Any New Yorkers know of a way to get a title for an orphan motorcycle?

[Cadapult]

To push the guy I bought my Maxim from to reapply for a title, I had to hold back most of the money, and then offer him another $100 to do the paperwork. Total ended up at $400, which was excellent for around here, even for a non-running bike.

When I was first looking through Craigslist I found bike after bike being sold "for parts, no title". Does anybody know if it's at all possible to get a New York State title for an old bike when it's been passed from owner to owner to owner with no title changing hands? The DMV is less than helpful. Not trying to be mean, but clueless would be a more appropriate term. A lady at the DMV told me "Gosh, I don't know. Well, just register it, you don't need a title for that."
Anyway, I'm hoping somebody out there knows how to work the system in this state to cut through the red tape and make the magic happen. The price difference between similar bikes with and without titles can be $500 or more.

 

[cmoore352010]

you should be able to get what's called a bonded title. Check with your states DMV to find out specifics.

I live in nebraska and i found out that first i had to send a dollar and a self addressed stamped envelope along with an application for record search to the dmv headquarters in the state capitol. It took 2 weeks to get a response back but it gave me the name and last known address of the person who last held title. Luckily for me the guy was still around and i found his phone number and called him. We are getting together to get the title transferred to me.

 

[vfost]

I had this problem when i bought my snowmobile last winter. It had passed through 6 people without the title following it. I made many many trips to dmv and finally was able to get out of them that i needed to use the mv-15 form found here to request the records of who still owns it in there system. From there you can contact that person to try to get the title however they most likely dont have it because it has been so long. at that point there is another form that that person can fill out saying that they lost it but would like a new one made (not sure if the new one has to be made in there name then signed over to you or if they can request it to be in your name right away)


All in all it is a long process that NYS makes even more difficult. Oh ya did i forget to mention you have to send the state money as well with the mv-15 you wouldnt expect them to do anything for free would you? lol


Hope all of that rambaling on and on helps