Why different bikes for different countries?

[flynrider]

Flynrider..wouldnt the serial numbers tend to batch then. If Germany got say 600 CB's ( built in a batch) wouldn't the serial numbers tend to show up close to one another..at least in a 600 area range?

Hard to say in that example. Germany is just one country that receives bikes built to Euro market (EC) specs. I don't know if there is a unique VIN region code for Germany itself. The regulations give the impression that the same bike is sold throughout Europe. The way to tell for sure would be to get samples of VINs for different countries in Europe and see if VIN digits 8-11 are the same throughout Europe or if Germany has a unique region. If Honda builds all the Euro bikes to the same region spec., then the serial numbers for that batch could be all over the EU.

The VIN on all CB11's will start with the same 7 digits, JH2SC65 (SC65 is Honda's model designation for the CB11). I'm pretty sure that the next digit specifies region, followed by a check digit, year digit and manufacturing plant. The last six digits are usually sequential for a given model/region/year combination.

When you see duplicates in our registry, it's likely because there are two bikes from different regions/countries or year (different 8-11 VIN) with the same sequential number.

Every one of our bikes has a unique VIN, but not a unique serial # (last six digits of the VIN).

Does that make any sense?