What Happened In August 1997? Something curious happened with 49-State Standards produced in 8/97. They actually have serial numbers lower than the 49-State Standards produced in 7/97. In all of the VIN data for all models and all years, this is the only occurrence of serial numbers not being in sequence with production months.   It would appear that the 8/97 Valks were actually produced earlier, say in 6/97 or 7/97 and held back for some reason until 8/97. I have personally observed that on the Data Label on several 8/97 Valks, and it appears that the “8” was a sticker applied over the original month of manufacture.   Something curious also happened with the 2001 models. All previous Standards have had the designation SC340 and SC341 for 49-State and California models respectively. This changed for the 2001 models. They are designated SC346 and SC347 for 49-state and California versions. One can only speculate that with the Tourer out of production, the basic Standard frame no longer has to include provisions for Tourers and hence is considered a new variant.   Regarding colors, it has been noted that the Valkyries were produced in color lots. This is borne out by the data when sorted by month, by serial number. I’ve tried to list the colors in the order that they appear in the serial number range in any given month. Again, the information is more accurate with the earlier model Standards and Tourers as these make up the bulk of the data in the database.