The Earliest Paramount Serial NumbersThe very first Paramounts seemed to have had serial numbers starting with “A” followed by two or three digits. This seems to have been a system started by Emil Wastyn.
We found a very early Paramount – claimed to be a 1938-9 vintage – with serial number A545.Little is known about serial numbers for bikes built after World War II. Unfortunately, an office fire in 1948 destroyed the Paramount records. Numbers mostly followed a three-digit format – often but not necessarily with a “P” as the prefix.By early 1959, serial number 949 had been reached, necessitating a new system.The “New” SystemThis system was used from Spring of 1959 to the end of 1965. It was a sequence consisting of a letter followed by two digits, starting with A10, followed by A11 and so on until A99.
When the B’s started out, they started with B10. Here’s a table of the codes and their manufacturing dates:. A10 – 4/1/59 (Approx). B10 – 6/30/59 (Approx). C10 – 10/30/59. D10 – 4/25/60. E10 – 8/1/60.
F10 – 1/2/61. G10 – 5/3/61. H10 – 8/1/61. I10 – None. J10 – 2/1/62 (Approx). K10 – 7/1/62 (Approx.). L10 – 10/15/62.
M10 – 3/1/63 (Est). N10 – 7/26/63. O10 – None. P10 – 10/14/63. Q10 – None. R10 – 2/10/64.
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S10 – 5/5/64. T10 – 6/17/64.
U10 – 8/19/64. V10 – 11/18/64. W10 – 3/11/65.
Mongoose Bike Serial Number
X10 – 5/19/65. Y10 – 7/20/65. Z10 – 9/28/65. Z99 – 12/30/65The First Serialized Date CodeThis system was used from January 1966 through 1969.
It consisted of three components –. Month Code: This one letter code corresponds to the month with A=January, B=Febuary and so on.
Because I is not used, September=J and December=M. Year Code: This one digit code is the last digit of the year – 6 is 1966. Sequence Number: This two digit number represents the nth frame and/or fork scheduled during the month.For example, H763 is the sixty-third frame or fork scheduled during August of 1967.Capacity Added for the Boom Years. Month Code: This one letter code corresponds to the month with A=January, B=Febuary and so on. Because I is not used, September=J and December=M.
Year Code: This two digit code is the last two digits of the year – 86 is 1986. Sequence Number: This two digit number represents the nth frame and/or fork scheduled during the month. During the peak of the bike boom, Schwinn would add another digit, sometimes producing as many as 500 frames a month.For example, H7634 is the thirty-fourth frame or fork scheduled during August of 1976.Self-Describing Serial NumbersThis system started in use during the mid- to 1994’s. It consisted of six components:. Size Code: The size code represented the center to top seatmast measurement, rounded to the nearest 5mm. For example, a 55cm frame had a serial number starting with 550.
Mountain bikes required rounding since they were built in one or two inch size increments. Occasionally, custom frames might not have the same size as indicated by the serial number. Product Code: This was not applied consistently. Up to some point in the early 90’s, it designated the fork length with forks short bikes getting an “A” progressing to large forks getting an “E”. Later, it was used to designate the kind of frame: A=Road, B=Off-Road, C=650C Road, E=Track. Company Code: In the 80’s the code indicated the type of bike, where K=road bike.
Later, especially after the formation of Waterford, this letter indicated the company. K was for Paramount and L was for Waterford. Factory Code: A W followed to indicate a bike coming from the Waterford factory. Month Code: This one letter code corresponds to the month with A=January, B=Febuary and so on. Because I is not used, September=J and December=M.
Year Code: This two digit code is the last two digits of the year – 96 is 1996. Sequence Number: This three digit number represents the nth frame and/or fork scheduled during the month.Example: 540AKWE91042 was a 54cm road racing Paramount built at the Waterford factory. It was the 42nd frame built in May of 1991.Paramount Tandem Serial NumbersParamount started building tandems in 1969. Prior to this time, only special team tandems (like Olympic bikes) were made.Serial Numbering: The first phase started in early 1969 and continued to the middle of 1970. It consisted of the following fields:. Month Code: This one letter code corresponds to the month with A=January, B=Febuary and so on. Because I is not used, September=J and December=M.
Year Code: This two digit code is the last two digits of the year – 69 is 1969. PT:This code indicated a Paramount Tandem. Sequence Number: This three digit number represents the nth frame and/or fork scheduled during the month.For example E69PT109 was a Paramount Tandem built in May of ’69.
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It was the 9th tandem of the year.The second phase started in Mid-1970 when Schwinn started using the standard numbering system (and probably a common bottom bracket) with the company’s mass production. For example, FF018524 was built in June of 1970, serial number 018524.All Paramount tandem production had ceased by the end of 1979.
HOW OLD IS MY BICYCLE?‘How old is my bicycle?’ is a question I get asked a lot, nearly as much as: ‘I have a bicycle that looks like one of yours; if I send you pictures please can you identify it for me?’The answer, in short, is that I do not have time to tell you either. I’m not being callous about this. With an estimated 15,000 bicycle manufacturers, the odds are stacked against me recognizing yours; in any case, I do not claim to be an expert, just an assiduous recorder of information. To sift through information to try and find similar pictures to your unidentified bicycle would take me months, and I’m already doing similar research on my own bikes. Not only do I have a full-time job (I run my own business restoring and selling vintage vehicles) and am a hands-on parent of a young child, but I spend a minimum 30 hours every week building, updating and maintaining these free websites to help you do your own research. My hobby usually takes a backseat. Insomnia is my saving grace, otherwise there would be no time for any of this.My purpose for creating these databases is simple.
