Hey all so I bought a bike about 10 years ago and got no paperwork with it and would like to know how I would go about getting it registered in California 

What a great question.
The easy answer is don't.
It may be cheaper to register in VT and avoid back fees and taxes.If you want to go the CA route, join the Auto club and use their registration service, you'll be talking to people that know what they are doing. They will have forms for everything: lost title, verify vin ... The lines are shorter too. JC

The Auto Club or AAA won't do titling in CA for application for title (with no paperwork), duplicate title (with no paperwork), or out of state-to-new CA registration. I know, because I applied for AAA to try to do this. Lesson learned.

There are many threads in this forum about going the Vermont route, just do a search. I've done two and it's easy peasy. 

To add to apex’s comments If you are requesting a fee waiver in California they cannot do that and will advise you to go to DMV.  All you can do at AAA is register a bike with title and pay all back fees to do so.  That said my buddy recently purchase a ‘68 DT1 with a tile from another state and AAA performed a VIN inspection and registered the bike in CA with no problems. 

Ok so it sounds like it would be best to register it in Vermont. Dose the bike need to be operational? I am wanting to get all the paperwork straightened out before I start to fix the bike up

I live in CA and just went through the process of getting registration for a 1971 DT1E that I litterally bought in the dark in a trailer park with no title, bill of sale on a scrap of paper.  In the end the process took about 4 months and a couple of Benjamins. 

The challenge is that people in the DMV and the CHP, if you are referred to CHP by DMV, have a different understanding of the process.  So I paid a title service in Santa Ana to deal with the DMV because this title service is a DMV agent and walks paperwork into and out of a secret B2B office somewhere for you.  The title service  verified the VIN in the comfort of my own home with bike in many pieces.  I recieved plates and a registration and plates in 10 days, great!  Then a month and another month went buy and the DMV decided that the CHP needed to do the VIN verification, meaning I was "referred" whatever the heck that meant so the Title Agent couldn't help.  So I called around various CHP locations and after being told a appointment at the CHP place would take months, a really cool CHP officer squeezed me in. So by now the bike is assembled and I couldn't wait to take a 30 mile ride to shake it down.  Took a ride, bike was terrific and officer friendly did his thing, which included making sure the bike was never reported hot in all 50 states (trailer park flashback), I sent paperwork back to title service and in another month a title turned up.  Personally, I wouldnt try to do this myself.

I also brought in a 1974 DT360 from CO with a title and this service had my plates and new CA title in 9 days.

Good luck!

MSAVITT that is a 100% accurate explanation of California process. I have done all of that on multiple occasions, both your scenarios, with the same results...EXCEPT I never used a title service, I did the CA DMV legwork myself. The CHP side especially...long appointment times and finding there is one dude at one CHP location that was willing to squeeze me in for their process...all of that has happened

One time, the bike I brought to CHP verification HAD been reported STOLEN! In San Diego, but more than 20 years prior. The officer told me he did the research with San Diego, and told me since San Diego scrubbed & shredded all paperwork after X amount of time, I was the lucky owner of a previously reported stolen bike. Got a title, plate, and all.

So we take a risk with these non-title bikes, every time.

I would not due any out of state stuff quite yet.
Here is my California experience (and opinion).
I bought a '70 CT175 in March.  No title, no plate, but I did get a bill of sale.
Missing mirror, light switch, speedo cable.  otherwise complete but not running (seized years ago).
Was uneasy about what to do like you but filled out the online forms (can find exact form #'s if needed, but I remember a carefully worded "statement of facts" form was very important).  I then showed up with the cycle at local DMV (after unsuccessfully trying to set an appt.)  They could not find the VIN in their system, and then accepted all my forms and I paid approx $175 which included the sales tax on the purchase price I reported.  The let down was when they said motorcycles with no records are now *only* verified by the CHP. No one at DMV would do it, and independent verifiers would not be recognized either.  I tested this and was actually denied by a verifier ad he pointed this out on the DMV receipt .  The wait for the CHP was approx 4 wks and when that day arrived, a CHP officer came out of his branch,  looked at my paperwork (including the DMV receipt), looked at the engine and frame, looked at the unreadable headtube VIN sticker, and then signed me off!  (I did have a repro vin sticker in my pocket but did not mention that and turned out to be not needed because they have a check off box for unreadable stickers).
So I took all the paperwork back to DMV a few days later (another wait in a long line) and they gave me a plate and stickers.
And there ya go!
Only difference for you is no bill of sale but there is a lot of power in the statement of facts form.

I checked with a friend that got a Vermont registration,( we are in Iowa ) he got the registration no problem.When he went to title it in IA, the DOT clerk told him, his registration was illegal (not) and if he had the bike with him they would impound it.He then proceeded to get a bonded title in Iowa.It's strange how they would go from impound to” sure we can title it”. I've been down many paths with the CA DMV. From the early days when I registered for the street my Ascot Scrambler, Montesa Cota, to Hand cuffs waiting for SDPD to verify my paper work. My latest project was an ATK 406 fully street legal. The only problem with the ATK was it is loud, if anyone remembers the Penton 125, they sounded like a box of broken glass shaken vigorously. It was like that only 3x.