Looking for my Dad's first bike C77E

[toddc130]

Does anyone out there have or know where my Dad's '63-'64 Honda Dream 300 is?

The serial # was C77E/100641

Thanks,
Todd

[Bob750]

Just replying to say that engine number is definitely an early 1964 number. I have 1056XX, which is mid-1964. Later in 1964 they switched to the 400000 series numbers and then in '65 they went to 7 digits starting at 1000001.

Good luck in your search.

Does anyone out there have or know where my Dad's '63-'64 Honda Dream 300 is?

The serial # was C77E/100641

Thanks,
Todd

[toddc130]

Thanks Bob.

[conbs]

Hey Bob,

Curious where you got the info on the 1964 numbers. It would seem logical to me that Honda would have started 1964 production with the 4xxxxx numbers and then changed to the 1xxxxx numbers. But, then there are a number of instances in the Dream numbers where logic apparently didn't have a firm footing.

Do you know if there are actual differences between the bikes produced in 1964 that were given the different numbers?

Thanks for any info you can share.

[Bob750]

Hi conbs,

I think I saw it in one of Bill Silver's articles at The Examiner: www.examiner.com/article/the-mystery-of-the-1963-5k-ca77-dreams. That info mirrors part of the info in Bill Silver's TechknucklePages250-305.pdf on page 18 of 93. That document is included in his CD-ROM, which I bought in 2012, shortly after acquiring our Dream, which we bought thinking it was a '65 as advertised and titled. But it's very significant that we have an early '64, and not a '65, when it comes to sourcing parts, so we had the title edited (DMV > CHP > DMV) to reflect its true year.

There is some inherent confusion naturally produced when looking at early '64 SNs vs '65 SNs, related to the number of digits. The first 1964 bikes were 100001 and up (notice it's 6 digits); the 1965s started at 1000001 (7 digits). So, at first glance, when looking at one of these early '64 SNs, there's some optical tricks your brain can play to make it seem like you're looking at a '65 or later bike. You actually have to end up counting digits, because when I see these two series of numbers all I see is a 1 with a bunch of zeroes and then some numbers. It's the bunch of zeroes that frustrate.

But, notice, in the middle of the 1964 model year (and notably before they started the 7-digit latest series in 1965), they went with 400001 (6 digits, that better fit the pattern they had set up with '62 = 200001, '63 = 300001. Strangely the 1961 bikes started with 110001. It's as if someone said, hey, lets do it this way and F with their heads!

As for the actual differences, I can't purport to know, except that Bill Silver points out some of these in the online article (and he has many others that have a ton of amazing, and necessary-to-know, arcana). I have learned, via Bill Silver and others, that they made running changes as they saw fit, and that the only way to be sure of parts appropriateness for a given bike is to compare SNs with those shown in the parts books which break out parts by VIN or Engine number in the right margin.

-Bob

Hey Bob,

Curious where you got the info on the 1964 numbers. It would seem logical to me that Honda would have started 1964 production with the 4xxxxx numbers and then changed to the 1xxxxx numbers. But, then there are a number of instances in the Dream numbers where logic apparently didn't have a firm footing.

Do you know if there are actual differences between the bikes produced in 1964 that were given the different numbers?

Thanks for any info you can share.

[conbs]

Thanks for the link. I will take a look.