engine number

Hi,

£12,000 an awful lot of money! I have seen Atlas motorcycles from £5,000 to £7.500 around! the trouble will fully restored stuff is if it's not been restored by someone reputable or who can provide receipts you can get a "Turkey" and not realise it until you start stripping it down!

Learned this via an Atlas engine!

cheers

John H

That number 121975 must be about April/May 1967 as 121706 is April 1967 or dispatch date. 129146 which is the first Mercury was dispatched in March 1969 but the Mercury's were dispatched from October 1968 to in to 1970.The last Atlas was 125770. Was that company thathas come up on this forum as amember has paid money for a bike and not received any thing back. Itmay have sat in dealers show room and not sold till a later date, as this was the reason that AMC stopped stamping their engines with dates on them.

Looks very good at a distance,however close scrutiny reveals a pitted frame under possibly powder coat. that knocks the value down .

Hello Now many many times I have told the Members of this club that Build Date Numbers are On the Machine, If you know where to look, Now there On the Top Lug of the head stock the top Lug for the Head steady there stamped in very small numbers right on the top edge of that Lug you may need to remove all the paint work from the top of this Lug, Now on My Norton Manxman 650 its Stamp marked M/12/60 and this is the sort of stamp mark you see on Featherbed frames, Now All data that the Club Holds are the old Factory records, which are Dispatchdates but they give other interesting information that you may or may not need in each case the Record officer does a very good job and do remember He is a volunteer and is Not paid for his time, and administration charges may apply to your enquiry .yours anna j

Is the date on the lug the build date of the bike or the build date of the frame? We seem to have two interpretations here!

When you ordered any parts from the factory's either AMC, Norton etc, they always asked you and I quote from one of Norton's spare parts books. "It is most essential that the engine and frame number of the machine is stated" So the engine and frame number would tell the factory the date of build and date of dispatch and in some cases the dealer and first owner it was sent to. Also Norton Matchless at Plumstead stored bikes at a warehouse that they rented at the Woolwich Arsenal. My own Matchless G15CSR street scrambler even though it has a 1967 engine and frame number was stored this way and dispatched to Elite Motors in December 1969 and therefore it has a H or 1970 registration number. It is the engine and frame number that will tell you the model and the date it was built and day of dispatch. There are also in the earlier Bracebridge Street records, the gearbox number, name of the tester, fork number, agent the bike was sent to, as well as the first owners in some cases. There was also a block added to the records on the side of the dispatched numbersif it was a new model with its specification, and different colours as well as any engine changes. This also would show the engine number when the piston oil control ring was changed to an Apex ring in the case of the 650 engines.

When you ordered any parts from the factory's either AMC, Norton etc, they always asked you and I quote from one of Norton's spare parts books. "It is most essential that the engine and frame number of the machine is stated" So the engine and frame number would tell the factory the date of build and date of dispatch and in some cases the dealer and first owner it was sent to. Also Norton Matchless at Plumstead stored bikes at a warehouse that they rented at the Woolwich Arsenal. My own Matchless G15CSR street scrambler even though it has a 1967 engine and frame number was stored this way and dispatched to Elite Motors in December 1969 and therefore it has a H or 1970 registration number. It is the engine and frame number that will tell you the model and the date it was built and day of dispatch. There are also in the earlier Bracebridge Street records, the gearbox number, name of the tester, fork number, agent the bike was sent to, as well as the first owners in some cases. There was also a block added to the records on the side of the dispatched numbersif it was a new model with its specification, and different colours as well as any engine changes. This also would show the engine number when the piston oil control ring was changed to an Apex ring in the case of the 650 engines.

That company started life as essentially a number plate reseller, although now does a lot of sales / refurbishments.

I actually sold a Velo Venom to them about 10 years ago and soon after saw it on their website for £3,000 more than I was paid (although I must say I was happy with what I got for the bike).

Their prices are always very high end and I'm not sure how much room they have for manoeuvre.

Just to add to the great frame number debate, my 1957 88 Dominator

has 7 57 stamped on the head steady but was first registered on JUNE the first 1957.

Hi Neil,my Atlas engine number is less than 20 away from 121975,and it's a '67 model,if that helps. Previously neil_waterton wrote:

Hi all, just on ebay, a very nice atlas, advertised as a 1969 from Classic motorcycles ltd. in Northwich. Great looking refurb, but on close study of the engine number (20/121975) it seems several thousand numbers earlier than my 1968 model (20/1256**). Its advertised as 'first registered' in 1969, but one would think its a 1966 or 67 model, not registered until 69. Any thoughts you purists? Looking to make £12K, it looks worth it at least by the fab pictures.

Comments and thoughts?

Note:tried to upload a picture, but not having it...........! somethings uploaded but not what i wanted, so please ignore the attachment.thanks