I called the HD Customer Service Line, and was told by the representative who put me on hold to check, that HD does not have such production ledgers, only production numbers by year, and not broken down by model. I suspect that if HD still has the information, the request must come from an appropriate entity, but so far, I haven't found that appropriate entity. If any of you have any further insight on who can and how to request this from HD, I'd appreciate it.
Ok. About 10 years ago I went looking for info on my 1962 XLB. I rang HD head office and I was directed to the
Research Officer at that time, Kathie Oenski. Initially, after consulting with Tom, the oldest emplyee working at the factory, she told me I had read the engine number wrong and I had an XLR, not an XLB. This she told me was because the company had never produced a model called an XLB. But I was persistent and she eventually told me she would check the build sheets. She later came back and confirmed that I did indeed have a 1962 XLB and the build date was November 11th 1961.
So at least at that time HD still had the original build sheets for bikes. I doubt very much that HD has since destroyed the build sheets for bikes. But these records are held by an archivist within HD. I do not know if the belly numbers are on the build sheets. Unfoortunatly, at that time I did not request a hard copy of it.
But the original build sheet may contain some information to identify your bike.
Without first hand knowledge of your bikes history and the history of the "other" bike it's going to be hard to determine who did what. Bu your first step is probably going to be in locating the other bike's current owner. For that you will need the DMV's co-operation.
I am assuming they won't give out that information to the general public. But they probably will to your local friendly Police Officer. All he would need to do is call in a traffic stop on a vehicle with suspect plates and ask for an owners check on that VIN.
For that matter, they could well be stopping you on your bike. So, legitimate for the friendly officer.