Pulled over by police and bike hauled off to impound.

I feel your pain! I bought a 71 Hodaka Ace 100B a few year's ago a friend picked up at a farm sale, and he sold it to me for the $150 he paid for. Fixed it up, got it running, and I thought I'd get a title, which it didn't have. Followed the directions by the State DMV by sending the owner of record a registered letter asking if they had a title. The next thing I knew, the State Patrol was at my front door with a flatbed, seizing the bike. It had been reported stolen in 1983, and evidently been stashed at the farm where my friend found it at the sale. The first thing the State Patrol wanted to know was if I wanted to press charges against my friend! Geez! I usually don't touch stuff without a title, and this cured me for good. I did eventually get it back from the owner of record by paying a $300 ransom. They could care less about the bike, but wanted me to suffer a bit. This is totally different than the OP where you DID own the bike, and got pimped around by the DMV. But, it still left me frustrated and a little chewed up by the system. Nobody at the State or the County where it was reported stolen gave a rat's a** that both my friend and I were treated like a bunch of low-life thieves.
 
Imagine watching your bike dangling from a tow truck sling - what could possible go wrong.

Last time I saw one of mine like that was just after I stuffed it into the side of a Chevy Vega that U turned in front of me. Not a pretty sight by any accounts.
 
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Last time I saw one of mine like that was just after I stuffed it into the side of a Chevy Vega that U turned in front of me. Not a pretty sight by any accounts.

Seeing my bike dangling by the tow truck sling was the worst part of the whole experience. It seemed like damage was a forgone conclusion and there was nothing I could do to prevent it. But when I picked it up at the impound yard - it was unscathed.

I'll never know why someone hit the delete button on my registration at the DMV. After getting a new title and registration - it has the same serial number as before and so far so good.
 
maybe what's required is ahh well lets just say a vin shop. they make up a fancy new tag with all the right numbers & letters including the original sequence to fit in our "modern times"... to keep the bureaucrats satisfied?
 
I just renewed my vehicle registration. Took all of 15 minutes. Reason for the lengthy time may have been due to the fact I had no renewal registration notice (letter) and no insurance card. I showed the clerk my insurance card on my phone. She looked up my registration even though the plate number I gave was one digit off. Another urban myth destroyed!

Another myth is the poor service from the US post office. I used to order parts from Raber’s in San Jose, CA and Old Britts in Seattle, WA. Raber’s shipped via UPS. Old Britts shipped by priority mail. The UPS shipments took as long as 7 days. The priority mail shipments were no more than 48 hours and cost less than UPS. Another urban myth destroyed!
 
Same here, never had anything but good service from USPS, quick and good tracking.
No DMV nightmares yet either.... Fingers crossed.
 
Why are there 48 different registrations and 48 different driver’s licenses in the same country that has 48 interconnected states?


Because with 50 states you get 50 independent laboratories to experiment in - enabling rapid innovation and comparison of efficacy - something especially needed in government.

Government loves centralization and homogenization. We hear “end the inefficient patchwork and centralize.”

Actually, local and small means responsive and answerable.

Most of the positive testimony about DMV service shared in this thread comes from smaller states with small DMV offices.
 
We get great service from USPS in Alaska. Flat rate shipping boxes are one of the best things to ever happen.

We also get good service at our local DMV. They have even established a contract company with a store front, where you may for a higher fee have the professional assistance of someone who does not work for the state. I've not used that service but people who hate lines use it a lot.
 
In Massachusetts virtually all civil service positions are filled with political patronage, sometimes called "no show" jobs. The DMV made the news, recently, by managing to ignore notices of out of state motor vehicle violations cited to MA residents...FOR 5 YEARS!!!. The incident that brought this to light cost 7 of our brothers and sisters their lives.

Not too many years ago I went to the DMV to get my '67 RE Interceptor a title, I was proud of the serial number, 414...you'd think I cut a fart in church.

Nowadays I have less and less to do with the "system", but when I do I plan for the worst case imaginable and prepare my documents and strategy accordingly; these apparatchiks must have a 6th sense and know instinctively when a 2" wall of armor with twin M2s behind it sits down in front of them; we usually part with a smile and a genuine handshake; be on your guard.

