Free motorcycle bill of sale

A motorcycle bill of sale records the same deal as a car's, plus the extras that tend to cause arguments later:

• The seller's and buyer's names and addresses
• Year, make, model, color and VIN
• The odometer reading, and whether it's the actual mileage
• Date of sale, price and how the buyer paid
• What goes with the bike: spare keys, a second seat, saddlebags or luggage, a cover, spare parts
• An "as is" statement, unless you're giving a warranty
• Both signatures and the date

The VIN fills in the year, make and model for you. Put everything else that's part of the deal in the included items, so nobody has to remember later whether the saddlebags were in the price. This is general information, not legal advice. Your state may ask for more, and its page in the bill of sale state list has the details where we've checked them.

Start with the title or registration, then find the same number on the bike. Federal rules require the VIN to be on a part that isn't meant to come off, or on a plate permanently attached to one. They also put a motorcycle's certification label on a permanent part as close as practical to where the handlebars meet the steering post. That label lists the manufacturer, the month and year the bike was built, its GVWR and its VIN.

Check that the VIN on the bike matches the title character for character. VINs never use the letters I, O or Q, which helps when a 1 or a 0 is hard to read. A different number stamped on the engine is usually the engine number, not the VIN.

Every 17-character VIN follows the same federal layout, with motorcycle details in the middle:

• Positions 1 to 3: the manufacturer and the type of vehicle.
• Positions 4 to 8: for a motorcycle, the make, the type of motorcycle, the line, the engine type and the net brake horsepower.
• Position 9: a check digit, calculated from the rest of the VIN to catch copying mistakes.
• Position 10: the model year.

The form checks that digit as you type, so a mistyped VIN gets caught before it ends up on a signed document. For a full breakdown of a bike's VIN, run it through the motorcycle VIN decoder.

Yes, the same as a car. The federal exemptions cover vehicles with a GVWR over 16,000 pounds, vehicles that aren't self-propelled, model year 2010 and older vehicles, and model year 2011 and newer vehicles once they're 20 years old. Motorcycles get no exemption of their own, so a 2011 or newer bike sold in 2026 needs the seller's mileage statement.

That statement goes on the title. Federal rules have a seller who holds the title disclose the mileage on the title itself, and the buyer signs to acknowledge it. The odometer line on this bill of sale is a matching record, not a replacement. Write whole miles: the rules say no tenths.

Then pick the status that's true: the actual mileage, mileage beyond the odometer's mechanical limits (it has rolled over), or not the actual mileage, for an odometer that was replaced, broken or otherwise wrong. Need the disclosure on its own sheet too? Print an odometer disclosure statement to go with the title.