81 Yamaha XJ550 Seca VIN #

Hey y'all. I'm new here to the forum and new to these kind of motorcycles. I had a question and I have no clue where I would even post this question on the forum but, where can I find history on my motorcycle. I checked at the local Yamaha store, other vendors and mechanics, and even called Yamaha at the behest of the Yamaha dealer and nobody can tell me anything. My VIN is showing North America as the beginning string of numbers, but where there should be a 1 there's a zero. Everyone is telling me it could be a prototype but I'm not sure and nobody had been able to tell me anything or help. The Yamaha center I called only said it's North American but can't "find anything else in the system". It's all stamped, all original. VIN is 4U8000002

 

In 81 the us went to 17 digits . The stamped number in the frame is the engine number. Yamaha just slapped a sticker on the frame with the 17 digits along with the bikes specs on the left side of the frame at steering head.

Nice bike!

 

So how would I go about finding it if there's no sticker and the title has that as the VIN?

 

If the bike has been some how retitled as the engine number I don't think there is a way.

 

Shit, alright. Thanks anyway man!

 

Until the 1983 production year, Yamaha was allowed to continue using the frame number, and matching engine number, as the VIN. The sticker was a convenience, but required under the waiver. (Based on the info we have here).

My 1982 Seca750 was titled with the frame number (short VIN), and still is titled that way.
Both of the 1981 Yamahas that have passed through my hands were titled with the short VIN as well.

Decoding the short VIN, and translating it to the long VIN is covered here:
https://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threads/tech-topic-model-id-and-vins.14577/

So far as I am aware the sticker was not used for the 1981 model year, as the original cutoff for the changeover was 1982.

 

MODEL NAME: XJ550RH Seca
STREET NAME: 1981 XJ550 Seca
MODEL ID CODE: 4U8
FRAME ID: 4U8
SERIAL NUMBER STARTS AT: 000101


the short vin you posted is incorrect

assuming it ends in 102 and not 002 the second bike off the line
JYA4U800XBA000102

 

Which is why I found the number I have quite strange

 

are you looking on the triple tree goose neck or motor?
got a photo?

 

Oh neck and motor. I'm almost home. I'll post a pic in a hot minute.

 

Also I just found it odd that the guy I bought it off got it from a storage auction. Sat for the whole time cause it's got 532 miles all original, all the plastic and rubber on it is still good.

 

My 81 750 seca has the sticker and is titled by it and not the engine number.

 

That will vary.
Some states were still titling by engine numbers at that time, others were not.
The short VIN on the frame is the VIN. The engine number matched the VIN until Yamaha finally made the switch to stamping the 17 digit VIN on the frame, at which point the engine still was stamped with the short VIN.

It is quite possible that not all 1981 models got a sticker on them as the waver (if I remember correctly) was not issued until midway through that production year.

Somewhere around here there is a thread with a photo of the waver, but I haven't stumbled upon it in several years.

 

My guess is that may be a pre-production machine that was shipped over to Yamaha USA for evaluation, exept those usually have in-house-only ID numbers stamped on them.

It may also be that someone bought a unstamped frame, and unstamped engine cases (available to the public directly from Yamaha for several years) and made their own pre-production machine.

I hightly suspect that it is the latter. The stamping does not quite look like what the factory used. The headstock stamp is not crisp enough.

 

Makes sense. I have the other stamped number also that matches the engine. I'm sure they had a ton of frames already made when this happened.

 

I'm waiting for @chacal to make a better-informed statement than I.

 

You may be waiting a good long while.....................

As far as we know, the info in our documentation (i.e. 1st SN was 000101) is correct. This same bike has appeared on these forums before, with the same questions if I recall. Since it's going to be pretty much impossible to document thru Yamaha, and unless you can get the original MSO or paperwork from the original buyer, then whatever story that can be told and believed is as good as any other. Given the ultra-low mileage, and the odd VIN, my bet would be that it's a hack, although one nicely done........although why anyone would go to that much trouble to get an extra $1000 or so out of a bike is beyond me.

 

Dang. I thought that it might have, but couldn't find the thread to confirm. I think I even posted the same thoughts at the time.

If it had the right-hand side cover...that would be worth more than the (supposedly) low VIN.

 

I'd like to add that this is the downside of how Vermont registers motorcycles.
Assuming it was a hack; if the person who did this were a bit craftier he'd have chosen a different motorcycle and could have made a killing on the sale (and gone to prision later as some of the fakers in the pre-1920 motorcycle world have).
Even so, Vermont makes it possible for many antique vehicles to remain on the road instead of becoming parts because a widow can't find the title.