I have personal experience with one of those "one in a million" vehicles that never "fall off the grid" or get deleted from the DMV system.
I had a VV "Baja" Bug that I got in High School and drove around for a year or so after graduating. I ended up trading it off for a motorcycle, which I sold or gave away with all my other worldy possessions before entering the Army.
I assumed it was re-registered the old car to mind, and I (even to this day) oddly remember it's license plate number. I ran it in the DMV computer and it came back still in the system, under the same plate. OK. But odd thing, it was still in my name!!! The new owner apparently never having done a thing to process it into his name, re-register it, or anything. No new plates assigned, no notes of it being "Salvage Titled" or sold for scrap or anything. Only thing I can imagine is that they stripped it and transferred all the many good parts to a new donor shell with it's own existing title, or it is still out there in a landfill or rotting away on some private property somewhere having never moved since I saw it last.
Typically, old expired non-active accounts "fall off" the system after anywhere from Three to Five years, typically from what I have seen. Untouched, some last as long as Ten years in very rare cases. But, after discovering "my" VW still in the system, it became a oddity, and I would go back every few years when it would occur to me out of the blue to check on it. Sure enough. Last I checked, Likely Five years or so ago now, it was still there. Expired almost 30 years, but still showing me the registered owner, my child hood home address, name and year, VIN and the very same license plate.
Bringing it up, I should try to find a source to punch it in the system one last time, just for kicks to see if it still remains listed.
THANK GOD it was not a boat that qualified it for a "Luxury Tax" immediately attaching itself to any real or personal property assets I might have to claim, such as the boat did (*That, a VERY dirty little secret that no one ever tells you when you purchase or register a vessel in CA!) as I never received any expired registration or penalty notices on it. If they received my "Release of Liability" form that I filled out with the new owners information, it never was attached to the file or made it's way in the automated system. But, it seems to have just "frozen" mysteriously in time.
Sure makes you want to go and find an old frame, with a "clean" VIN and just transfer all the parts to it. Or, just buy a frame for the title, leave the bike as is, and swap plates on the existing complete bike and roll the dice with the rare odds someone might compare the VIN with the Plate at some point. Same reason a lot of folks took advantage of the convenient (and a good tool for the honest, simple guy just trying to get along in life) programs hey once had for "Special Build" VIN's, Plates, etc. But, that was found out when all the various Harley's and High Dollar bikes were discovered to be being used by "Chop Shops" and pros "working the system" to "whitewash" stolen bikes, cars, or whatever. Then things got all muddy and demand spiked for the "lottery" of small exceptions handed out each year following. I am sure Walker knows all about this, having fought through this, as original COBRAs and other exclusive vehicles fought for registration, smog emissions or other limited edition plates exempt from SMOG, safety and other inspection standards. When the state discovered all the Millions of Dollars they were missing out on in "normal" , accurate assessments of "Fair Market Values" on which fees were based, due to the wave of Classic, priceless legitimate cars sneaking through for near nothing a year in fees, combined with all the obvious loop holes and rampant re-badging or recycling of old "clean" VINs on stolen bikes and cars, they basically shut it all down, leaving the "legitimate, good guys" stuck out in the cold. Some snuck out of state registrations, some just gave up, while others just masked the VIN's with old, clean prior "salvaged" titles or bought and registered old hulks of dead cars, or of cars that were scrapped, discarded or were left to rot somewhere without ever filing a "salvage / scrap " title, leaving a clean existing paper trail on a vehicle that no longer existed in any recognizable form.
I still wonder where that old VW is, and what path it took after it left. But, like Walker said, regarding the Termi. Sometimes it is just best to let it go and not hold on to anything other than it's memory.
$666 to get that bike on the road is INSANE. Especially when it just sat there for 11 years and never had a record of being on the road. This kills off many good old car and bike deals; Bogus "Death by SMOG", when they run just fine, but are just on the "hit list" due to age, and the same can be said for repurposing old vehicles that were just sitting in private property for years, off the books. When it comes time to "re-animate" them on paper, the deal isn't often worth it, leaving a good old, affordable, entry level vehicle to go to the scrap yard. If they will take it without documentation. 
dat not slow.... maybe a little 
