Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

" Why the poor recovery figure for bikes? " THE SAD By Dick Love PART sam's a cop . He's not the world's smartest, or the world's greatest cop, but be's bonest, bard worldng, and concerned with bls Job. sam's also my fr iend, and we've been friends for twenty years . Last Sunday, our families got together for a barbequeoveratblsplace. He was supposed to be borne by three, but for some reason be had to work late, and didn't get bome until after s ix. I bad started the fire and we were all waiting for sam so we could put the steak on. We were pretty hungry by the time be got borne. He walked in the door kind of tire looking and immediatelY cut bls thumb opeulng a can of beer. The wives put tbe meat on and kept the Idds away fr om us wb1le sam and I bad a beer together. " Whathappened?" I asked, and started sam on what turned out to be ,another story on bls favorite s ubject, stolen motorcycles . It tookblm tblrty minutes to tell me that towards the end of bls .sblft, be stopped an oldplckup truck with three motorcycles in the bed. One of tbe bikes was stolen and another one bad an altered engine numbe r. "So that 's why you're late," 1 said to sam. " That' s why I' m late. I had tobooktbe three guys in the tr ucklor tbeft, impound tbe bikes and write eigbt-Page repor t. Harry, would you open that next can of beer for me? My thumb's s till bleeding." " sam," I " open the can, "it's great that you've found two stolen motorcycles, but you know what it sounds li ke to me ?" " Harry, it seems that, to start with, a bike is easier to steal than a car. Locked or not, a pickup or panel truck can have a bike stolen and out of s1ght in a matter of minutes. Next, while a lot of cars are stolen just for a joy ride, most bikes are stolen to keep. If the tblef wants the bike just for trail r iding off the pavement, it never has to be registered for the street, just like those two ln the old pickup truelt today. If the tblef wants to register the bike for street riding, the coofuslon in placement of I.D. numbers on thedifferent brands of motorcycles makes registration fairly easy." "What do you mean confusion, sam ?" " Well, some bikes are registered bY frame number , some by engine number. Also sometimes the frame and engine number are identical, and sometimes they're not. On top of this, most engine numbers are stamped in the alum inum eagJne case. It's pretty easY to grind this number off and stamp another number on the engine." Location 01 Irame number. "Isn' t it easy to spot tbls change? I mean , couldn' t any poli ceman sp ot an engi ne with an altered number?" " Someti mes yes, and som etimes no.A good job can be pr etty bard to spot. Remember too, that before you can spot an altered engine number , you have to know what a good engine number looks li ke. Also, if a guy has r egistration papers for a bike that matches the number on the engine, the policeman has to be pr etty s ur e of blmself before he take s I I What Harr y?" "It sounds like you have a tblng agalnst any acti on." bike riders. Like you fee l you have to "sam, how is it possible for a person • s top and check : every one you see. I'm to have registration papers for a motor- i> wonderini if it' 5 fair to harass ' all the • cycle with an altered engi ne number?" guys who r ide bikes , jus t to catcb the "It's a matter of the tblef knowing few wbo are crooks." what to tell the cl erk at the local Depart" How long have you known me Harry?" ment of Motor Veblcles office. I' m not "Twenty years or so; " going into details, but I' ll say it' s a pretty common tblng. " " How long have I been riding a bike ?" " Have you found bikes witb valld " TwentY years or so. I remember D.M.V. registration papers that have when you got that old Harley V.L. for for ty-five bucks when you were fouraltered engine number s ?" teen." "About tblrty of the m in tbe last year • " And I'm still riding a bike, I s tillput Here' s a good example. Last month I stopped a chopped rlgld frame Tr iumph sixty mUes a day on my bikes, bac k and for tb to work. Right?" for an equipme nt violation. The guy who owned it had jus t paid over eight hundred "Right, sam. " " So I' m not against guys who ride dollars for it three months ago. He had sales slips to pr ove it an d the bike bad motorcycles. I r ide motorcycles . I sure valld r egis tration appers. It was regisdon' t tblnk eve ry one on a bike is a crook. I'm no cr ook." tered by the engine number , and tbls "But why do you bug the bikes s o number looked fair . It might have been much? You didn't used to. " altered, but I wasn't s ur e enough to im" It was a year and a half ago. An earlYpound the bike . There