First off, I guess people keep asking and I know you can't find out much about what happened to individual bikes during the war. But if there's anything at all anyone can tell me about mine, I'd be very interested. :)
Frame Number 16343
Engine Number 111223
From what I can gather from looking across the internet, the bike was manufactured around 1940 (it has field stand too, so must be an early one, but I've taken it off for now), and I guess a new engine was put in in 1945 from the engine number.
Not sure what the 217 and crest on either side mean? or the TP22 on the back?
Some pictures if anyone's interested;
https://flic.kr/p/phWebd
https://flic.kr/p/phG2F6
https://flic.kr/p/p1u8Eg
https://flic.kr/p/pfWih5
https://flic.kr/p/p1tckB
Oh, and hello, I'm kind of new here. Hopefully this'll be the first of many posts.
email (option): tfc.cutler@gmail.com
This is an interesting one and the 'Rebuild' plate rather confirms something that has worried me for some time (and I don't think that it will cheer Rob Miller up either).
You have a very nice post-war rebuild plate there, still in its original position, on the inside of the toolbox lid. It quite clearly gives us a contract number - S5209. This was a contract that commenced delivery during July 1944 and covered (matching) engine / frame numbers WM20 104818 - WM20 116817.
Your engine number falls within this range and it reinforces a concern that the vehicle identifiers shown in the post-war key cards might well be the engine number rather than the frame number that we always expect.
Henk has access to the 'Key Cards' and should be able to tell you what details are shown for 60 YD 41...I hope that it won't say that it was converted from C5551923 
Your frame started its career as part of the 1940 contract C5610 and would have carried the serial number C4142776. However, it would have been a rather different machine from that seen today - No panniers, 8" headlamp, large fuel tank and valanced rear mudguard would all have been part of the package.
Your registration number by the way was a 1964 / 65 London area issue and probably gives a fair indication of 'demob' in the early 1960s.
Rik, does that mean we should be numbering our tank "C" number to the engine and not the frame...?
email (option): horror@blueyonder.co.uk
[/quote]This is what's on the key card about 60YD41:
Frame number 16343 - rebuild tank number C1448100 (they received a new tank number when totally rebuild which starts with C14) - C7287 - 7coy - RASC - G7 - 25-1-63.
Not all information on these cards is always 100% correct as we have found out.
A copy of this card is available from Lex.
Henk
email (option): ahum@quicknet.nl
Curiouser and curiouser...So this bike has had (at least) two rebuilds - a wartime one where it gained the number C1448100 and then again in 1954.
They clearly had the correct frame number in the wartime rebuilt records and then again post-war...but how did they manage to allocate contract C7287 to it ? - This contract covered WM20 25001 - 42000....Did it receive an engine in this range at the first rebuild and then the S5209 unit later...and does this mean that for spares ordering purposes, the contract (and associated catalogue reference) were actually based on the engine where this differred from the frame ?
Someone stamped S5209 on the 1954 rebuild plate, even though it didn't appear in the 1948 records. There must have been a reason for that.
...Dave Horror...the only real concern with all this if doing a key-card look up where the post-war registration number isn't known is that we can't be sure if any records found are based on the engine or the frame number (where they differ). There are a substantial number of records where census number don't match the number on the vehicle, where contract number matches neither, etc.
My personal view is that the engine number is usually clearly visible on a restored bike whereas the frame number is hidden away and usually obscured by paint so there is probably a good case for basing a rivet-counter restoration on the engine number...but in your case that would mean doing away with the panniers and the Flapper-bracket / Wendy-Perch...
[/quote]Oh dear.... you can be the one to tell her then Rik
Easier to get a later engine..!It would also make everything else wrong on the bike and we'd be in a right mess for restoration purposes. I don't think the Army were bothered about originality or what number belonged to what engine or frame, as long as there was a vehicle with a number on that matched there records and they knew where it was.
email (option): horror@blueyonder.co.uk