Do you think this is for real?

[Ulvetanna_imp]

The last three vin numbers of the bike that's been sitting at my local dealer here in California are '393,' so the U.S. clearly received more than seventy-five '17 CB1100s.

How does that really work? VIN's are issued as the bikes are imported into the country, not in sequential order. I don't believe that can be taken as a way to know how many made it to the USA.

There is this thing that used to be an "MSO" but is now called an "MCO", Manufacturer's Certificate of Origin.

I gotta look that all up again.

I needed a new frame for my ZX-10R, for example, because a lady knocked it over in a parking lot, and the frame was dented.

The CHP simply reissued the very same VIN using a blue sticker. So frames do not come with VINs automatically. Each complete bike is issued its final VIN base on the country it's to be sold in.

That's to say, CHP have authority to issue a new VIN, or reissue the existing. So authority resides in the destination country; I'd think that would suggest non-sequential VINs, and VINs that don't indicate actual imported numbers of any given machine.

Searching.
Just checked up on this, the numbers don't have to be sequential:

Production Number

Digits 12 through 17 indicate the production or serial number. This number could indicate the sequence in which a vehicle came off the assembly line. Since there is no fixed standard for this number, each manufacturer may use this number differently.

[url=https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.dot.gov/files/manufacturer_information_march2014.pdf]The VIN is very complicated.

At any rate, I have NEVER, not once, seen a 2017 on the road. And believe me, I see a lot of motorcycles. Sometimes I'll see a Gen 1 bike. Never a Gen 2.

And there seem to be a metric boatload of them for sale in California. Some are being discounted, some not.

If the bike ever becomes a collector's item, it'll be so far in the future that it would be completely irrelevant to me.

Right now, looks like these things are just not selling. So the low numbers make sense. I'm gonna hang on and wait to see what happens in early March. I have seen huge discounts on all kinds of bikes when they get to be loss leaders or hangar queens. There are still new '14s out there. Saw one for $7999 yesterday online.