Ferrous_Head wrote:I don't know if your judges in the US (I'm from the Land Down Under) have an association or certification process but I assume they do.
It would be good if past employees who have first hand knowledge of these things could document them and supply that information to their association.
I know from experience that not even current employees are truly aware of what happened in the past. When I first asked HD to identify my 62 XLB initial response was "No such beast exists". Only after Kathy Olenskie (research officer at the time) agreed to look for, and found, the build sheet for my bike did they realise HD made XLB's. She told me she had asked the oldest employee working in the factory if he had ever heard of them, "No" he said.
As time rolls on less and less people who have direct experience of these things will be around to tell us the truth. We need to document what we can.
Otherwise, we all end up arguing with judges who tell us "No such beast existed".
ptk46 wrote:During the 1970’s, and maybe earlier, the factory would stamp a slash across an erroneous VIN and stamp the correct VIN below it.
While this wasn’t a common practice it did happen and was ok to ship the bike as such.
At that time engine stamping was done by hand on the assembly line.
Maybe it still is.
Basically a punch and hammer operation.
The employee doing the stamping would read the silver VIN sticker mounted on the LH ( while sitting on the bike) frame tube and stamp away.
The silver VIN sticker was printed and installed at the first operation on the assembly line.
Errors were almost always due to training a new employee, stamping an inverted number, or a slip of the punch during the hammer blow.
It didn’t happen often but it did happen.
How do I know this you may wonder?
I worked at HD York from 1973 to 1986 (the best years of my life).
From 73-77 I worked on the line immediately adjacent to the stamping operation.
During that time I witnessed, maybe a dozen corrected VIN’s.
I saw at least two where the number had been slashed cancelled twice.
I was told that a few bikes had three VIN’s cancelled, but I never witnessed that.
Also every VIN cancellation I saw was on a Sportster.
I don’t recall seeing one on a Shovel.
If the judge is truly a good judge he/she will recognize this as a rare but original factory event.
It should not disqualify your bike.
Unfortunately not all judges are that knowledgeable of what went on in the factory.
Yes Mr./Mrs. Judge, HD did use blue Scotch Locks on bikes in the 1970’s.
I remember a lot of changes and substitution made to keep the line running.
Each of these changes were validated by a short term ECN or Engineering Change Notice.
The ECN was filed for future reference.
If ECN’s still exist my guess is that you won’t get near one unless your last name is Davidson.
ptk46 wrote:During the 1970’s, and maybe earlier, the factory would stamp a slash across an erroneous VIN and stamp the correct VIN below it.
While this wasn’t a common practice it did happen and was ok to ship the bike as such.
At that time engine stamping was done by hand on the assembly line.
Maybe it still is.
Basically a punch and hammer operation.
The employee doing the stamping would read the silver VIN sticker mounted on the LH ( while sitting on the bike) frame tube and stamp away.
The silver VIN sticker was printed and installed at the first operation on the assembly line.
Errors were almost always due to training a new employee, stamping an inverted number, or a slip of the punch during the hammer blow.
It didn’t happen often but it did happen.
How do I know this you may wonder?
I worked at HD York from 1973 to 1986 (the best years of my life).
From 73-77 I worked on the line immediately adjacent to the stamping operation.
During that time I witnessed, maybe a dozen corrected VIN’s.
I saw at least two where the number had been slashed cancelled twice.
I was told that a few bikes had three VIN’s cancelled, but I never witnessed that.
Also every VIN cancellation I saw was on a Sportster.
I don’t recall seeing one on a Shovel.
If the judge is truly a good judge he/she will recognize this as a rare but original factory event.
It should not disqualify your bike.
Unfortunately not all judges are that knowledgeable of what went on in the factory.
Yes Mr./Mrs. Judge, HD did use blue Scotch Locks on bikes in the 1970’s.
I remember a lot of changes and substitution made to keep the line running.
Each of these changes were validated by a short term ECN or Engineering Change Notice.
The ECN was filed for future reference.
If ECN’s still exist my guess is that you won’t get near one unless your last name is Davidson.
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