Help!Issue With DVLA!

[Mark]

You get some great errors cropping up on V5's that don't come to light for an age, communication and an explanation to the DVLA can be fruitful. I think at worst you would have to re-register it.

[Richard]

The worst error I come across is losing entitlements when renewing licences.  They won't even accept photocopies of old licences.

I have known of somebody who ended up having to resit their bike tests.

An expensive PITA.

[iansoady]

I've heard of this. The solution is apparently to "lose" your existing photocard licence before applying for a replacement then miraculously "find" it again if the new one isn't right...... I did this but my new one was OK.

[xbally]

Update...........After months of receiving various letters from the DVLA and repeatedly sending them photos and rubbings of the bike,frame number ,filling in forms etc,etc,they have now written to TELL me i can no longer use my bike on a public road due to the irregularities-the engine number didn't match the V5 either..oops i know it's my fault technically for failing to check before i bought the bike and spent £s getting it to what i thought was a road legal state.......The seller seemed such a lovely guy as well.............I now have to find a bona fide trader who can grind off the old frame number and re-stamp it and sign a declaration to that effect...Then i have to fill in another form to apply for individual vehicle status or something unfathomable,then they are going on about Type Approval ,then i have to pay a fee of £85,then have an inspection at VOSA and then if i'm lucky i may get a valuable Q plate.I presumably will also have to have another MOT and i also have to pay further road tax if they allow me to put the bike back on the road.PLEASE BE WARNED:check whether frame and engine numbers match the V5C before you buy a vehicle........I know i could buy a second hand frame with a V5 and swap all the ancilliaries over but it's not worth the hassle or i could break the bike but the frame is worthless now and again it's not worth the hassle..........

[timbo]

Blooming heck mate, that's bad news! Though it could well be that the previous owner never checked the numbers either, not that that helps you.
Many moons ago before t'internet et all, I new a fella with a chop built out of all sorts of bits, and it had a Q plate. This irked him somewhat, so he put an ad in UBG for a frame and log book. A guy contacted him, whose bike had burnt out in a fire. He agreed to sell him the frame and logbook, but rather than post the whole frame, he cut off the headstock, so that frame could never be used again, and just posted the headstock, and log book. The frame number on my friends bike mysteriously slid off it or summut, and the donor frame number appeared on it 
Et voila, he ended up the owner of a C plate chop. I'm only saying 

[Mark]

Update...........After months of receiving various letters from the DVLA and repeatedly sending them photos and rubbings of the bike,frame number ,filling in forms etc,etc,they have now written to TELL me i can no longer use my bike on a public road due to the irregularities-the engine number didn't match the V5 either..oops i know it's my fault technically for failing to check before i bought the bike and spent £s getting it to what i thought was a road legal state.......The seller seemed such a lovely guy as well.............I now have to find a bona fide trader who can grind off the old frame number and re-stamp it and sign a declaration to that effect...Then i have to fill in another form to apply for individual vehicle status or something unfathomable,then they are going on about Type Approval ,then i have to pay a fee of £85,then have an inspection at VOSA and then if i'm lucky i may get a valuable Q plate.I presumably will also have to have another MOT and i also have to pay further road tax if they allow me to put the bike back on the road.PLEASE BE WARNED:check whether frame and engine numbers match the V5C before you buy a vehicle........I know i could buy a second hand frame with a V5 and swap all the ancilliaries over but it's not worth the hassle or i could break the bike but the frame is worthless now and again it's not worth the hassle..........

The engine number is irrelevant but if the frame number is a genuine number you should be able to get the age confirmed buy a club of some sort(the dvla can give you a huge list of clubs they'll accept info from) then you'll get an age related plate.

[xbally]

Thanks for your input Mark and Timbo.I don't think you can get away with much in these days of rank officialdom.I'm no longer in any bike clubs-used to be in the VJMC,BMF and Kawasaki Triples and Aircooled RD clubs.The frame number doesn't look to have been messed about with so maybe this is worth following up?Whatever i do the bike can't now be used legally on the road for some time (if ever)until i've jumped through the various hoops.......

[timbo]

Agree with Mark. Just join an owners club who the DVLA recognises for dating purposes for that bike, and you will get an age related plate, at worst. I've just been through the process for a Matchless, and managed to keep the original number.

[xbally]

Thanks Timbo-i've looked on the DVLA website and the VJMC and HOC are listed so i'll email them from home tonight(i'm at work now) and see if they can help.Not bothered whether it's the original or an age related plate..........

[BrendanO]

I agree. My strategy would be to treat it as if you have a legit bike with no paperwork, and some separate papers which have just become irrelevant. As others say, the knack is in finding a real human at DVLA to chat to. Can they confirm that your (real) frame no and engine no are NOT stolen or scrapped? If so, should not be a bother getting age-related plate (not transferrable, but not Q). Think a dating letter from Honda is about £50. I assume/hope that at one point, SOMEONE had at least 2 VT500s and bikes and papers got mixed.

If ithelps, I once bought TWO RD250DXs (yeah, I know). I got papers for a THIRD one, one of the ones I had but with a different engine no, NOTHING with the sellers name and address on it, and papers to prove the sale of one bike to someone else!! Phew! Both bikes off road for five years plus. After a WHILE, I got thru to a lovely anorak who just went thru what I a tually had, and we straightened everything out. At no cost, I got all the papers for two bikes I owned (I guess nothing was nicked).

