What happened in August 1997?

Something strange happened with the 49-state (USA) Valkyrie Standard produced in 8/97. They actually have serial numbers lower than the corresponding models produced in 7/97. In all the VIN data for all models and all years, this is the only instance of serial numbers not being in sequence with the months of production.

It appears that the 8/97 Valkyries were actually produced earlier, say in 6/97 or 7/97 and held back for some reason until 8/97. I have personally observed it on the nameplate of several 8/97 Valkyries, and it appears that the "8" was a sticker applied over the original month of production.

Something strange also happened with the 2001 models. All previous Valkyrie Standard models have been designated SC340 and SC341 for the 49-state and California models respectively. This changed for the 2001 models. They are designated SC346 and SC347 for the 49-state and California versions. One can only speculate that when the Tourer went out of production, the standard frame no longer needed to include Tourer preparation, and was therefore considered a new variant.

Regarding colors, it has been noticed that the Valkyries were produced in color batches. This is confirmed by
data sorted by month, and then serial number. I have tried to list the colors in the order they appear in
serial number range in a given month. Again, the information is more accurate when it comes to the earlier models of Standard and Tourer, as these make up the bulk of the data in the database. Read more about this on the page dealing with colors.