Early Commando Dating

Hey Guys,

I just received feedback from VMCC Library Team on the ship date of my early Commando.

Vin Number: 129919

"Docket no. K8434
Sent to Norton Villiers Corp LA on 7 January 1969."

It's not a lot of info but there has been a lot of speculation and debate about where the '69 commando started and when the '68 commando ended in terms of Vin number. This particular Commando must have been one of the last assembled in '68 and first batch shipped to the states after New Years in '69.

cool , I'll have to try that with mine

1968 regular production Commandos ran from 20M3/126145 to 20M3/128644

Then factory production switched over to P11 Rangers, which ran from P11/128646 to P11/129145, with this production running from mid September to mid October

This was followed by Mercury production, with numbers running from 18SS/129146 to 18SS/129896 running from mid October to late December, 1968

Though these numbers would indicate 2500 Commandos, 500 Rangers and 750 Mercurys, it is possible that one or more of the numbers in each of these ranges either was not used or was assigned to a different model.

One source on the Ranger states 497 were produced while another says 496. Were the missing 3 or 4 a different model, or just not built? Only a look at the factory records would say for sure.

Though built from mid September to mid December, 1968, all P11A Rangers and Mercurys were built as 1969 models. Rangers were in high demand, and all left the factory by October 17, 1968. Most Mercuries were dispatched by the end of December, 1968, but the last small batch was actually dispatched in February, 1970.

Nearly every Norton built after serial 129896 was a Commando.

BillT said:

Then factory production switched over to P11 Rangers, which ran from P11/128646 to P11/129145, with this production running from mid September to mid October
This was followed by Mercury production, with numbers running from 18SS/129146 to 18SS/129896 running from mid October to late December, 1968

Only a look at the factory records would say for sure.

Click to expand...

What is the source of this info Bill ?
If we haven't seen the Factory Records for this era, how do we know they weren't building on 2 or 3 production lines at the same time ?
(Or were even building on production lines at all ??)

In earlier eras, Nortons just made up bikes ad hoc as needed, it seems.
But they'd reserved batches of numbers in the records,
so it seemed like ES2's for example were built in blocks,
but when you look at the build/despatch dates, they were scattered all over the place..

P.S. It is indeed well recorded that anything built from Sept was considered as a next years model,
across the British motorcycle industry- and beyond..
This often creates 2 different end dates/numbers for end-of-year production.
One for January, and one for the start of Sept.

Cheers.

i too received a reply from VMCC this week on my #130963 fastback. Docket K8697; what i'm curious about is the "Shipped to" where it states "Peerless Products, Freiport 17 February 1969". i have googled Peerless products with out any clear success; as well as "Freiport", no go. do any of you have knowledge of where it was shipped to and if there's any significance to Peerless vs. Norton Villiers?

tks

I'd like to see this discussion continue although I'm not real familiar with the P11, Rangers or the Mercury. Interesting though.

is everybody still at church?

Rohan said:

What is the source of this info Bill ?

In earlier eras, Nortons just made up bikes ad hoc as needed, it seems.
But they'd reserved batches of numbers in the records,
so it seemed like ES2's for example were built in blocks,
but when you look at the build/despatch dates, they were scattered all over the place..

Cheers.

Click to expand...

Most of my info is pieced together from bits revealed by Anthony Curzon, Paul Morin and others over the years.

Paul Morin wrote a great history of the hybrids, and Tony Curzon wrote a very detailed piece some years ago regarding the P11 series, and the Ranger was produced in a single batch, with the last one, P11/129145, dispatched on 17 October, 1968

As for Mercury production, I recommend looking through the NOC website. The folks over there are much more knowledgeable about the Mercury than I could ever be.

I must say I follow the NOC Forum, and they have their fair share of blooper postings over there.
Seemingly with few to pick up on all the minor flaws and errors.
They need a few LAB's !!
The old NOC email chat forum had all the wisdom on the older bikes, and most of them don't post.

I didn't see anything about AMC building lots of bikes and then storing them, and shipping them over the next 18 months.
AMC just didn't have the space/£££ to do that ?
Someone needs to see and report on the factory records to spell out how it was done.