My A50 engine and frame nos are CC18758 A50R reg noCYH 748H when was this A50 built and registered? Many thanks
I think the first number looks correct for a March 1969 A50R and the registration number is for the same year.
You can check the date of registration on the DVLA tax checker, just put your reg in;
https://www.gov.uk/check-vehicle-tax
The CYH***H series is a London series issued between December 1969 and February 1970, according to Glass's index to suffix marks.
Interestingly, the date of first registration for the bike is officially given as 18 February 1970 - that's what it must say on the V5. However, I'm never quite sure what the 'CC' March 1969 code actually represents but, if that is the month the bike was built or left the factory, it took almost 11 months before it was sold and then first registered.
Hi,
I would suspect that cases would be stamped not long after being machined. As the two halves will have some machining done as pair and stamped accordingly with the 3 digit number on the front. It would be more difficult to stamp the engines with a good degree of accuracy once assembled in a bike.
Dave.
The big London and near London dealers - Comerfords, Whitbys, Pinks, Slocombes, Pride and Clarke etc - often had some unsold stocks of bikes from the previous season which were sold at a discount - who would buy a 1969 season bike for its full list price when the 1970 bikes were out?
From the registration this bike was sold by a London dealer.
Apply to the BSAOC for a dating certificate to learn when the bike left BSA and where they sent it.
Thank you everyone you have been a huge help. Bsa only has 6k miles on the speedo and looks genuine. Someone in past has painted wheels and spokes which on removing I've found rusted rims. Any recommendations on wheel replacement? Thank you
It is not unusual for bikes to stay unsold in dealers for sometime my own A65 was dispatched to the dealer in October 1962 but was not first registered until June 1963 it is a 1963 model.
Quote from: Dunc Milne on 15 Mar, 2022, 09:26
Thank you everyone you have been a huge help. Bsa only has 6k miles on the speedo and looks genuine. Someone in past has painted wheels and spokes which on removing I've found rusted rims. Any recommendations on wheel replacement? Thank you
Unfortunately, restoring wheels can be quite expensive costing typically ~£300 (spokes + rim +rebuild cost) each if you go to someone like Central Wheel Components near Birmingham, with repainting hubs and adding new inner tubes and tyres a further cost. A cheaper solution can be to get them blasted and then powder coated at a cost of << £100. I've had several wheels restored this way in satin black including the spokes, rims and hubs which has stood the test of time. Powder coating in silver might be more appropriate for an A50. At the end of the day, it all depends on what you want to achieve and how much you are prepared to spend.
regarding dating bikes, its still a problem today, when we were out motocrossing the new for example 2022 bikes were on the track around August 2021, ie the year before. the thoughts being that riders were sufficiently happy with the bike for that year and developing next years bike. Rather than wait until practice starts around February or March that year to start working and redesigning at the start of the season.
Look at Valentino Rossi, one year he refused the new year bikes because they were too noisy and reverted to his previous years bike.
we would be out on a practice day , Wednesday evening middle of the year and a pair of local brothers would also be out developing Yamaha's quad Raptors.
this makes it hard when working on customers bikes as I like the frame number as have been caught out buying in the wrong spares.
probably, also a result of the August/September annual registration changes. Also, as most of the major shows are during the closed season, the manufacturers would push design to get the bikes ready for the show. That said, dealers could well be selling three seperate production years in one year, all legitimately from the one year, unless a significant design change, ie oil tank to oil in frame, the customer might not know and the dealer has the option to offer a discount (or not, more profit) to get rid of old stock.