DECODING THE NUMBER

Registration numbers are an important part of a motorcycle. So intrinsic to the machine have these numbers become it is often forgotten the decision site which explains things logically for pre-73 registrations. So using their guide to decipher 265 HHN, the important bit is ‘HN’ which denotes Darlington. The first ‘H’ in the three-letter grouping tells the year or years the ‘HHN’ was used and the decoder says it was used five times for a registration year each time. First was in 1946, then 1958, it was used again in 1966 with a ‘D’ suffix, twice in 1971 with a ‘J’ suffix from May and a ‘K’ suffix from August. Using this decoder the ‘265 HHN’ bears out the registration date of June 1958. Hours of fun can be had checking registrations…