Which would you rather it be? There might be 10 people in the country who would be able to tell the difference, and they're all polite enough to accept "I wasn't sure, so I went with this" as an answer.

I know, I know - it doesn't satisfy your desire to know what it was, but consider how grandly this mystery will lodge itself in your brain - making the bike all the more special.

Short story:

Last year, I traded away a 50's bike made by a small builder in Great Britain, and knowing the year it was made was quite a puzzle. The fellow I traded it to has connections to the town where it was built, and actually knew the builder when he was growing up. Now, not only does he know the year, but he's gotten duplicates of the very grand decals it wore when young. It looks marvellous... but the mystique is all but gone now.