Having checked all the usual haunts (Sheldon Brown, Kurt Kaminer and a couple of others), I've drawn a blank in trying to decode the serial number of a vintage steel Raleigh R100.

The build is Shimano 105 1050/1051 series, which seems original and dates the bike at circa 1989. Despite the "Made in England" decals, it could be an Asian-made frame, and the standard N=Nottingham, W=Worksop... scheme doesn't extend to my serial number.

The confirmed serial number is YF98K00287, which I'd tentatively parse as follows;

- 'Y' or 'YF' may refer to the factory/location in which the frame was built
- 'F' could me a month code
- '9' may be 1989, or '98' could be (19)89 transposed
- 'K' could be a month/shift/batch code
- '00287' is likely to be the sequence number in the manufacturing batch/shift

TIA