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  • Thread starter Thread starter phatts27
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God do I love living in Vermont... The DMV loves when I bring in a coffee stained, hand written Bill of Sale and gladly hand over plates to my 30 year old bikes... To them it's just easy revenue. Big reason why I don't move lol. The bike looks to be in fabulous shape. Rob S. would decapitate you if he saw those pics so put the bike under cover immediately!!!

Welcome aboard, ensure you get the titling set, I know Jersy DMV is a stickler for that... All else fails just sell it to me for $82 bucks and I'll have it road legal... tomorrow! J/K

Good luck!!! and a Happy St. Patty's to you!
 
Ed, I see you updated your profile and youre from.........NJ. cool. Larry J may be close to you (Gloucester)
 
Wow, that is a sweet deal. Make sure to go through it with a fine-tooth comb before declaring it road-worthy. No matter how nice it looks on the outside, you have no idea what's going on inside until you check it all out. See the mega-welcome link in my signature.
 
Jedz, I believe I'm getting my title straightened out using Vermont's registration system using form VD119. What a state! Fill out the form, jump through some hoops, pay some bills and we're golden!

Dorkburger, I went to Gloucester County College and I live only 20 minutes from there now. Do you and Larry ride together? I think I'll have the 550 roadworthy in a few months, just in time for spring. I can't wait to show this hog off!

Ed
 
Looks to be a great bike for that price. I hope you get the legal paperwork side of it sort.
 
phatts27 said:
Jedz, I believe I'm getting my title straightened out using Vermont's registration system using form VD119. What a state! Fill out the form, jump through some hoops, pay some bills and we're golden!

Dorkburger, I went to Gloucester County College and I live only 20 minutes from there now. Do you and Larry ride together? I think I'll have the 550 roadworthy in a few months, just in time for spring. I can't wait to show this hog off!

Ed
Click to expand...

Ive yet to meet anyone from here despite a handful of NJ members being on here. My riding time is unfortunately limited.
A couple of NJ area rides have been proposed here, but didn't materialize.
 
phatts27 said:
Jedz, I believe I'm getting my title straightened out using Vermont's registration system using form VD119. What a state! Fill out the form, jump through some hoops, pay some bills and we're golden!

Ed
Click to expand...

VD 199 is our standard registration form... Just an FYI Vermont doesn't issue titles out on anything over 15 years old. You can get the bike registered but you need a VALID VT drivers license or legal VT address. Some state's will take a valid VT registration instead of a title and let you register that way. IS that what you doing? :confused:.

State helps it residents out but I know the DMV can get very picky with out of state transactions. Also be wary, out of state purchases are subject to VIN checks now, you have to set an appointment with DMV road law enforcement or Vermont State police to get the vehicles VIN verified by actually reading the VIN off the frame to ensure the bike is not stolen and your not trying to register a vehicle that doesn't have the matching VIN, (in example Cutting the steering neck with the VIN on it off one bike and putting it on another to get around titling and registration issues).
My Bandit 1200, Yamaha FZ1, B-King, GS400 and Honda Saber V45 all needed to have the VIN verified by law enforcement before registration was finalized.

They seem to use the VIN check at their own discretion though. I have bought other bikes out of state and I was good to go with just a BOS.

Not just jumping through hoops anymore for flat landers...

good luck
 
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Yup, I'm getting it registered in vermont, not titled. When the registration is up in a year I can transfer the reg to nj and get a title.

I'll need:

Vermont form vd199
odomoter statement and vin notorized
last vehicle registration (which I have) or certified copy
Bill of sale with sellers name, signature, miles, year, vin and date
Previous bills of sale if possible

Then I just cut a check for 40 some odd dollars plus 6% tax on the vehicles "good" nada value and hope it's not reported stolen.
 
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You can just get the VIN notorirzed??? Bastards make me go to law enforcement and get it checked. Good to know.

Hey man if it works I wish you luck with it. Lord knows we needs as much money as we can get with damn Gov. Shumlin taking a wrecking ball to our budget and wasting millions on his failed state universal health care system.

Let me know it goes!
 
Thank you sir, will do. I suppose NJ refuses to fix the roads around me, so we'll see what Vermont does with my registration money. So far I haven't filled out any forms and its still the closest I've ever been to getting a title fixed here. Even if nj doesn't title it for me, I could still just renew the Vermont registration every year!

So far, I've picked up a set of valve feeler gauges, a suzuki valve shim tool (08-0017) and a Haynes gs550/ 4 cyl manual. I haven't had any time to work on her yet. I've had her three days and been called into work 3 days (scheduled days off mind you). I did find enough time to throw a cover over her, however. I will be getting the o-rings and bolts from Robert at cycleorings.com but first I need to figure out exactly what year bike I'm looking at. Can you guys tell from the pic what year it is? I left my paperwork elsewhere and I'd like to order these tonight.

The bike came with keys except for the Vetter trunk. The seller told me he had no idea what was in there because he couldn't get it open. I guess he never tried pushing in the release buttons because they weren't locked! I found a bike cover, a bunch of old registration and insurance proofs and its old license plate! I had a friend in law enforcement run the tag and it was last registered to the name on the registration and it was never reported stolen. Thank God!
 
Ok, it's definitely a 1980. I just picked up intake gaskets, o-rings, and stainless hex bolts for the intake boots. Thank you Robert for setting the site up!

The next major purchase is a battery and well see if the motor is as good as the seller stated.
 
Ed, welcome to the GS Forum, that's a very nice bike you got there for a great deal and only 7K miles.:)

There is a full Suzuki OEM service manual online on the link provided above, http://www.mtsac.edu/~cliff/storage/gs/GS550_77-82_all.pdf

Probably better than the Haynes manual, I prefer the Suzuki manuals.

I noticed the sellers ad states the tires are "good" I have purchased many used bikes with "good" tires on them that are 20-30 years old, check the date codes, if more than 5 years old replace them if you plan on riding the bike.

Look on the side wall of the tire for an oval shaped indent with a few letters and numbers, if the tire has only 3 digits (Numbers), it's pre year 2000, and if it had 4 digits it's post 2000, to read the code, first 2 digits are week of manufacture and last 2 are year of manufacture (or if only a single digit the year of the decade but you will not know which decade).

I see quite a few older bikes out there riding around on old tires and I've done it myself occasionally but I'm very cautious, so please check them out before you ride it.
 
Yeah, I definitely need new tires, they are like rocks. I suppose what the seller meant was "tires hold air". The bike hasn't been registered since 1995 so I know they're old. Thank you for the tire code breakdown, that will definitely prove useful. I've been over to basscliff's site and downloaded everything that seemed appropriate. Wow that's a lot of info! Thank you, basscliff(Cliff?).
 
Thanks guys. I saw that there is a Projects section so I'll start a thread over there in about a week or so. I'd like to get lots of pics for you guys and show her off. The eBay pics don't do her justice.

I'll come back to this thread with an update on the paperwork status.

Thanks again,

Ed
 
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