I just read about this and found it interesting..
Prior to October of 2006, to apply for a title you filled out TR-54 form. A police officer had to come over and verify the VIN, complete that section of the TR-54, you went to the Secretary of State, paid $20, and were issued a title in the mail a week or so later.
In October of 2006 the law was changed so that now when you go into the Secretary of State to get a title issued, the people there have to run your VIN number on a database in Lansing to see if it was clear / not stolen, etc. They do this from a web browser, and it takes less than 30 minutes for a response to come back. You have to sit around another half hour on top of the mandatory minimum waiting time of an hour (note the sarcasm), but you know right then if you're OK.
So, you no longer need to fill out a TR-54 and get the police to fill it out. The form is obsolete. You just go in with a bill of sale stating the VIN, the milage, how much you paid, etc. They run the VIN in the state database, and then 30 minutes later you pay the bill and get the title in the mail. You can get a title before you even get the bike, if it's an out-of-state purchase.
