Identifying your bicycle by its serial number

You don’t need a serial number to know what type of bicycle you have.

If you can share a photo of the bicycle, it will be easier for Quorans or members of bicycle related forums to answer you just by looking at it and its parts or just its frame. You can see many types of bicycles available in the market from this image I found at AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired Persons).

Do you see any there that looks like yours? If you do, click on their link to “Different Bikes for Different Cyclists” for the name of the type of bicycle you have.

If you wish to identify its brand or model number, look at its frame. They are either:

-painted or
-embossed or
-printed on a sticker or
-with an emblem attached, as shown below for a Seven Up brand.

If the information you require are lost as the frame is badly rusted or had been painted over, the serial number can be used to identify them based on the format used to build it by its manufacturers. If you are able to decode the format used, you will also be able to discover when and where it was manufactured.

The easy way to do it is do a search for “bike forum serial numbers” which will lead you to forums with members discussing on matters related to serial numbers. By doing that search, I found link to "Serial Number And Date Code Information" at “The Cabe” which is short for “The Classic and Antique Bicycle Exchange”. If you are sure that your bicycle is an antique, you can go through the serial number charts they shared on that link. You can also start a thread there to enquire about your bicycle by sharing its photo and serial number.

Your other option is do a search for “bicycle serial number chart” or “decode bicycle serial number ”. Click on link to “image” to look for chart with serial numbers shared similar to yours.  Once you have found it, you can click on the link to the chart to read details posted about it.