Tow company took my bike for joyride

[He Man]

You must be lucky.  I just moved from Gramercy and kept my bike in a garage in the EV because parking was impossible.  I got ticketed 2 out of the 3 times I parked in the street, and in both cases no more than 10-20min after my ticket expired.  Ninjas. 

There are two tickets they can issue. Failure to display and Expired ticket.

If you have a failure to display, you will automatically win the case if you plead not guilty and just say i have a motorcycle (have done this 3 times and won all 3 times).
if you actually purchase a ticket and it expires, then you admit that you purchased it and let it lapse. Realistically i had no place to put one on my ducati without the wind blowing it away unless i taped it.

of course this doenst work with a car. Cant beat that one ;\

[StephenC]

In NSW you simply don't have to buy a ticket for a motorbike - as long as you obey the same rules as a car would, i.e. you can only park for 2 hours in a 2 hour space etc.  The only daft thing is that it is illegal to park two bikes in the same (car sized) space.

[ducatiz]

Here's another tip for NYC riders.

Title and register your bike in South Dakota. No inspections, and far cheaper than anywhere else. South Dakota has long been know as a haven for RV'ers, part time residents of Mexico, and full time travellers like myself. They welcome the money from out of state people. I've registered all my vehicles there for years.

Although you can pick any county, I know the ladies in Clay County on a first name basis. Friendly, personal, one on one service. Recommended.

http://www.claycountysd.org/view.php?doc_id=310

Nypd stores state and tag info for tickets for 3 years.  If you have a south Dakota plate, they will tow it if you get tickets.

[Southpaw]

That sucks to hear that they're so arm in arm with each other that the city is essentially letting the tow company get away with what they want.  This does add to my reasons of not wanting to ever really go to New York and give them any tourist money.