wasn' t any frame number on tbe tblng though and I pointed Sunday morning just before Christmas and I got a call to take a stolen motortbls out to the r ider. We scraped some cycle report." paint off the fr am e and found a number . (ISo?" I ran tbls number to check for wants and "So the guy lived in a second story onethe bike turned out to be a four -year-old bedroom apartment. He had a wife, three stolen. Later the experts ran a. chemiIdds, rented furtnlture, and a twentytest on the engine number and found year- old Chevy car. Somebody cut the that tbls number bad been altered. " cbaln on bls year-old Bonneville that he "'Ibat's fine for the guy who had the had left In tbe car por t, and took it away. bike s tolen fr om him four years ago, but The guy bad tears ln bls eyes. He made what about the poor guy who jus t paid eighty bucks a week and s till owed money ei ght hundred dollars for the tblng?" on the bike. It wasn't insured for theft. " Tha t' s tbe sad part. Usually, when a He asked me how soon the poli ce would bike is stolen, the number is altered and ge t bls bike back and I didn' t know what then it's sold and resold. It' salmos timto say. There I was In a good paying civU possible for the police to find the original s ervice job wher e I was supposed to be tblef, and the one who's found with the able to do sometblng about stolen probike by the poli ce loses anytblng he's per ty and all I could hones tly tell blm put into it." was that he'll probablY never see his " Is this only happening in Californla?" bike again." " I doubt it, Harry. People I've talked "So one guy loses bls bike. Does that to from out of state teU me the problem justify harassing all bike r ide·rs ?" is nation- wide . As a matter of fact, I've "It's not jus t one guy, Harry. After run into a couple out-of-sta te bikes witb tha t, I started checldng som e figureson altered numbers . The last one was a Idd stolen bikes . In California, motorcycl es on a for ty-incb unit construction Triare onlY two- and- a- half per cent of all umph. Unit cons truction would generallY r egister ed vehicles . But motorcycles be 1963 or later, but it was newlyaccount for twen,ty- eight per cent of all registered in Texas one month earlier outs tanding stolen vehicles, If your car as a rebuUt 1962 Triumph. Both the is stole n, you stand a ninety percent engine and frame numbers bad been chance of getting it back. If your motor crudely altered and botb numbers coin cycle is stolen, you only have a twentycided witb the macblne' s valld Texas five per cent chan ce of gettin g it back. My registration pape r s ." guess is, that if you lose a Sportster or a • "So how does a guy spot an altered for ty-inch Triumph, your chan ces are engine number? How did you become an exoert at it?" even less than tha t ." "Believe me Harry, I'm DO expert. And a goy doesn't need to be an expert to spot an altered number. All I did was visit every bike shop in town and look at identlf1cation numbers. WhenI koewwbat the good numbers looked like, I'd start asldng questions if I found a bike that bad funny looldng numbers. AgaIn, I'm 00 expert.' ) " So what are you doing about the problem ?" The 1rlves were yell ing at us bY now to shut up and join them at the table so they could start eating. "I'm a cop. I'm doing all I can about It. I'm checldng the numbers on every bike I stop. What else can I do?" "How much good is that reallY doing, sam? Even if you find one hotbike a day, how much of a dent is that making in the thousands of stolen motorcycles that must be on the streets? And bow are you helping the guys who buy a bot bike with an altered number? You said yourself that these people are the sad part of it." " Harry, I' m just one guy . What else can I do ?" sam looked a little defeated as be sat doWn to the dinner table. Afte r dinner, over some coffee, I started into b1m again with the idea that resulted in tbls article. " sam, have you thought of writing?" " Wr iting what, Harry?" sam' s still a little sad. " Writi ng about the stolen motorcycle problem. Maybe if the kids who are buying their first bike knew what you just told me about altered engine numbe r s and regis tration papers and all, they wouldn't buy a s tolen bike . Maybe if nobody buys _ these stolen motorcycles, tbleves won't find motor cycl es su ch an a ttractive target. Maybe the biggest cause of this pr oblem is a lack of knowledge." " Who would I wr ite to ?" "Why not Cycl e News? Couldn't you give some cons tructive advise to a pers on who was buying a us ed motor cycle?" "You mean, could I tell so mebody how to keep from buying a s tolen motorcycle? Yes . Yes I coul d. Could you write it up for me?" - an "First of all, be should look at a lot of ~ bikes of the year and make he is inter- 01> ested In . He should pay a lot of attention :if to the frame and engine numbers on these :1. bikes. And be sbould become familiar with the style of the characters used on ~ these identification numbers." 