Date of Manufacture

Hi, all just aquired a Mk2a first registered july 1973, and was wondering if anyone knew a way to find out date of manufacture to see if maybe i could apply for free road tax, if maybe it had been made end of 72 ,the red plate on headstock is unreadable as i gather this would have told me ,as always thanks in advance for any replies ,Merry Xmas Brian

Hello Brian,

I have no actual answer for you but I can read my red plate.I hate to be the barer of (probable) bad news at this festive time but I think you may be out of luck. My bike was registered in May 1973 and was manufactured in February 1973, missing out by 1 month! I fear you may be in the same boat.

sorry mate - hope I'm wrong and yours was in the corner of the factory/dealers showroom for a month or two

Rob

brf1957 said:

Hi, all just aquired a Mk2a first registered july 1973, and was wondering if anyone knew a way to find out date of manufacture to see if maybe i could apply for free road tax, if maybe it had been made end of 72 ,the red plate on headstock is unreadable as i gather this would have told me

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I don't see how your 850 could be a Mk2A if it was registered in July 1973, as that seems too early for a Mk2/2A? Can you give us the engine number (first four digits will do)?

You could apply to the NOC or VMCC for a dating certificate as they both have access to the factory records, however the available Norton factory records are incomplete so you may be unlucky, also as far as I am aware, no 850 models were actually manufactured before approximately March 1973, in any case.

On my MkIIA the date of manufacture was stamped on the frame gusset behind the LH Z plate.
The NOC provided the confirmation I needed in very short order - definitely worth joining!

If its an 850 then it'll not be eligible for historic tax, the cut off is Dec 31st 1973, my 850 Mk1 Commando is April 73 so I miss it by 4 months thanks to our Labour friends stopping the rolling 25 year period when they came into power.

Typical Scotsman trying to get something for nothing! Keep your eye on our website (newsletters) for upcoming meetings in Scotland http://www.tayvalley.nortonownersclub.org

I tried that, mine was manufactured Feb. '73. (Mk.850).
Blame the Labour Government.

Yes I meant Mk.1 850!

Blame the Government anyway!

First four digits 3041 Brian

Gino Rondelli said:

the cut off is Dec 31st 1973,

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Actually it was Dec 31st 1972

brf1957 said:

First four digits 3041

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It's a Mk1 (Not Mk1A) manufactured approximately sometime around May 1973.

Don't mean to butt in but L.A.B. you seem to be pretty good at figureing out these numbers,can you give this one a shot?
20M3S 140707 Not just the date of manufacture, maybe some other usefull information if it is available. This is the bike I am to restore in a thread here "Nortasakis' '71 long term restoration" I'm still a little bit "green" but something tells me there's nothing '71 about it but the Certificate of Title.

Nortasaki said:

20M3S 140707 Not just the date of manufacture, maybe some other usefull information if it is available.

something tells me there's nothing '71 about it but the Certificate of Title

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Checking through the various Norton reference books I have, I can tell you that your 20M3S ('20M3' = Commando, 'S' = camshaft points) Commando was very likely built as either a 'Roadster' or 'Fastback MkII' model, probably sometime around the end of 1970, and the UK NOC lists serial 141000 as the start of 1971 year production. Apart from that, I can't give you much more information that you probably know already?

BSA & Triumph's production year normally started after their factories' two week summer holiday shutdown period around July/August (depending on which year) so BSA & Triumph started building their new 'year models' from around August of the preceding year. However, the Norton factory didn't introduce a new range of Commando models at any particular time of year, as they appeared to upgrade their model range whenever it suited them to do so, and both 'Roadster' and Fastback MkII production continued into the 1971 calendar year.

Actually it was Dec 31st 1972

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Agreed, typo! :roll: