The document that does not transfer the motorcycle
A bill of sale records that a sale happened. It does not move ownership. Ownership moves when the seller assigns the title and the buyer takes that assigned title to the state and has a new one issued in their name. Every state runs on that sequence, and no amount of signing and witnessing on a separate sheet of paper changes it.
That distinction is worth getting straight before you download anything, because it explains most of what goes wrong in private motorcycle sales. A buyer with a beautifully drafted bill of sale and no assigned title owns nothing. A buyer with a properly assigned title and no bill of sale usually owns the bike and just has a harder time proving what they paid.
So what is the bill of sale for? Three real jobs:
- It proves the price. Most states charge sales or use tax on the purchase price, and the tax office wants a document that states it. Where the title has a price field and it is filled in, that often does the job on its own.
- It fixes the date and the parties. If the buyer rides off and gets a ticket, a citation or worse before retitling, the seller needs something dated that says the machine was no longer theirs.
- It carries the federal odometer disclosure when the title has no room for it, which matters more on motorcycles than most people realise. That is the next section.
What has to be on it
There is no national form. What there is, is a set of fields that every state office and every tax authority expects to find, and a federal rule that dictates part of the content. Cover these and the document will be accepted anywhere:
- The vehicle, identified properly. Year, make, model and the full seventeen-character VIN. Not “2015 Bonneville” — the VIN is the part that matters, and it has to match the title character for character. If you are not certain you have read it correctly, where the VIN is on a motorcycle covers where to look and how to avoid the transcription mistakes that cause most failed transfers.
- The odometer reading, in whole miles, with no tenths.
- The price, written as a figure. If the bike is a gift, say so and say the consideration is zero — several states treat donations under a separate procedure.
- The date of sale. This starts the clock on every deadline that follows.
- Seller’s printed name and current address. Printed, not only signed.
- Buyer’s printed name and current address. Same.
- Both signatures.
- An “as is” line, if that is the deal. Private sales are almost always without warranty, and saying so removes an argument later.
Fields five to seven are not house style. They are lifted from the federal odometer rule, which requires the transferor’s printed name and address, the transferee’s printed name and address, and the identity of the vehicle including make, model, year, body type and VIN (49 CFR § 580.5). Most template bills of sale ask for a signature and skip the printed name. That is the field state offices reject.
The odometer line is federal, and the rule changed
This is the part where nearly every free template on the internet is out of date, and it now affects almost every used motorcycle on the market.
Federal law requires an odometer disclosure on transfer of ownership, and it exempts only five categories of vehicle: those with a gross vehicle weight rating over 16,000 pounds, those that are not self-propelled, vehicles sold directly by the manufacturer to a US government agency, and two age-based classes. Motorcycles are not named anywhere in that list, and they are neither heavy enough nor unpowered enough to fall into the first two. A motorcycle is covered.
The age exemption is where it gets interesting, because it is not one rule but two (49 CFR § 580.17):
| Model year of the motorcycle | Exempt from odometer disclosure | What that means in 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 and earlier | At least 10 years after 1 January of its model year | Exempt. All of them. |
| 2011 and later | At least 20 years after 1 January of its model year | Not exempt. A 2011 bike stays covered until 2031 |
Read the right-hand column again. The old shorthand — “over ten years old, no disclosure needed” — is still true for a 2008 machine and completely wrong for a 2012 one. Anything from the 2011 model year onwards needs a written odometer disclosure on every transfer for two decades, and that is most of the used motorcycle market.
The disclosure itself is short. The reading, the date, both parties named and addressed, the vehicle identified, and a certification from the seller that the reading is the actual mileage — or, if it is not, that it exceeds the mechanical limits of the odometer or does not reflect the actual mileage. Both parties sign it and the buyer must be given a copy. If the title has an odometer block, use that. If it does not, the bill of sale is where it goes.
One practical note for motorcycles specifically: a replaced instrument cluster is common on older bikes and it resets the reading. That is not fraud, but it is a “not actual mileage” case and it must be declared as one. If you are buying and the number looks improbable for the condition, what counts as a lot of miles on a motorcycle puts the figure in context, and a motorcycle history report is where recorded readings from previous transfers would show up.
Does it need to be notarized? Almost certainly not
This is the single most searched question about bills of sale, and the usual answer — a list of states that “require a notarized bill of sale” — misdescribes what those states actually do.
In the states with a notary requirement, what gets notarized is the title assignment, not the bill of sale. The signature that has to be witnessed is the seller’s signature releasing the title, because that is the signature that transfers property. A separate contract between the two of you is not the document the state is worried about.
Louisiana is the state named in every one of those lists, so it is the useful one to check. Its Office of Motor Vehicles publishes the requirement in Policy 2.00, Basic Requirements for Obtaining a Certificate of Title, and the text is unambiguous:
“The Certificate of Title must be signed by the seller in the presence of a notary or in the presence of two (2) witnesses, if the sale is between private entities.”
Two things there. The requirement lands on the title. And a notary is not even the only route — two witnesses will do, provided the acknowledgement-of-witness section on the title is completed. The same policy then disposes of the bill of sale question directly:
“A separate bill of sale is not required for private sales, if the sales price is included as part of the title assignment to the purchaser.”
So in the state that supposedly demands a notarized bill of sale, the bill of sale is optional. What the state wants is the price, and it will take that price off the title.
