Hi gents,

this maybe a UK specific question.  My recently acquired RT1 V5 registration document has just arrived in the post today.
my bike serial number makes the bike a 1970 variant starting 021.  And the colour on the document says black and yellow. But the reg document says 1971.
 The registration number issued to the bike is correct on a “J” plate which is August 1970 to July 1971.
has anyone else had a similar issue and if I want to get it changed do I just need a dating certificate from somewhere like VJMC?

I just wonder how it was originally dated ?

it may make a difference to someone if I ever sell.

thanks, ian.

imgur.com/a/6d7dRLQ

Evening Ian.

What dating document did you send to DVLA with the V55/5 - the original US/State "Title" document?

A lot of Brits have the opposite problem to you with US imports! If no US/State Title doc with the bike, then whoever does the dating certificate over here will often use the date plate on the frame. This is often the year before a model was actually launched, so the UK registration might be for the year prior to the model actually being sold here - think a RD400 (launched 1976) with a 1975 reg.

Personally, I'd let sleeping dogs lie! 

"Model year" on these old bikes fascinates me for some reason...  probably because here in the USA the concept of a "model year" didn't really start until the late 1960's.  A manufacturer might introduce a model in 1963, and continue to sell it for several years virtually unchanged.  My guess is that Sales Volumes drove that approach?   (Years ago I read an article on new motorcycle registrations in the USA and they exploded in the 1960's...  something like at one point more bikes were newly registered in a week than in an entire year not that many years previously.)

Most states, including the one I lived in, did not recognize motorcycle "model years"...  the "year" was simply identified as "year first sold" and it said exactly that on the ownership paperwork.  I have copies of old titles that show this. 

I'm not sure when "model year" became commonly recognized for motorcycles here...  but titles still listed "year first sold" in the 1970's. 

Thanks Mark.

Same principle here for UK market bikes, so in model changeover years, you would get old and new models with the same year of first registration letter. Our DVLA always put the year of manufacture as the same as that for first registration.

The issue only really arises for second hand imports into the UK, where a year of manufacture is needed if no original title document is available. For my RD400, where the frame came over from Denmark, I had the Danish title/logbook, so sent this off to DVLA with the other paperwork and got a year of manufacture that mirrored that on the Danish title.

As an aside, our little Ford car must have sat on a parking lot for two years before it was sold to us, so we have a 2009 model car on a 2011 registration plate.

Here I've seen bikes titled as the "previous model year" if say a 1973 model was sold in December 1972...  towards the later 70's it seemed more common to see say a 1975 model titled as a 1978 as the "mad rush" was slowing down and some bikes sat for a long time before being sold.

I remember in 1980 the Honda dealer in Big Bear Lake, CA still had brand new 1975 and 1976 models for sale at bargain prices!  (I think they had a few 1974 dirt bikes too) One of my friends bought one, I drove up there with him to pick it up.

Thanks gents, 

as uncleal suggest I will leave well alone and leave it as it is registered.

just for clarity I didn’t register it with the dvla.  It was done by the previous owner who has passed away sadly.  We cannot find any other paperwork at his home so I have no idea what he used to register it. I don’t even know where he bought it from.  It was likely registered off a nova cert as were some of his other bikes, but we don’t know for sure.

thanks for all the input and I rest easy.

cheers all and have a nice rest of the weekend. 

Thanks Ian.

Just in case some fellow Brits aren't aware, NOVA record is to confirm all import taxes paid and this, plus original title or dating letter, is needed for UK registration. 

Nice explanation. Thanks. I guess the nova must have been supported by the original title as a dating letter would surely have been 1970 based on the numbers.  Anyway, seems it’s not worth pursuing further.

always good to get this sort of input.