REVS check VIN discrepency: Your thoughts

[Bikegirl]

Hi all, I'm looking to buy a motorcycle that's over 30 years old. I used to zing around on one in my youth and I fancy the idea of another in a condition that shows its age, but is practicably stock, which this one is. Photo's look pretty good so the next logical step is to go and see it. Its in another city and a three hour drive away. Its unregistered, which isn't a problem in itself. Problem is that when I did a REVS history check on it the date came up as correct for that particular vehicle, no money owing, but no other information available. No information at all about if its been written off in the past. I decided that was odd, so i did a bike facts check and bike facts says that particular VIN doesn't exist and that i need to quote numbers in clusters of four characters no spaces. Its a 9 digit number arranged in three clusters of thee as quoted on other Yamaha and RZ sites for that production year. Its an RZ with 9 characters and a 34j prefix, which makes it a 1983 Australian production RZ 250 k. I did a check on a Yamaha site seems like a legitimate number. It stands to reason that over 30 years VIN numbers would get longer and perhaps the record has a limit date on vehicales that have been unregistered for many years. However, last thing I'd want to do is buy a machine that can't be registered in the event that its been written off some time in its past, and on a 30 ar old bike its a bit risky. Perhaps other people on this site have some experience with re registering older vehicles, and any feedback or suggestions about how to proceed, pitfalls etc would be appreciated.

[JonW]

Many bikes that have been off the road for a long time have dropped off the databases, so essentially 'dont exist'. Its an issue with the way the Aussie system works really, which ive moaned about before.

Its not helped as now new vins are more digits of course, so older ones dont work well in the systems.

Generally if you get 'no data' then thats good news. Ive found no issues with any that i bought like that and even had the police check some for me, so I would think you are ok, but take the numbers to the cop shop and see if they will help you, sometimes if you explain it they may help, only sometimes tho...

[twinrock]

This is regarding my rz im sure..I understand your concern..but with blueslip under its belt u simply pay the rego and insurance and ride off into the sun set..if its a crashed write off ur concerned about...well thats a can off worms in its self..ive seen insurance write offs on bikes with a scratch on the aluminium frame which was too costly to remove...the other thing to note as this bike was from victoria..there would be no record of rego in nsw anyway..the rta had no records of the bike ..and they were satisfied..and passed me the rego form to fill out..

[James P]

...Generally if you get 'no data' then thats good news...

That is my experience too. Also, if it helps, the range of frame numbers for the 34J model should be:

1983 RZ250K - 34J-000101 to 34J-002000
1984 RZ250L - 34J-002101 to 34J-004000

Regards,
James

[pkay]

I can relay my Qld experiences for you if that helps having registered about 30 bikes over the last 2 years. Bikes from the 1970's that haven't been registered for a while may no longer be on the database. In Qld they were purging old regos to make space. When I went to register my 1974 G7 it had been removed from the database even though I had the old rego. One person created a hell of a stink about it but when she took it to another person they just re-established it on the system done! I have bought interstate a lot and all states have access to registrations from other states so if your bike was registered in Vic and you go to register it in NSW they will know when and where it was last registered. VINs aren't an issue as well. I have several bikes from overseas as well and this hasn't proven an issue with numbers whether 17 digit or otherwise. The only time they get excited was with modifications and as long as the mod plate was fitted no problems either.