[goldenchild]

I may be poised to sell my bike in the very near future and being that I have no experience with selling bikes or cars I was wondering if there was anything that I should know aside from canceling the insurance. For instance -

What should I do with the title?

Do I need to create a bill of sale for the person buying in order for them to register it (in NY State)?

How do I go about canceling my current registration, I assume I'll have to hand in my plates and get new ones once I register the next bike correct?

Thanks in advance for any info you good folks can share!

 

[Blueshark928]

This is the general order of things to do

Place an ad for sale
Round up all stuff to be included in sale
Find all important papers (like the title), books, reciepts etc
Sell bike
Fill out Bill of Sale - Note that this is more for the buyer for purposes of taxation. If your bike sold for lower than book value this needs to be signed by both parties and notarized. Otherwise the buyer may get screwed into paying taxes on the book value and not what he paid. Your DMV website should have downloadable blank BOS forms.
Sign back of Title only after you've been handed the money
Turn in the tags
Cancel Insurance

this list assumes you own the bike in question outright and dont have a lein against it.

 

[yuu]

A bill of sale is nice, but not needed. In most places a signed over title will be sufficent. IN VA, one is able to cancel the registrtion via the DMVs website. But the reg should be cancelled once the bike is gone.

 

[goldenchild]

Thanks guys, great advice!

 

[Blueshark928]

Oops forgot bill of sale on my list....Fixed.

 

[ScottRNelson]

A bill of sale is nice, but not needed. In most places a signed over title will be sufficent. IN VA, one is able to cancel the registrtion via the DMVs website. But the reg should be cancelled once the bike is gone.

A bill of sale avoids some other hassles and I always make sure that I include one in all motor vehicle sales, whether I'm buying or selling.

California has a specific bill of sale form that you can pick up for free at the DMV office, so I keep a few of those around.

I can think of two different motorcycle purchases that I've made in the past that were a hassle without a bill of sale, but wouldn't have been with one. In once case, the seller crossed out a date on the title and wrote a different one in. I didn't notice it, but the DMV bureaucrat did and wouldn't let me register the bike until I had a bill of sale too. The seller was 160 miles away and it was a major hassle to get him to provide one for me.

So even though you don't really need a bill of sale in most states, it doesn't hurt anything and may actually help.

 

[Industrial_Grrrl]

goldenchild,

In NY the person buying your bike needs a bill of sale for them to pay taxes and register the bike. Every state is different. I've bought and registered 2 bikes in this state. The bill of sale is written between you and the buyer, our state does not have an official form for this. So make 2, one for you and one for the buyer, and include the VIN, Bike Model and sale price.
You can download and print all the other forms (including a tax for you have to sign for the buyer) that are needed by the buyer.

http://www.nydmv.state.ny.us/regtransfer.htm#sell

best of luck,
Michelle

 

[count]

I personally won't allow a prospective buyer test ride the bike without cash. They give me the cash, I give them the title. They wreck--they own a bike. They don't wreck---we can exchange again if they decide not to buy.

 

[toolfan]

A bill of sale is nice to protect you as well..
I once sold a car to a woman who didn't bother changing the registration, and abandoned it some months later...
I ended up getting it worked out, but having a bill of sale would have made it sooo much easier.