Well first off, I would NEVER buy a bike without proof of ownership especially with all the bike thefts going on around here. If the owner has the origonal bill of sale from when they purchaced the bike new from the dealer, that is ok. But in order to put the bike in your name, they must register the bike in their name to get the ownership papers, then sign it over to you. You can have the VIN number traced and if nothing comes up ie: stolen, or last registered owner, you can swear out an afadavit on it and with a lawyer's help you can get an ownership. Now if it comes up with the last registered owner, you must try to contact them to see if they did sell the bike or if it was stolen. Then you must get a recipt from them saying that they did sell the bike but lost the ownership. The MTO can reprint an ownership for the last registered owner but you will still need a bill of sale and the transfer portion of the ownership signed by the owner.