Silly question here but... I msgd a few people asking if they have the ownership for the bike and all of them said no. I know I wouldn’t buy a street legal bike with no ownership. Should I follow the same rule with a dirt bike? Probably eh. I guess there no way in knowing the bike is stolen.
Not a silly question, I have competition only motorcycles that have never been registered in Ontario, what I do have is the original bill of sale and proof of purchase for those machines. The way competition event insurance works is, your entry fee covers the cost of liability insurance in the event you harm a spectator, it does little if not nothing at all for your own injury, have your OHIP card ready for that. In Quebec Any motorized vehicle that can be ridden Must be plated in order to be trailered or carried in the back of an open pickup truck (completely enclosed trailer transport is acceptable) for this reason even a riding lawn tractor will be seen to have a plate and theoretically some form of ownership. An off-road only plate or documentation indicating legal transport is acceptable but you still might get questioned by the gendarme if they don't see a plate (and no, having a cover on the bike does not count, you better have it nailed down in a crate). In Utah you need a sticker on the front fork to show you have paid a trail access fee :/ I have those for 2016 but it still isn't really an ownership as such.
Think of it this way, do you think any of the formula one race cars that participate in racing around the CNE have a VIN, insurance and ownership papers:
... I'm guessing no, but they do have crazy event insurance.
Sales tax is collected when you register a vehicle, excellent chance that if sales tax was collected on a vehicle that was never registered or had an import trail, that tax probably went straight into somebody's pocket. If you purchased your competition ride from an out of provence dealer that is not subject to the tax, you probably never had to pay one. ... until you register it here and MOT will want $.
Some people might be lucky enough to have household insurance that covers theft of their competition motorcycle, my household policy covers things like chainsaws and my farm tractor provided it is at home at the time of incident. (have no ownership for tractors or excavator either)
Competition bikes purchased new usually come with a service manual in my experience, if the owner has that, excellent chance they bought the vehicle new and didn't steal it, in which case the original bill of sale might even be inside there, just like mine is. Police have to accept that as proof of ownership because the motorcycle is not eligible for registration just as the formula 1 race car or a chainsaw is not.
race car does have a great big racing number on the side of it and my trials bikes have a big #51 on the front, so they know who it is if they really want to.
