I had a Rocket Goldie in 1968. It had been written off in 1966, rebuilt by the local BSA main dealer and reregistered with a 1966 D suffix. Genuine RGS replacement frame but the engine and frame didn't come out of the factory together. Is it a genuine RGS? The last time I saw it for sale they were asking £22.5k, so somebody thought so!
Worrying statistic
- Thread starter Simon Dinsdale
- Start date
Asking is one thing but getting is another. Buyers today want matching numbers bikes as they are now considered an investment rightly or wrongly. If a bike is suspect or has no proof a lot of buyers will just walk past it and ignore it.
Yes the factory & Harpers did offer a service exchange but replacement parts most probably went to the dealers un-numbered. The factory would not have recycled damaged frames etc with restamped numbers as they would have incurred the wrath of the authorities and so parts would have just been scrapped. Now dealers tended to just ignore the numbers and so that is why there are quite a few un-numbered headstocks around.
I was told a story were somebody sent their UFM to Conways in the mid 1970's for new headsock bearing to be fitted and what they received back was a different UFM which they didn't really consider a problem at the time. The consequence of this years later though resulted in them loosing the UK registration as the DVLA take the headstock number as the vehicle's identifying link and the UFM they sent to Conways turned up on another bike. So it wasn't the factory that was the culprit it was the dealerships.
I was told a story were somebody sent their UFM to Conways in the mid 1970's for new headsock bearing to be fitted and what they received back was a different UFM which they didn't really consider a problem at the time. The consequence of this years later though resulted in them loosing the UK registration as the DVLA take the headstock number as the vehicle's identifying link and the UFM they sent to Conways turned up on another bike. So it wasn't the factory that was the culprit it was the dealerships.
I sold it in 1998 for £13k, my buyer was happy as I had full history. Don't know if it sold at £22.5k but it's provenance was never doubted locally. Of course, the Vincent is pretty unusual in having two frame numbers but no real frame and the "main" number is on the headstock - a tiny part of the bike overall. If the forks are changed, a much larger set of components, the bike is still considered original. The RGS is a great example. I rebuilt one imported from the US that was basically a frame, forks wheels, gearbox and bottom half. Owing to many common parts and pattern parts, I rebuilt it as an original Gold Star Twin. Could you tell which bits were new to the bike?
Bit like Trigger's Broom ! 
.
.