Here's picture of my son Ian on the Norton chop just before he left for Costa Rica. This is nominally his bike.

Titling hassles

Today I took the Norton chop to the Colorado State VIN inspection place to begin the titling process. Silly me, I thought I was going to walk out of there with a title. Boy, was I naive! It looks like it'll be another 6-8 weeks before I actually get to ride the bike on the open streets, at least legally. Since the bike only has a VIN on the motor and not on the frame, it is a special construction or kit bike. Therefore, it has to go through a VIN research process and then be bonded with a non-refundable surety bond. The good news is that Bones, one of the service department guys at the local Boulder H-D dealership, is a Norton fan and fellow club member. So he's doing the appraisal for me gratis and, hopefully, for a reasonable (personally suggested) amount. The surety bond is a percentage of the appraisal value. The downside of this is that will also be the bike's maximum insurable value. In any case, another learning curve with this project -- but one I was hoping to avoid.