In the ‘old days’ (a time which seems to have ended in the past twenty five years or so), a youngster became an apprentice in a chosen field and learned its history from the older employees. Thus, for example, an apprentice mechanic was handed down an invaluable unwritten guide to repairing vehicles that could not be learned at college nor from books, because, as well as specific information about various models, it helped a youngster understand the way they were designed and built.Similarly, to learn about vintage bicycles, we ask questions of our elders in the hobby. The key point here is that the elders who were around while our favourite vintage machines were still on the road are no longer with us, the last of them having passed on in the past thirty years or so. Now we must depend on those who gleaned that first-hand knowledge from them; these chaps were the ‘youngsters’ then, but now they’re getting older themselves, most in their seventies and eighties. They don’t usually use computers, so much of their knowledge is stored in their heads. By the time we learn from them, it’s second-generation information. My contemporaries and I are in a younger age group – forties to sixties – and we’re busy learning and recording what we can before it’s lost forever.
We study 100-year-old magazines to see when certain new innovations were first reviewed (it helps us date bicycles with similar features), read correspondence of the time to try to understand contemporary views and opinions, research old catalogues, meet fellow enthusiasts, help each other with restorations, ride our old bikes as much as possible, and work with our elders to pick up tips and wisdom.If you can help in any way by contributing to this research, please get in touch. My email is embedded in the picture below.By recording and sharing this knowledge while it’s still as fresh as possible, our fabulous vintage hobbies will continue for centuries to come.TO FIND OUT HOW OLD YOUR BIKE IS – JOIN THE VETERAN CYCLE CLUB!Although we are in the so-called ‘Information Age’ and the internet provides a surplus of it – some of it accurate, much of it misleading – there is nowhere near enough information on vintage bicycles. This surprises many people. Sometimes, folks with no experience of the vintage hobby who may have recently unearthed an old bicycle contact me and demand that I immediately tell them what it is, how old it is and what it’s worth. I try to explain as politely as possible that such a service does not exist, and they are often abusive as a result. Usually they want me to identify it so they can sell it on ebay. Luckily, I remembered an old Sufi saying, ‘Only explain things to people in a language they understand.’ So now I answer that such a service, which will obviously increase the value of their unidentified machine, will cost them £50 + VAT.
It’s still not a service I actually offer – but at least they are less abusive.The question remains: ‘How old is my bicycle?’ Also, ‘I have a bicycle that looks like one of yours; if I send you pictures please can you identify it for me?’The answer is simple. The Veteran Cycle Club (V-CC) has a system of ‘marque enthusiasts’ – volunteers who compile what information they can about particular manufacturers. By joining the V-CC you can access whatever information is available. If that doesn’t help, if it is interesting enough, you might be able to send pictures of it to the the V-CC magazine, or take it to vintage shows and ask exhibitors, or keep an eye on ebay to see if something similar ever comes up.
Bike Serial Number Check
Identifying an unknown bicycle is hard work. You may be lucky, but more than likely it will remain a mystery.As I have stated before, the V-CC archives and Ray Miller’s Encyclopaedia are invaluable resources: these ongoing projects are becoming the world’s primary source of information on vintage bicycles. The V-CC’s system of marque specialists is unrivalled throughout the world. I recommend every vintage bicycle enthusiast to join the V-CC to access these (and many other) excellent facilities.FRAME NUMBER DATINGBicycles that can be dated with 100% accuracy are the exception. Marque enthusiasts use records of shop ledgers that recorded dates sold and frame numbers, and then calculate the ages of other bicycles by comparing them with known frame numbers.
Sometimes the date sold does not reflect when a bicycle was actually manufactured (for example, Dursley Pedersens were very expensive, badly marketed and often took a long time to sell). Only certain manufacturers’ frame number sequencing is known.
Many did not use chronoligical sequences.Many manufacturers used ‘bought-in’ bikes at different times, ie made by a different company. This happened in particular in the 1890s when frame styles changed every few years. Frames made by top companies with the old designs were sold off through the trade, so smaller companies then sold bicycles using the old frames with different parts years after!The records of the majority of the smaller companies no longer exist: you’d be surprised how fast the entire history of a company disappears once the factory closes. There were also a lot of ‘dodgy practices’ within the bicycle trade, with companies regularly liquidating and starting up again and spurious production claims often made for advertising purposes and to inflate a company’s worth.
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Few published their true production figures. It’s a nightmare trying to make sense of it a hundred years later.A catalogue description is a good guide, though we rarely have a manufacturer’s catalogue for every year, so may not know for how many years a model was current.
Additional Comments1950's COLUMBIA TANDEM BICYCLENeed a two seater? This is for USerial number looks like TA-08104, Which I found on frame underneath.It has been painted blue, which was the original color but might have been darker.The handlebars and rims are painted silver. Has a silver strip down center of fenders. New handle bar grips.The Columbia Badge on Front and decal on the chain guard.ASKING 250.00 call CHUCK 330-519-XXXXLocation: Austintown,ohio Shipping NotesLocal Delivery.
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