Title Request Approved!!!!!

[gentsvmax]

Hey guys ,
After a year of jumping through hoops I finally got my title approval for one
of two 81 Honda CM400 A's I've had for about 2yrs. now.
The bikes were abandoned at an apartment building, put out on the street by their maintenance
guy's, then the bikes were wrapped in that orange plastic netting used on construction sites and
moved around as needed by a paving crew that put a "No Parking" sign on top of the bikes denting
one of the fuel tanks. I loaded them up, called the cops to start an inquiry that got the ball ever so
slowly rolling to this point of legal ownership of not one, but two Hondamatics!

 

[ga_max]

Cool

 

[Fire-medic]

Congratulations on the paperwork. I wouldn't spend a dime on a 'found bike' until I had legal paperwork. Also, just being in-possession of a bike without paperwork is fraught with all-sorts of 'not worth-it' scenarios. Those bikes look pretty-clean.

I believe the CB750 SOHC Hondamatic used a Civic torque converter, wouldn't be surprised if that was the case with the CB400's. I think the CB400 twin uses 3 valves in each cylinder.

The progression from the CB77/305 cc, to the CB350 twin, the CB360 twin to the CB400 twin, in a bit over 10 years, shows how quickly the industry improved its products.

I have a good story about being 'gifted' a Yamaha XS650 twin, that I got the title for, and sent to merry old England, where it was to be refurbished and sold. The short version:

One time a fellow firefighter at his Atlantic Ocean beachside home saw the metal scrappers going through the alleys. On the truck was a mcy. He asked, "how-much you gonna get for that as scrap?"

The guy told him, "maybe $20."

He gave them my home address and said, "here's $20. drop it at my friend's house." They did. I came home from a shift on fire-rescue and found an intact, complete Yamaha XS650 twin in my driveway, I was about to call the cops to report a ditched/stolen bike when my buddy called to tell me "what's up wid-dat!"

The gas tank was perforated w/rust, and there were other problems from being abandoned next-to the Atlantic Ocean. It was a rusty pile of steel and aluminum. When I researched the bike title, I had an interesting surprise (below).

I got it running, which didn't take anything but time. Interestingly, the bike actually belonged to a cop who worked at the same municipality as I did. I recall when he bought it new, he used to ride it to work, a small Puerto Rican cop w/a/big Browning .45 hanging off his sam browne belt. He sold it to some guy who never transferred the title, so my co-worker just signed-over the title to me and I filed for a duplicate title/title transfer.

I sold it to some British guys who used to come-around to fill an ISO shipping container every year to send home to make $ selling the bikes they found.

They bought an ISO container's worth of USA motorcycles needing work, and shipped them to the UK to be fixed/sold. They also took another fire-rescue co-worker's DOHC Honda 750-4 I informed them about.

 

[gentsvmax]

The Honda's were both purchased new in Iowa, the owner's moved here to Denver, got evicted from an apartment building less than a quarter mile from me. The dealership that did the appraisal per the title process still had service records on the gold one of the two. Now here's the crazy part, the original owner's now ex-wife is a secretary at Emich's auto repair, which is the business adjacent to the lot the city pave crew moved the bikes to. The bikes weren't there by accident. She could neither keep them nor let them go and is glad they have a new home. The Denver police don't believe in "found" anything, without a certified vin inspection/search it is considered unlawful possession of a vehicle. That blue bike required fork seals, carb kits, manifold boots and a battery, also had a key made. A thorough detail will make a real clean little bike that runs great.