[eddie]

I talked with a Yamaha guru at Barber Motorsports Museum last night about VIN numbers and he concurred that the first ones are typically destroyed due to testing, etc... Typically the 1st 100 or so. He looked at me suspiciously when I said my SCR950 had a VIN of 00035, thought about it a second and then decided it's probably the 35th USA VIN and not necessarily the overall 35th bike built. That made sense.
We had a closer look at the preproduction R1M being donated to the museum. It bore the super cool VIN of 000001.
Check out the photos. =)
That's Colin Edwards(L) and Jamie James (R) pulling the cloak off the R1M. Sorry for the poor quality. I had the flash turned off and the shutter speed was a hair slow. The two racers were nice as could be and hung around afterward to sign a few autographs and wander the museum with us, popping up here and there to talk about whatever bike we were studying at that moment. =)

 

[TheScrambled]

I thought the Vin numbers were worldwide and not country specific. And holy crap didn't think Yamaha destroys around 100 bikes for every bike they put into production. What do they do with those things?

 

[Cruze]

I don't think they go through safety testing... where do the bikes go ?! That's a lot of bikes to be trashed. I also thought it was worldwide as well.

 

[eddie]

I don't think they go through safety testing... where do the bikes go ?! That's a lot of bikes to be trashed. I also thought it was worldwide as well.

If you take into account pre-production bikes, safety/durability testing, demonstrators, display bikes, emissions certifications, etc... for so many different markets and it can add up quickly. They can't sell them, so many are crushed. My uncle was a Ford plant employee in Hapeville, GA for 30+ years and saw several cool new cars they were allowed to "play" with before going to the crusher. One was an early turbo Thunderbird with no emissions gear and way more h.p. than they ended up with in production. He said it would roast the tires! Crushed.
Not all have to go through that, I reckon - especially if it's a continuation model. I understand that not every country's VIN has 17 characters. That would explain our low #s here.
My Honda dealer once told me "the first 100 don't count" when commenting on my low Honda Transalp VIN of 00202. Who knows what happens to the lower #s? :crying:

 

[TheScrambled]

Overpowered turbo Thunderbird. R.I.P what could have been. :crying:
That's a cool job your uncle used to have, maybe I need to change my future employment plans. I hate how pre-production cars are generally so much better than the final product and the same most likely apply to bikes too.

So if we're counting vins and the first 100 doesn't count, does that make yours a negative 35? :grin2:

 

[eddie]

Overpowered turbo Thunderbird. R.I.P what could have been. :crying:
That's a cool job your uncle used to have, maybe I need to change my future employment plans. I hate how pre-production cars are generally so much better than the final product and the same most likely apply to bikes too.

So if we're counting vins and the first 100 doesn't count, does that make yours a negative 35? :grin2:

I'm leaning toward they started with a different country's VIN series and our low #s are just for the USA-bound bikes. I've posed this question to my dealer and he's asking his close friend at Yamaha who should have a definitive answer. Stay tuned, campers!

 

[Cruze]

If you take into account pre-production bikes, safety/durability testing, demonstrators, display bikes, emissions certifications, etc... for so many different markets and it can add up quickly. They can't sell them, so many are crushed. My uncle was a Ford plant employee in Hapeville, GA for 30+ years and saw several cool new cars they were allowed to "play" with before going to the crusher. One was an early turbo Thunderbird with no emissions gear and way more h.p. than they ended up with in production. He said it would roast the tires! Crushed.
Not all have to go through that, I reckon - especially if it's a continuation model. I understand that not every country's VIN has 17 characters. That would explain our low #s here.
My Honda dealer once told me "the first 100 don't count" when commenting on my low Honda Transalp VIN of 00202. Who knows what happens to the lower #s? :crying:

For some reason I got quite sad reading that :frown2:

I started to think of that scene in iRobot when the old ones were subjected to get "disposed" of ! But oh man I wish I could be in you're uncles position when he got to play with those models !! That sounds insanely fun

 

[kennedy1]

I know this is a really old post, but I bought my bike in Fall of 2018 and my VIN ends with 000020. I thought that it must have been the 20th bike.