Anybody ever get a title for an old bike without one?

[Desmodromico]

Looking at some old 70's era bikes and many of them are being sold without title as they have been sitting around a while. Anyone know how hard it is to get a title in Colorado and what type of cost is involved?

[PremiumBlend]

Looking at some old 70's era bikes and many of them are being sold without title as they have been sitting around a while. Anyone know how hard it is to get a title in Colorado and what type of cost is involved?

I don't remember all of the forms you have to fill out but all said and done it's easily an extra $500-$1000 to jump through all of the hoops.

You will have to get the packet from Colorado State Patrol. It tells you all of the forms you need to fill out and what you need to do step by step. You will eventually have to take it to the CSP compound and have them do an inspection.

[Desmodromico]

I figured it would be a pain, and I assume the $500 is due to the inspections and taxes they hit you with? I heard from someone they appraise the bike and you pay sales tax on that?

Sucks because there are a ton of cool old 70's bikes available cheap but with no titles.

Passed on a really cool XS650 due to no title, might have a bike lined up though fingers crossed.

[Jim 'smooth' Brewer]

I had to go through the retitling process and it's a MAJOR pain. The State Patrol officer who did the road worthy inspection joked, "this is the only time you'll go through this." He was right.

There were about 13 steps including title searches, posting a bond on the value of the bike, paying back taxes & registration, etc. I think I ended up paying about $1500 total and spending many days running around to the DMV and the State Patrol office.

NEVER buy a bike w/o a title unless you just want to use the frame for scrap.

[nobasin]

i had a friend do this on a salvaged motorcycle here in colorado a couple years ago, and he was able to obtain a mail order out of state title (it was legit, if not a bit grey) and then he simply took that title to the colorado dmv and transfered it to colorado and that was it. he's been riding it ever since legally. i'll see if i can find out how he did it (doesn't live here anymore), but it was pretty easy and painless and cost him very little.

[Jim 'smooth' Brewer]

There's a WORLD of difference between starting with an out-of-state title versus starting with no title.

OTOH, for the FZR400 I was titling, I had a Pennsylvania title that had been signed to a friend in CA, then that friend signed it to me. That didn't count as a title for CO, so I had to go through the whole process. <ugh>