Best
 
In Massachusetts virtually all civil service positions are filled with political patronage, sometimes called "no show" jobs. The DMV made the news, recently, by managing to ignore notices of out of state motor vehicle violations cited to MA residents...FOR 5 YEARS!!!. The incident that brought this to light cost 7 of our brothers and sisters their lives.

Not too many years ago I went to the DMV to get my '67 RE Interceptor a title, I was proud of the serial number, 414...you'd think I cut a fart in church.

Nowadays I have less and less to do with the "system", but when I do I plan for the worst case imaginable and prepare my documents and strategy accordingly; these apparatchiks must have a 6th sense and know instinctively when a 2" wall of armor with twin M2s behind it sits down in front of them; we usually part with a smile and a genuine handshake; be on your guard.

Best

2” armor and M2s?
You don’t seem to recognize that you don’t have the power, they do. Besides, they have something you want, not the other way around.
 
Not intended as hate, just wishin there was a way to help. we see our own version of frustration, but this thread isn't a place to go with it.
OK it was just that “nazi”. That goes more to the other side of the spectrum. California is more socialist...left coast. But politics aside, this forum is for Commandos.
 
2” armor and M2s?
You don’t seem to recognize that you don’t have the power, they do. Besides, they have something you want, not the other way around.

I agree with you and see that I may not have used the best metaphors. My point was that the better prepared you are (at a DMV hearing) the better the chances of an outcome in your favor; make no mistake, it is an adversarial process. I understand how much power state agencies wield and how the concept of "innocent until proven guilty" works backwards especially when you go up against the DMV.

I also understand that it is much easier to avoid confrontation then to get embroiled in it. I have held a license to carry since '79 and figured out, before my fingerprints were dry, that if I think I need to carry to go someplace I shouldn't go there. And, honesty is always the best policy, and when a cop asks you what time it is don't build him/her a watch---just the facts.

Best.
 
I think it’s a very bad idea when the person getting the lesser number of votes wins the election. This has happened twice in 16 years.

The presidential election is the only election not decided by the popular vote. Senate and gubernatorial elections are not decided by county electors and, in most cases, it is the vote from the precincts of the large cities, not the rural areas, that determine the outcome.
try snp in parliament for unequal representation. or maybe northern Ireland and wales!
 
I hate to state the obvious, but every runner-up in history has wished for a system that would put them ahead of the person who beat them. The Electoral College is the only place where 2nd place isn't necessarily like kissing your sister. The ironic part is, the people whose candidates have taken advantage are the ones most against picking winners and handing out freebies. Can you say hypocrisy?

Don't quite understand why you figure the winner of the electoral race has come in second. They have simply won a majority of votes from the ENTIRE spectrum of the US population rather than the "huddled masses" of a few areas. I bet you would have been all in for FDR's scheme to appoint "assistant" supreme court judges to pack the court with his own appointees after they ruled against some of his New Deal legislation too? Now that sounds like a real runner up hypocritical idea to me.
 
Trump won the popular vote in more counties than Clinton. The margin, according to the AP was 2,626 counties for trump to 487 counties for Clinton. The popular vote tally was clinton ~ 66 million and Trump 63 million.

Certainly you can either like or dislike the results, but the results say that 5 times more counties voted for Trump, and the more densely populated urban counties overwhelmingly voted for Clinton to give her the slight edge in the popular voting.

None of this has anything to do with bike registrations...
 
Trump won the popular vote in more counties than Clinton. The margin, according to the AP was 2,626 counties for trump to 487 counties for Clinton. The popular vote tally was clinton ~ 66 million and Trump 63 million.

Certainly you can either like or dislike the results, but the results say that 5 times more counties voted for Trump, and the more densely populated urban counties overwhelmingly voted for Clinton to give her the slight edge in the popular voting.

None of this has anything to do with bike registrations...


So why did you post it?
 
But this is all the stuff of teenage angst, amazed its still happening to blokes in their 50s ,60s 70s etc..
 
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