with MC sales is: If you want to test ride, you hand me my full asking price in cash. After that I'll toss you the keys and you can ride it. Bring it back intact and I'll give you back your cash and we can talk price. Drop it, wreck it, or damage it in any way, I sign the title over to you and its yours.

.

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yep, this is how you do it on M/C's

Just a thought - if the bike is financed and the bank still holds the title, it might be a good idea to call them and let them know you'll be coming in with the buyer, so the bank can dig the title out and have it ready. Might save a bit of hassle.....

Bank would be just for me to verify cash etc. Title is with a shitty credit union with oddball hours so I'm going to make a special trip when I have a buyer to go clear the title then meet the buyer whenever. One of those things where I can float the multiple thousand but would rather not do that and end up going 4 months without a buyer.

some banks are useless on the title. AS in it takes WEEKS to send you (not the buyer) the title.

You should call and check procedures first.

honestly if i wanted to sell something, i'd get the title clear first, as a buyer, dealing with a clear title is a whole lot less work and hassle.

I did, they said weekdays they can give me title on spot, no appointment ahead of time. Specific location has their title branch. They do high volume of bike loans.

Buyer is going to have to deal with meeting me at a wells fargo anyways. I dont meet at home and if I'm already meeting somewhere public might as well be where I can confirm funds rather than find out later 1/4 of it was funny money.