The saga begins......KZ650 in need of love

     So, it was a normal weekday, opened up Craigslist and, whilst looking for nothing in particular, there it was. A Kawasaki KZ650, of a particularly good vintage, well 1978. As you can see it was a little unloved, hopefully an ugly duckling, and definitely had to be mine.

     But, without seeing it - what should i do? Calling the owner, chatting and finding a little more about the bike, I did a little research and finally offered him a cheeky $200 plus delivery. It was a non-runner with good compression and most importantly, it had the title with it. At this point, I must say - the guy I bought the bike from, as i later found out, is a total gentleman.

     The evening of delivery came, monies and title were exchanged and the tired KZ was offloaded from the trailer - it's home for the past few years, and deposited on my driveway. All was as expected, apart from the VIN was only 12 numbers, not the now customary 17. To add to the conundrum, the title was from OHIO, and indeed had 17 characters! Hmmmm, and against conventional 'walk away' thinking I bought it.

     Off to the FL DMV........

     The nice lady at the DMV pointed out, that because the bike was registered out of state I either need to bring the bike down or get the VIN verified by a Policeman or similar (differs state to state). I did mention the anomaly regarding the VIN. At which point, with a little head shaking, she stated that any VIN change must be done through the State issuing the title, in this case the nice people of Ohio.

     Thus, this owner of a promising ugly duckling registered out of state decided to call the Ohio BMV after the week-end.