Look carefully at this picture... 
If it's not a pre-production model then what is it? You will notice the contradiction between the master cylinder with its flexible brake hose, the cap of the oil tank and the bracket of the engine which correspond well to a model of pre-production... And if you look good you also see that the plastics of the turn signals also correspond to the pre production ...
That's why I think there were two Candy Gold pre-production bikes... 
And no "Made in Japan" on points cover
i think the pictures i posted of various periodicals clearly support covers on late p-p bikes were not stamped "Made in Japan."
The question is, have these un-stamped covers been found on any production sandcasts? In particular, have these covers been found on production sandcasts believed to be unmolested or relatively unmolested?
Gerard's un-stamped covers, purchased from a Honda dealer, in their factory wrappers, are without any doubt, intriguing. We know we have found parts typically seen on early vins on later vins. in my opinion, a really good example was of frame 1865 having the gusseting for what we believe may have been intended for a steering damper. Typically, it seems this gusset was commonly seen on vins under 1000 and almost always seen on vins under 500, and began not commonly seen on vins greater than 1000, however Rick Hahn noted frame 1588 has this gusset. In any event, these observations support our belief the factory fitted what parts they had available at the assembly line, irrespective of a particular vin range. Carrying this logic to the case of Gerard's covers, it would seem entirely reasonable the factory sent these un-stamped covers to dealers for retail sale. Gerard's covers make that assumption entirely probable. KP also suggested perhaps these un-stamped covers were intended for a non-USA market. As KP also noted, we don't know. It is not unreasonable to postulate the possibility of one of these un-stamped covers could have been fitted to a production machine on the assembly line. What we need is to find one of these covers on a production motorcycle.