None of which means you should skip the notary if you are selling in a state that mentions one. It means you should book the notary for the title signing, with both of you present, and treat the bill of sale as the supporting document it is. The full version of this question — including what a notary does and does not verify, and the handful of situations where getting one is worth the twenty minutes even when nobody requires it — is in does a motorcycle bill of sale need to be notarized.
What four states actually ask for
These are read from the states’ own published requirements rather than from a template site, and they show how differently the same transaction is handled:
| State | Bill of sale | What the state actually requires |
|---|---|---|
| Texas | Not on the required list | The signed title plus Application for Texas Title and/or Registration (Form 130-U). The buyer has 30 days from the date of sale to title the vehicle. The DMV still advises the seller to keep written records of the transaction |
| California | Form REG 135 exists; not required in an ordinary private sale | The signed California Certificate of Title. Change of ownership reported to DMV within 10 days, and the seller files a Notice of Transfer and Release of Liability within 5 days |
| Louisiana | Not required if the price is on the title assignment | Title signed before a notary or two witnesses, plus the vehicle application (DPSMV1799) and the odometer statement (DPSMV1606) where applicable |
| Nebraska | Required — a bill of sale or Department of Revenue Form 6 | Buyer’s name, address and signature must be on the title at the time of purchase. Nebraska states plainly that an open title “is a violation of the law and will be confiscated” |
The pattern is that the bill of sale is a tax and evidence document, the title is the ownership document, and the deadline that bites is always the buyer’s deadline to retitle. Miss it and the penalty falls on the buyer, while the liability for whatever the bike does in the meantime sits with the seller — which is why California gives sellers their own five-day release form.
The open title, and why the blank line is a trap
A seller signs the title and hands it over with the buyer’s section empty. The buyer plans to fill it in later, or sells the bike on and lets the next person write their own name in. It looks like a favour and it is the most common way a private motorcycle sale turns into a problem.
Nebraska’s wording is the bluntest of the ones checked here — an open title is a violation and gets confiscated — but the underlying issue is the same everywhere. While the buyer’s section is blank, the state’s record still shows the seller as owner. Tickets, tolls, abandoned-vehicle notices and impound fees follow the registered owner. And if the bike passes through two or three hands on that same unfilled title, the chain of transfers the state can see has a hole in it, and the last buyer is the one who cannot register.
Fill in both sides at the table, before the money moves. Both names, both addresses, both signatures, the date, the odometer reading and the price. Then each of you takes a copy of the bill of sale and the buyer takes the title.
Where the bill of sale sits in the sale
It is one step of five, and it is the one that depends on all the checks being done first:
- Confirm the machine is what it is claimed to be. Run the number through the motorcycle VIN decoder before anything is signed — it validates the check digit and pulls make, model and engine from the NHTSA’s public database.
- Confirm it is not stolen and has no hidden history. Free and separate from the decode: how to check if a motorcycle is stolen.
- Agree the price with a number behind it. What a motorcycle is worth covers the gap between trade-in and private sale, which is usually where the negotiation actually is.
- Sign the title and the bill of sale together, at the same table, with both sections of the title completed.
- Retitle inside the deadline. Motorcycle title transfer covers what the buyer takes to the counter and what happens if the title never turns up — and if it has already gone missing, a lost motorcycle title is a solvable problem, not a dead end.
If you are on the selling side and still deciding where to list, how to sell a motorcycle covers what each route costs you. If you are on the buying side and working out the payment, there is the motorcycle loan calculator and what a motorcycle costs to own.
Frequently asked questions
Is a motorcycle bill of sale legally required?
It depends on the state, and in most of them it is not. Texas lists the signed title and Form 130-U and does not include a bill of sale. Nebraska does require one, or a Department of Revenue Form 6 in its place. Louisiana says a separate bill of sale is not required if the sale price appears in the title assignment. What is universally required is the assigned title — that is the document that transfers ownership.
Does a motorcycle bill of sale have to be notarized?
Almost never. Where a notary is involved, it is normally the title assignment that has to be signed in front of one, not the bill of sale. Louisiana, the state most often cited, requires the title to be signed before a notary or two witnesses, and treats a separate bill of sale as unnecessary when the price is on the title.
What does a motorcycle bill of sale need to include?
Year, make, model and full VIN; the odometer reading in whole miles; the price; the date of sale; the printed names and addresses of both buyer and seller; and both signatures. Add an “as is” line if the bike is sold without warranty. The printed names and addresses are a federal odometer-disclosure requirement, not an optional extra.
Do I need an odometer disclosure on an old motorcycle?
If the model year is 2010 or earlier, no — those are exempt ten years after their model year, so all of them are. If the model year is 2011 or later, yes. That class is only exempt twenty years after the model year, so a 2011 machine still needs a disclosure until 2031.
Can I sell a motorcycle without a title?
You can sell the physical object, but the buyer will struggle to register it, and a bill of sale on its own will not fix that in most states. If the title is lost rather than absent, the registered owner can apply for a duplicate before the sale, which is far simpler than the buyer trying to establish ownership afterwards.
Who keeps the bill of sale?
Both of you. Sign two copies, or sign one and photograph it. The buyer needs it for the tax counter; the seller needs it as dated proof of when the machine stopped being theirs.