A. The word “earlier” is used here to mean before model year 1996, or up through model year ’95 (or thru year code S). Here is an example of the use of that term: The earlier Pan models were generally built in pairs. One model of each pair went to Spain; the other supplied all the ten non-Spanish markets of Europe.
B. The “main” earlier models were Pan models. Specifically, they were those non-Spanish Pan models. As important as they are, Honda seems to never really given those non-Spanish models a name. (We might want to call them the earlier, common Pan models.)
C. The proposal here is to use all earlier, non-Spanish Pan models as examples of what Honda means by the term “model”.
D. And we propose to define the term “model” in terms of frame numbers. Earlier, non-Spanish Pans have simpler frame numbers than do all other bikes in the Pan/ST1100 Line, and that is another reason to use them as examples.
(But if our frame-number definition of model is found to be inconsistent with Honda's usage, we may have to downplay simplicity, and look for an alternate approach.)
E. Some of our model examples we have discussed before, so we can start with those. (For details, please venture past the Red Line below, and read the Notes there.)
Example 0: The 1990 Common Pan L model (or what we plan to call the 200 model).
The earliest, non-Spanish, or common Pans were 1990 Pans, or code L Pans.
Even though they were built in ten versions, for all ten European markets except Spain, they all had frame numbers of this same form:
SC26-200xxxx. For example, the earliest Pan or ST built and sent to market is an ED version that has a frame number of
SC26-2000021. The last 1990 or code L Pan of any kind built is a British Pan that has a frame number of
SC26-2005860. Both of those sample Pans came from the same Pan model, the 1990 non-Spanish, or common, Pan L model.
(And doing the math, that model contains 5840 Pans.)
F. The Meaning of Model (for the earlier, common Pans): Two non-Spanish, earlier Pans are from the same model if their frame numbers are the same, except for the last four digits of those frame numbers.
The first eight characters of the frame number, which are SC26-200 in the Example, identify the “model”. Those characters can be used as a label for the model.
In summary, our first example of a “model” is the 1990 non-Spanish (Plain) Pan L model, also known as the SC26-200 model, or simply the "200" earlier Pan model.
G. If the frame numbers of two earlier, non-Spanish Pans differ in their first eight characters, then those two Pans are from a different model, and those eight characters can be used to identify the two models involved.
H. We are also using here the term version, or version of a model. We are defining a version of a model to be simply a portion of a model. Different versions of a model might be slight variations on each other, as is the case here, involving early, non-Spanish Pan models. (The model in Example 0 consists of ten versions, one for each of ten Pan markets.)
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Notes:
A. An exception to the “pairs” statement in Paragraph A is an earlier Police model. The 1995 non-Spanish Police Pan model was built although there was no Spanish Police Pan S model that year, probably due to lack of demand. See also the two ST1100 threads here called Earlier Pans: Models were built paired; and one was shared and The First Two Pairs of Pan Models.
B. Someone has proposed the abbreviation NEST Pan to stand for Non-spanish Earlier ST1100 Pan.
C. The goal here is to define "model" so that it is consistent with Honda's usage of that term. I think we will find, before we are done here, that there are a total of 12 earlier, non-Spanish Pan “models”. (Their eleven Spanish counterpart "models" can be discussed in a separate thread, as can all later Pan models, and all non-Pan models.)
D. Earlier, common Pans have twelve-character frame numbers whereas all other Pans and ST1100s have seventeen-character frame numbers that are called VINs.
E. The 1990 non-Spanish or common (or NEST) Pan L model, used above as Example 0, has been discussed in ST1100 threads here called: L models Led the Launch of Line in most Lands and A Listing of the NUMBERS from the Launch of the Line.
F. The first four characters, SC26, of the frame number identify the Line as being Pan/ST1100. Only characters six thru eight (which are 200 in this example) identify the specific model within that Line.
G. Our first model example is of the “Plain” or Standard type, meaning it is both non-ABS, and also non-Police. All earlier, common Pan models which are identified by characters of the form SC26-2*0 are Plain type models. (Example 0 is identified by the characters SC26-200 and is a Plain type model. We plan to have five more Plain Pan models as examples here. In brief, we can call those five other models the 210, 220, 230, 240 and 250 earlier, common Pan models. For more on the three types of Pan/ST1100, see the nearby thread called Top-down Talking: The Time is Ripe for Talk of “Type”.)
H. Versions of a model might be slight variations on each other. Or, the two versions of a model might be an early version and a later version of the model, as is the case of two models not discussed here, namely the two USA 1991 ST1100 models. A version of a model is generally the smallest grouping of bikes that I see Honda using. The second smallest grouping of bikes that Honda uses is the model. A Pan model can consist of up to ten versions of that Pan model. I have yet to see a Canadian or Australian ST model that was built in more than one version.