No Kev, you're not going crazy. After Dennis' post, maybe now I understand the misunderstanding. All of these bikes were shipped to their destinations with 'some assembly required'. They came off the assembly lines complete and were tested for quality, safety, and vehicle export requirements. The Manufacturer's Statement of Origin has to include both the VIN and the Engine number so at a minimum the frame and engine have to be paired at the factory. They were then partially disassembled for protective wrapping, crating and shipment. And the very early ones were not uniformly disassembled and crated at the factory. They try to minimize the necessary labor and crate size for obvious reasons. Typically they remove the front wheel, front fender, handlebars, mirrors, blinkers, one of the foot pegs, and seat. They also came with a brand new battery in the box that had never been filled or charged and boxes with all the bolts, nuts, washers, fender, and the mirrors etc. to reassemble. I was a Honda mechanic in 1969 at Pasadena Honda and assembled the first one we received. No idea what the VIN was on that first bike as that sort of stuff didn't cross my mind at the time. The very early crates did appear handmade as opposed to the crates they came in after they released the assembly manuals. Some months later, we got one in that had a Japanese Coca Cola bottle in the crate. We thought that was really cool and everybody wanted it for a souvenir. We drew straws for it and I won it!
The 'some assembly required' holds true to this day. I bought one of the new 1100's last year and was present when it was uncrated and assembled. Pretty much came like the SOHC's did back in the day.
