Tracing the previous US owner of my K1

[Andrew-S]

Bugger, I accidentally deleted the previous post (knob!) - apologies to those who commented.
Take two:

I like to research the history of whatever classic bike or car I buy to learn its history, exchange some photos with previous owners, get anecdotes etc.  So when I bought UK Pete’s 1970 built US spec K1 (reg in 71) just before Christmas last year I set about trying to track down the last owner in the States. Not an easy job on any car or bike that’s been imported from the US.

Chris Rushton was very helpful and emailed me several photos from when the bike was in the US and when it was imported in 2009. Chris also sent copies of the original US Title and import documents which had the last owner’s (believed to be the first) name and address; it belonged to a Mr Kenneth H Rosenthal from Wisconsin.

After lot of searching on various sites I found out that he’d move to Buffalo, NY State - right, I’m now narrowing it down.  I did a trawl for Kenneth and Ken Rosenthal on FaceAche and found a few likely candidates which I messaged, but none had owned it.  However, one particular ‘Kenneth’ struck a cord as he seemed the ‘type’ to ride a Honda CB750 but didn’t reply.  So, I searched his ‘Friends’ list for ‘Rosenthal’ and message what I believed to be his wife and got a reply a few days later.

Yes, he did own the bike for many years and loved it to bits, but sadly passed away earlier this year.

The family were surprised that his old bike was now in the UK, but glad it was owned by someone who appreciates it.

RIP Ken:

[AshimotoK0]

Great bit a sleuthing there Andrew ...does Chris know? .. Even though the PO has sadly passed away I bet his family will be chuffed that you found his old bike and are restoring (sorry tidying) it.  I got a CB350K1 from DK that had no title but when I picked it up the guy at DK found that they did in fact have the  Wyoming title document  and using Google Earth I actually got an image of the PO's house but didn't take it any further.

Earlier this year I was walking through a street in  Bridington one Sunday and the Mrs said .. "I remember you buying some 'prongs' ( she meant forks for a CB72)  from down here in about 1975 because we went on the train to pick them up" However,  we couldn't remember the house number only the sellers surname. The following week I was looking through some CB92 logbooks 'darn sarf' and recognised one had an East Yorks. registration .. when I checked the name it was the same bloke I had got the 'prongs' from.. weird coincidence or what. It was no.2 on the street BTW !

[RGP750]

Great story.
I wish DVLA could understand this .
I would love to speak to the current owner of my cb175 DKL54K
on the road here somewhere [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[K2-K6]

I've posted my experience on here before about finding my father's bike.

Was at a local bike meet place and talking to someone with same marque bike,  said about my dad's one and the reg no, he called someone in owner's club who turned out to own that very bike unbeknown to the both of us standing there.

Couldn't have been more of a coincidence 

[Orcade-Ian]

I love these stories and also disappointed that DVLA no longer allow us to have a list of previous owners to make up our important (to us anyway) history files.  The new V5c doesn’t even have the previous owner details (GDPR presumably).  OK from a private sale but you can now buy a car from a dealer which unbeknown to you was a taxi or driving school car - grrr!

My own accidental spotting of a bike I had owned is a bit convoluted and very sad at the end but if anyone wants a read it’s here:

http://www.stallard-engineering.co.uk/stories/Bikes/Japanese/Honda%20GL1500%20from%20Sandy.htm

Ian