He's bought a stolen bike

You appear to have PINNS Syndrome.

 

I'm so going to piss in your helmet.

 

That would be pretty much my instinct, and if as commented elsewhere he has
no facilities to dismantle it and dispose of discretely at EOL, there are
plenty of back street bodgers who'd be happy to ensure it never see's the
light of day again.

He could always remove any suspect numbers before hand, if the BSB want's to
fiddle new fake numbers that's up to them.

I know someone in N. Herts who'd be happy to strip it of any ebayable bits
and make the rest disappear, but he probably won't give that good a deal.

 

What about the poor fucker who owned it originally - who probably
couldn't afford the luxury of losing his NCB etc?

You can't just pick and choose morality - taking this kind of stance that
it's ok not to do the right thing undermines any future pronouncements
you may make in the future.

 

Personally it would depend (like many other offerings here) on
the value of the bike and possibly the personal attachment to it.

I would either use the "a valuation threw up a possible problem"
route with the Police, or I'd get rid of it - either by leaving it
somewhere to get nicked (again!) or put a match to it.

Ideally you want the bent bike out of circulation, rather than
shifting the problem on to some other punter. Getting it nicked
would just put it back into circulation (or as spares) so maybe
setting it alight would be the best thing.

The only problem then of course is getting done for insurance fraud...

 

"Waterproof" the connector blocks under the tank with copper slip (a
plausible innocent mistake) keep the tank and battery well topped up.

 

Why would he break it though? it is perfectly rideable and he obviously
wanted it

 

That doesn't quite fit. The original owner wouldn't benefit in any way now.

The ideal outcome is Plod get a report, process and the new owner gets to
ride it into the ground but can't sell it.

 

I was thinking ahead to EOL options.

Meanwhile he should keep his nose clean and not draw attention to himself
and in due course run the bike into the ground.

As someone else suggested, if the bike accidentally burst into flames for
some reason might be a fortuitous result.

 

Cheaper than losing a bike.

 

So basically, eBay didn't like what you did, even though it was the right
thing to do and you were in the right, but did eBay contact Plod and if so,
did Plod do anything about it? If the answer to either of those is "No",
then what I wrote above stands.

 

Unfortunately the poor fucker who originally owned it has probably made
a claim against his insurance for it, lost his NCD and is building it
back up again. Returning the bike to the police and thence his insurer
won't help him in the slightest. Whilst I have every sympathy with him,
whatever happens to this bike will never impact directly on him, or
help his situation.

 

Ah, yes, I see. I missed the irony in your posting. Sorry. Ebay wouldn't
contact Plod. Chummy told them th number had been checked out and
wasfine - which it would have been, of course. But he didn't offer the
bike itself up for inspection.

 

Apart from possibly indirectly - in that the recovery of the bike might
help to convict the scrote who nicked it in the first place, which might
mean that the original owner's replacement bike doesn't get nicked.

And, yes, I know how slim those "mights" are.

 

Woah there .. I said nothing of "mullering the numbers" at all .. I said
"make sure they're sufficiently unintelligible" .. I meant use a
magnifying glass, for instance, to see if you could tell what the
original numbers were. Which doesn't mean tampering with them.

Small point, but wgaf really ...

 

It's a PITA when people get frames power-coated, mind, because the
coating invariably obscures the numbers stamped into the headstock.
And without a visible frame number, you can't get an MoT.

 

That can't be right as pre '69 Harleys had no frame number.
Ah - just checked
http://www.motuk.co.uk/mcmanual_630.htm
"A Vehicle Identification Number is required on all machines first
used on or after 1 August 1999, except those which are amateur built"

Steve

 

So they would be granted an exception on two counts.

 

Heh )

I always wondered how HDs coped, acftually, because yeah, I remember
now they didn't come with frame numbers.

On more than one occasion, I saw a Honda CD175 with no frame number.
Apparently a batch slipped through the net.

 

As I've just found out.

The DVLA man is handy with a torch[1] and a mirror-onna-stick though.

[1] He had to wander off to get new batteries.