How To Date Your ATV / Motorcycle

[mohawk]

first, buy it flowers and dinner, then a movie. with any luck, youll be riding her all day long..

oh wait ! i meant "DATE" it, as in the year.

the recent question as to what year a certain 185s was, has inspired me to throw this one up in the air.
this works for atv's and bikes.
feel free to clean it up, and post it as a sticky. if its already on these forums, then my bad.

here is a breakdown of the big 4 (honda yamaha kawasaki suzuki). it goes by the tenth digit of the frame VIN. if your tenth digit isnt a letter, then one of them are hard to makeout and you need to scrape the paint and check again. this system doesnt work for the yamaha 3 wheelers. if anyone knows the system for the yamaha 3 wheelers, please post and ill edit it.

starting in 1980. im going by memory so correct my if im off, but im pretty sure this is it. i do know that it is full proof for Hondas, has never failed. ive also put it against kawasaki atvs and bikes i have, and it is the same system.
apparently, it was created by the government back in 1980. i have no clue why the yamaha 3 wheelers are an exception.

A=1980
B=1981
C=1982
D=1983
E=1984
F=1985
G=1986
H=1987
I = OMMITTED
J=1988
K=1989
L=1990
M=1991
N=1992
0=OMMITTED
P=1993
Q=OMMITTED
R=1994
S=1995
T=1996
V=1997

(I may be a little off on these last two, im going by memory. correct me if im wrong)
WX=1998
YZ=1999

2000=0
2001=1
2002=2
2003=3
2004=4
2005=5
2006=6

not sure how the '07's will be stamped but you can almost assume it will remain constant

hope this helps

[TtownJoeShow]

for some reason i think E or F was ommited too might b wrong tho

EDITED; My BAD!!

works for cars n trucks too!!!!

[mohawk]

just verified E and F on my 84 big red and 86 200s and 125m and they are correct. so they were not ommitted.
but thanks for checkin

[darrel632]

I dunno, my YTM 200 L is an 84 and the 10th letter is L my YTM 200 ERN is an 86 and the 10th is N
Kawasaki KLT250 is an 84 = E
KLT 200 is an 82 = C
So I'm not sure if Yamaha is following the same pattern as Kawi....

[TtownJoeShow]

its originaly for automobiles, but according to my hondas they followed it.

[mohawk]

ya looks like the yamaha 4 stroke 3 wheelers dont follow suit either. but the bikes and atvs do. ill edit that up

[mike from long island]

first, buy it flowers and dinner, then a movie. with any luck, youll be riding her all day long..



glad to see you got some humor still. :D and thanks i am going to go and check that suzuki frankenstien i bought.

[mohawk]

oh ya dude, no one can take my sense of humor away.
ive actually been laughing my butt off for the last 2 weeks straight
good luck and happy thanksgiving