Identify and Date Your Bike

Makers stamped dates into frames and parts. Here is when each code applied, from the Ebykr dating guides.
Date codes at a glance
1955 to 2001 · select a maker for its method
Campagnolo cranksMark on the back of the arm

Last digit of the year in a diamond 1973–1979, in a circle 1980–1984 · from 1985 a rectangle: 11 = 1985

ShimanoTwo letters: the year, then the month

First letter the year, A = 1976 · second letter the month, so VI is September 1997

Peugeot framesSeven-digit frame number from 1976

Before 1976 the serial is not a date · from 1976 a digit for the year, two for the month: 605 is May 1976

Raleigh framesSeat lug, bottom bracket or rear dropout

From 1973 factory, month, year: ND5 is Nottingham, March 1975 · numbers from roughly 1963 to 1973 are particularly unreliable

Also charted on Identify and Date: Brooks saddles Campagnolo Nuovo Record Maillard and Normandy hubs Stronglight cranks Cinelli frames Fuji frames Hobbs of Barbican frames

Your marques

Follow a marque and its newest work collects here. Nothing is followed yet, so these are the four Ebykr covers most deeply.

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