0> "sam, let's say a state uses only tbe frame number to register motorcycles. Should a buyer stll1 worry about the coodition of the engine number?" "Yes. If a macb1ne was manufactured with both an engine and a frame number, they should both be there. If either the frame or engine" number is missing or altered, the buyer sh ould start asldng questions." • "How can a person tel1wbflnanideotlfication number bas been altered?" "Most engine numbers are stamped into the cast aluminum crankcase. LooIc closely at this number. Be suspicious of cb1sel marks or grind marks around !be area of tbls number. The texture of !be metal beb1nd the number should be generally the same as the texture of the metal on the rest of the crankcase. It's a good idea to be wary of an engine case that has been either sandblasted, or highly polished. Remember, there is usually no good reason foroverstampings, m e marks, or a style or type of character that is not similar to what Is seen on other motorcycles of tbe same make and mode l. A safe statement is, a good number looks good; a bad number looks bad. If for any r eason, the number on the bike your considering looks bad, be very careful before you buy." " Suppose a person has a bike that be tbl nks may have an altered identlf1ca tion number . Where can he go to have the numbe r checked?" "Most big city polic e departments have auto thef t experts who can, with a che mical test, tell if an identifi ca tion number has been tampered with. The local police s tation can tell you how to get in touch with these special outfits." " sam, let's put in sometblng about contacting the poli ce if a guy comes ac r os s a bike for sale with a hot number ." "no. If a guys tblnklng of calling the cops, he will or he won't no matter what we say. The police don't need the help in tbls stolen motorcycle thing, the guys who ride bikes need it." " You're sure? You don' t think we sb ould tell the bike riders to call the police if they see a bike with an altered engine number ?" • " Harry, if We can keep one poor kid fr om sinking bls hard earned money into a s tolen bike, le t' s be happy with that. Okay? " " Okay. " "Maybe the rest will follow , maybe not. Let's s tart here and not ask for too much. How soon will you have that typed up?" " Soon, I' ll let you know." So I typed it UP. We hope it helps . LocaUon 01 "cine number. "Sure, sam. When do you want to do it?" "Why not right now? You already have the information that will keep mos t bike rider s from buying a stolen motor cycle." u What do you mean, Sam ?" "You already know that alotof motorcycles are s tolen and that only a small percentage of these are r ec overed. That should tell you that a large pe rcentage of motorcycl es being r id den today are stolen . Right?" "Okay. Go on." " I' ve also told you tha t it's pos sible to alter a motor cycles engme and frame number and get valld r egistration papers on an al ter ed identification number . Tbis should tell you that just because the number on a motorcycles engine ma tches the number on tbe registration paper, it doesn 't neces sarily foll ow that the macb1ne is le giti ma te. " "sam, would you say it was bes t for a used motorcycle buyer to deal only with a trusted sh op?" "If you' re buying a used bike , I don' t tblnk you can trus t anybody but yourself. No matter who you buy your bike fr om, pay attentio n to the identifi cation numbers ." " sam, it al most sounds like your saying tbe whole motorcycle indus try is crooked." " I certainly don't mean to give tIiat impression, Har ry. But I am saying tha t a buyer of a used motorcycle has to watch his step, Tbls isn't something I've read about or heard about. It's sometblng I've seen. And like, you've already rubbed my nose in it, I'm jus t one guy. If I've r un across it, tbl nk ot" bow many other cases tbe re are that I haven' t seen." ': 'All right, sam. Le t's say that a guy is looldng for a used Triumph. What should he ' do to keep fr om buying a hot bike with an altered number?" Ifit isn't advertised in CYCLE NEWS, you're probably better off without iU ....... ... .. ~ t ~ I THREE MILLION USED M PARTS /C W PAY CASH FOR E USED PARTS - ALL MAKES DISMANTLING' 66 YAMAHA lOOee twin 65 HONDA S!I &4 HONDA CBll 305ee &4 YAMAHA YGI BOee 64 HONDA CA71 300 DreClll WE SHIP ANYWHERE. WR ITE OR CALL FOR OUR PROMPT SERVICE- MOTORCYClESAlVAI 835 W. FOOTHILL BLVD. 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