Invalid VIN? 1980 KZ440

Hey everyone.

I bought a 1980 KZ 440 off of an older lady about 5 or so years ago. Was going to fix it and never got around to it. I never registered the bike in my name. I have now lost the ownership card/registration.

My friend bought the bike off of me and is fixing the bike so we need to get the registration.

I contacted the MTO (DMV for Americans?) and they said I only need a bill of sale to prove that I bought the bike and they can print me off a new registration.

1 catch: I need to contact the person I bought it off of to have a new Bill of Sale written up but I do not recall exactly where she lives.

So I again contacted the MTO and was told to bring in the VIN off the bike and they can tell me the persons name that it was last registered to so I can try and locate them that way.

I have what I believe is the VIN, take it in to the MTO and they say it is an invalid number. It is a 1980 so the VIN is shorter than post-81' bikes.

My friend who bought it has looked the frame up and down and can only see the one number stamped where the forks go through the frame.

Is this where most VIN's are? The sticker is wore off where I believe the VIN was but the numbers that I can read match up with the number stamped in the frame.

Anyone else have an issue like this or is there anything I am missing?

Thanks!

whats the vin number?
i bet you have a euro import which have less digits than Us/Canada and they dont like that kind of none conformity here, title company's wont touch it either.
here in MA,USA you have to take a euro import to the state police if he cant find anything wrong and you have a bill of sale and what ever else he requires you be assigned a mass vin id,

good luck!

First of all it would help to know which State/Country/Province/Banana Republic that you are dealing with.

You are correct, the VIN should be stamped on the neck of the frame located near the front forks. In order to keep the government people happy you may want to make a pencil tracing of the VIN#. Put a piece of paper over the stampings and run a pencil over it, take this with you. Another possibility would be to take a high quality digital photo of the numbers and take that in with you. This may satisfy them or it may not.

Sorry, I am in Ontario, Canada.

The VIN is KZ440A-017256.

Kano, I unfortunately lost the bill of sale along with the ownership. The reason for using the VIN was to get the name of the person I bought it off of so I could have a new BoS written.

I'm not sure if the dash in the VIN would make a difference as I'm not sure if she put the dash in when entering the VIN.

in canada its quiet easy.

check with the local police department and it should be quite easy to have new registration.

i beleave that's a euro frame number its the same as my import.

I live in Ontario also.
I just pulled out my ownership and insurance. My VIN # has 12 digits. No dashes. Like the Gringo says the VIN # should be stamped on the frame tube just below the handle bars. I like the suggestion to do a tracing.

According to Kawasaki.com VIN#s have 17 digits and HIN #s have 12 digits. Who knew :laugh: I guess with 12 digits I must have a HIN # :laugh:

Insurance companies can run the VIN #. Call to ask for a quote and see where it takes you.

VINs became standardized in 1981 at 17 digits with very specific patterns and rules. As far as I know, the system was adopted world-wide at that time.

Prior to 1981, the VIN could be almost any length, and was determined by the manufacturer - 12 digits was common.

FWIW - HINs are now also 17 digits and follow similar rules to VINs.

There are a number of VIN decoders in use and a lot of state registration systems use them to verify a VIN when registering a vehicle. Problem is that very few of the decoders will work on a pre-1981 VIN. I am familiar with two of the most common ones (Vindicator from the IIHS, and VINA from R.L. Polk) and the PC versions of both of them will not work on a pre 1981 VIN. I believe the mainframe version of VINA will decode an older VIN - but the results are probably not reliable!

My guess is that this is the problem you are having - and the clerk has no idea how to work around a non-standard VIN!

When I insured one of my bikes (KZ1000A1) through Progressive (which insures a lot of motorcycles), they initially did not believe me with the short frame VIN. After talking to a number of agents, I was finally able to chat with someone who remembered(?) that the pre-1981 VIN series were shorter.

Mine is originally imported into Finland by official importer. It´s a ´83 Z1000R with VIN KZT00R-003027 stamped in steering neck. Where do you find 17 digits?