usa branded frame. what to do?

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starboy869

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Hi.

I got a bit of a pickle. I'm in the process of rebuilding a 06 VFR 800 from the ground up. Total I have into this bike is about $2,000 for near complete. probably another $300 til on the road and another $300 for a power commander.

Now the pickle. the frame came in today with papers. salvage, utah, usa ownership. seller said paper work is order and it was bit of a premium price. Vehicle according to the seller was a theft recovery. The frame (final part) is still stilling at my usa address until I get things figured out before bring it across the boarder. I told the CBSA people that the bike wasn't ready.

What are my options? I can safely assume vehicle branding transfers over from the USA ?

I emailed the seller about the title. however i assume the del key will be used along with the block option.

not an ebay or payday deal btw. bite the bullet for the tune of $500?
 
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Too bad that frame is garbage unless you are building a track bike ask for your money back as it is useless in Canada.

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Unless you can get recourse from whoever sold it to you, I think you are screwed. A branded frame/VIN can't be registered for the road in Ontario.
 
I have done (tried) this exact thing twice now. I had lawyer try to help, and we spoke to EVERYONE you can talk to on both sides of the border. Trust me when I say that that VIN number is completely useless to you. That VIN will never ever be permitted to be used here in Canada.
 
N3WMAN said:
Been there, done that. Still have the frame lying around here somewhere. Expensive paperweight.
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Is it illegal to have a US VIN registered to canada? Can someone explain this please?
 
e90 said:
Is it illegal to have a US VIN registered to canada? Can someone explain this please?
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No, the key term here is "salvage". Having that on the title is what makes it useless.
 
e90 said:
Is it illegal to have a US VIN registered to canada? Can someone explain this please?
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No, that's not the point.

The point is that the Ontario Ministry of Transport will only permit a motorcycle to be licensed and insured for the road if the VIN has never been "branded". Other jurisdictions (USA, etc) may have various types of "brands" e.g. clear, salvage, irreparable, rebuilt, etc. and may in some cases permit this to be changed if a certain process is followed. Ontario has only two ... clear, and branded, and once it has been branded, it can never go back, and if a VIN has EVER been branded, Ontario won't ever allow it to be clear again.

It's perfectly legal to OWN a frame/VIN that is branded. You just can't get a license plate and insure a motorcycle with such a frame on the road.

It doesn't matter whether the frame comes from the USA or not.

For track/race bikes, it's fine. All it means is that the bike can never be put back on the road.
 
AH ok. So having a frame branded "salvaged" even once makes it illegal to be plated and have on the road? Does this apply just to motorcycles or cars as well?

Does registering a bike as "unfit" count as this or is that OK? I recently purchased my bike in the winter to store until spring and registered it as "unfit" so that I could just transfer the ownership (you only have 6 days after purchase date) and insure it in the spring.
 
e90 said:
Does registering a bike as "unfit" count as this or is that OK? I recently purchased my bike in the winter to store until spring and registered it as "unfit" so that I could just transfer the ownership (you only have 6 days after purchase date) and insure it in the spring.
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Unfit just means you haven't done the safety yet, so as it is right now it's not safe for the road. Once you get the safety they'll change it to fit.

Totally different, don't worry about it. :)
 
Unfit is not a "brand", it's just a "status". A "brand" means something bad has happened to the bike with that VIN, and generally means that an insurance company has written it off, or the ownership has been transferred to a scrapyard. The Ontario Ministry of Transportation, rightly or wrongly, considers that to be irreversible. That you own a vehicle but haven't gotten the safety inspection done yet, is a different situation.
 
the guy got back to me and said pretty much it's not his problem anymore and wished me a merry christmas.

mother ****
 
listed on the ownership somewhere.
that's about half the price of hunk of scrap i have . I wonder what kimko will give me for the frame? $50

either way.. I need to find a good clean VIN & frame, or a clean VIN from a basketcase.


I'm still under 1/2 the price of a road legal one. so sit and wait. I'm probably going to ship the frame back the seller with a big coiler made from corn and beyond stupid hot wings in the middle.
 
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My $0.02 - I'd get on vfrdiscussion.com or vfrworld.com and see if you can get a line on a non-branded frame.

I bet if you have most of a working VFR there, you could part your pile of parts for about what you paid... but I realize that's not the point of the exercise.
 
an 06+ vfr800 cheapest on kijiji is $6000. my build for parts I've acquired over the last year or so including engine and this pos of a frame is $2200 give or take a few dollars. 07 and 08 are a few grand more than an 06. I rather build a bike than bought a bike IMO.
 
Don't give up yet, there's a way around it. Do you have the old frame with the VIN label - if yes transfer it to the frame you just bought. Is this legal - NO - but it's up to you.
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