Because we do not have log books in OZ it is a very common practice when rebirthing a motorcycle that does not have a clear & clean provenance to add another letter to the engine & / frame number
An M20 with the numbers Zm20 78096 would come up as stolen but the same bike with a number ZM20T 78096 would not come up as stolen ( or written off ) .
Way way back, several one make clubs covering defunct makes did offer out services for verification of authentic engine & frame numbers and we were told basically to piss off .
At that time over 500 bikes a month were being stolen and a lot of them were being rebirthed by doing as per above
One who was a little suspicious might think there was som sort of offical protection for bike rebirthing gangs but of wcourse we know NSW police & DMT staff are well above those sorts of practices.
I have been the Permits Secretary , then Club Registrar & currently the Responsible Person for the BSA MCC of NSW in since 1980 when we were firt allowed access to club plates.
Back then very common to find an altered number.
Even now I get 1 or 2 a year that are dubious.
Thanks Ron, yes I will certainly be adding a valve lifter during resto. My bike has an alloy head, a few broken fins, would you leave the alloy or replace with a steel head?
Story is the same in Qld.
Prior to the East Coast networking it was common to steal a vehicle in Victoria, modify the numbers by adding some numbers or letters then doing a new registration in Qld followed by exporting to NZ from NSW .
Get the bike running first and put it on plates while ou are chasing upthemissing bits of body work
Ride it round for a year or so to identify any major mechanical problems that need to be sorted out.
Once the bike is a reliable runner then strip the tinwear down & do the cosmetics.
Nothing wreckes beautiful paint work faster than ripping out the engine 3 times & the gear box twice.
