Dilemma

[Jerry Wieland]

I was at the Wauseon, Ohio AMCA meet this past weekend and was talking to a guy about rather rare HD's that we own when we discovered we both own a somewhat similar model. He told me the serial number of his and I just about hit the floor. His serial number is the same as mine except for the model (FL,EL,UL, etc) designation. Year and sequence number. I am the 3rd owner of my bike and I know it is an absolutely original number.

So - what do I do about this. Ignore it, approach him about it or what.

Jerry

[Rubone]

If it is a different engine family such as a U series and not an E or F series it isn't an issue. If it is the same family it could be....
There can be a 37ULH1234 and a 37EL1234, but not a 41EL1234 and a 41FL1234 for example.

[Jerry Wieland]

It is in the same family - knucklehead.

[jwl]

Jerry, That is interesting, but if I were you I'd make it a point to have a look at his before drawing any conclusions. With all of the bikes HD produced I wouldn't be surprised if a few "errors" occurred. Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if one turned up to be a non factory stamp.

[sirhrmechanic]

I would do some investigation before raising the issue of a fake number... And the point about some occasional errors by JWL is a good one.

In the early days of the Springfield RR works, the British and the Americans were not communicating very well. So there are about a dozen AG-suffixed cars with identical numbers. One Springfield-built Ghost... one Derby-Built Ghost for each number. So they can be 'kept track of.' After recognizing the error, the company completely changed the numbering schemes for the U.S. and Derby, eventually going to an S-prefix. So even at companies whose record keeping was incredibly accurate, things happen.

BTW, we had one of the earliest AG cars in our shops a few years ago. And it was stamped everywhere with XXA6... Not XXAG. This was the 7th or 8th car built at Springfield. So clearly handwriting-deciphering was also an issue!

Bringing up fake numbers is a major deal for owners... I think you should pursue it, but diplomacy will be your friend!

Cheers,

Sirhr

[pisten-bully]

Neither here nor there... but I worked for a leasing company in the early 80's and we leased new cars and trucks to AT&T, and when AT&T split into the "Baby Bells" on January 1, 1984 my job was to coordinate the delivery of 16,000 new vehicles to AT&T that all had to be ready on January 1 for pick-up by their drivers at dealerships across the country. Well, we had two brand new cars, Fords... one in Oklahoma and one in Illinois that reported identical serial numbers. Ford said "impossible, the numbers are computer generated and there is no way there could be two identical numbers". I called the dealerships, called the drivers and they each looked again and verified the existence of the two new Fords with the same serial number (built a week apart as I recall). Ford eventually and begrudgingly sent out some of their factory people to inspect the two cars and prove everybody wrong.... but of course in the face of impossibility the Ford people found out what we already knew... Ford had built two new cars with identical serial numbers!

[duffeycycles]

Even if his got stolen,one letter of the VIN is different so your number should not come up as hot

[LJH]

I would ask him about the belly numbers, they should be very near your numbers.