I wont tell you the story about the TWO T140s in Scotland with the same frame no......

Good luck. Be honest and inmocent (and lucky) and I hope you will find the right person to talk to. TELL them how much time and effort you put in. And tell us when it works out.

[johnr]

Many many many moons ago when I was a 17 year old sprog I rebuilt a Lambretta scooter I had bought in boxes off my mate ( I've had the treatment and I'm better now!....well it was very cheap).

When I sent the log book up to the DVLA to get the owner details changed it came back as a Lambretta 175cc 2 stroke  waste disposal vehicle! so they do make mistakes.....or they don't like scooters!

although that may not be too wrong. many years ago on a holiday in paris, we kept spotting these odd looking bikes and scooters, the bikes were all big honda trailys the scooters were a mix of lambretta and vespa 9this was before the trend for funky scooters so none of the big jap firms had made any real efforts in scooters back then. anyhow, we spotted one one day close up, it was, and i will try and find the one pic i have to prove my point, a dog shit collector. seriously, it rode up and down the parisien pavements and on spotting the little steaming heap of evidence, it would stop, and what resembled a hoover pipe with a funnel on the end would be lowered by the rider, the poop was sucked up and then the pavement was sprayed with disinfectant and water which was then sucked up leaving the boulevard sparkling fresh. back then, we came from an england where crunchy white dog turds would fester on pavements for weeks on eld, so this canine ablution vacuum cleaner was an amazing thing to see. it wouldnt have been as shocking if it had taken off and flown away. when we came back, nobody would believe that it existed.
so, if your old log book says that the scooter was a waste disposal vehicle, it might not be so implausible!

[johnr]

ok here we go, its a scan from a single negative off a 110 camera, (remember them!) i think its a 250 honda under all that, but there were also scooters fitted with the same getup.
a horrific thought occurs to me though.. paris traffic is a nightmare and i suppose that being knocked off your bike is an occupational hazard, but imagine being skittled off a bike carrying a tank containing 50 litres of liquified dogshit.........

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[themoudie]

Aye john,

Comfy seat!  Looks almost like a Royce Creasey 'Voyager'!  That'll date us! 

I see that Royce is still on the go and this Craig Vetter site provides a very nice summary with links for those whom might be interested:

Craig_Vetter_FF_proponents

Also, I have a Minolta 110 ZOOM SLR for sale if you would care to indulge?    I took some reasonable images/prints, with the wee beastie, but the images/slides are a much more difficult image to obtain with good quality or to scan. I have spent many 'happy' hours transferring from one to t'other! 

My regards, Bill

[johnr]

Update...........After months of receiving various letters from the DVLA and repeatedly sending them photos and rubbings of the bike,frame number ,filling in forms etc,etc,they have now written to TELL me i can no longer use my bike on a public road due to the irregularities-the engine number didn't match the V5 either..oops i know it's my fault technically for failing to check before i bought the bike and spent £s getting it to what i thought was a road legal state.......The seller seemed such a lovely guy as well.............I now have to find a bona fide trader who can grind off the old frame number and re-stamp it and sign a declaration to that effect...Then i have to fill in another form to apply for individual vehicle status or something unfathomable,then they are going on about Type Approval ,then i have to pay a fee of £85,then have an inspection at VOSA and then if i'm lucky i may get a valuable Q plate.I presumably will also have to have another MOT and i also have to pay further road tax if they allow me to put the bike back on the road.PLEASE BE WARNED:check whether frame and engine numbers match the V5C before you buy a vehicle........I know i could buy a second hand frame with a V5 and swap all the ancilliaries over but it's not worth the hassle or i could break the bike but the frame is worthless now and again it's not worth the hassle..........

ok, the quick answer to all this. vt500's arent exactly vincent black shadows, they arent uber rare and impossible to source. so, just locate a frame with a v5 off ebay, then after checking the numbers are fine (lol, sorry) paint the frame and rebuild all your components from the bike you have onto the 'new' frame. it will cost you less in hassle and grey hair from the dvla than doing it their way. then tell dvla that you have scrapped the frame you use now. theres a frame with a v5 on ebay for £49.99. rebuilding it is a weekends work. regardless of whether you think it not worth it, if you like the bike, why not do this and then you can run it as long as you like.

[xbally]

The more i delve into the the better it gets.........!

johnr : i hear what you say but i don't think it would be a weekend's work for me!I used to be able to strip and build up a Kawa 250/400 triple in a weekend years ago but these 80's Hondas are something else!We had to tap the airbox gently back together with a rubber mallet and broom stick after the carbs were taken off to strip and clean them...and that was just the tip of the ice berg.They are not (for me)that easy to work on.I know getting a V5C and log book could be the way to go but i think it would be a long and tedious job-at least it would be for me..I know D&K have a USA one on Ebay (that would still need registering) but i can't see anything else on there at the moment.

I have been on the VJMC website and they can date the frame for a fee of £50(including re-joining the Club)but i'm unsure whether the DVLA would still accept this?I don't have much experience of the DVLA .As has been said if you can get to speak to a sympathetic human being there there may be a way around this but it's all a matter of discretion in applying their rules and one official may not be as helpful as another....when you speak to them again or send in the paperwork.

Either way it's a mess(some might say of my own making)and i posted it up partly to warn others ....

Thanks for all replies anyway-still conjecturing what to do!