Avoid buying a stolen machine.

[Chris Haynes]

Back in 1971 the California Highway Patrol printed up a book all about how serial numbers on motorcycles should look. They went into all the current information on Odd even numbering, Transmission numbers, Lower tree numbers, Frame numbers, ETC. This book covered most every brand of motorcycles on the market.
One day a copy of this book fell into the hands of one of the Satan's Slaves. (Honestly I don't know how he got it. It probably fell outta that cruiser when the Chippy went in for coffee. ) He added an illustration to the cover, went through the book a white outed any reference to California and wrote in state and copied the book to sell.
I have a pdf file of that 48 page book on my website if you would like to read or copy it. Harley information starts on page 10. Be sure you read the glossary of biker terminology on the last two pages.
http://vintageamericanmotorcycles.co...mbers+book.pdf

[pete reeves]

Chris.
That’s a great little booklet thanks for sharing it. Interestingly it says Harley assembly records prior to 1957 have been destroyed?

Pete reeves 860

[Chris Haynes]

Chris.
That’s a great little booklet thanks for sharing it. Interestingly it says Harley assembly records prior to 1957 have been destroyed?

Pete reeves 860

That is partially true. There was a fire in the basement in 1958 that destroyed a lot of information. However the line bore= Serial numbers numbers remain intact as they were, and still are, located in the Service Department.

[glaser 31]

Nice evening reading you have there.Do you know how far back they can go
with the bellynumbers..?

[Chris Haynes]

Back to the first one.

Nice evening reading you have there.Do you know how far back they can go
with the bellynumbers..?

[droptopford]

Thank you Chris,

That's mighty nice of you to share that file. I'm not much of a computer whiz, but I'm gonna try to figure out how to make myself a copy of that document.

I've seen alot of discussion lately about linebore numbers. There seems to be some contradictory opinion about the number that preceeds the date-code (after '47). Even Palmer revised his original blanket statement re 1= F series, 2=E series, etc., citing unexplained anomolies in '49 linebore numbers. There also seem to have been some documented anomolies in '48 date-code prefix#s as well.

If there is truly a holy-grail list of each serial number and its proper linebore conterpart, it seems that document would end all the debate. Who gets to look at it? Is it all kept top-secret until a suspect bike has been dragged away at the end of a tow-truck chain?

As you yourself have pointed out on numerous occasions, just having a state-issued title with numbers that match the VIN# doesn't prove authenticity. Also, some states (The Keystone for example) have issued titles for VIN #s that Ray Charles could have spotted as fake. Do any states check with the MoCo archives before declaring a VIN# authentic?

Seems like this would really be the way to "avoid buying a stolen machine".