Originally Posted by
Gashepherd
Originally Posted by
T-Mar
Thank-you very much for taking the time and effort to obtain the serial number, date codes and extra photos, even though it wasn't an attractive deal and a real Frankenbike.. The S/N is consistent with February 1982 manufacture by Fairly of Taiwan. They were a known contractor for WSI but this may be the earliest case I've seen. I was having trouble deciding if the rear dropouts were stamped or forged but now that we have a better photo, they appear to be 3D stamped dropouts. I wish you better luck with your next potential transaction.
I would suggest that the serial number reads as F2J24735, as opposed to F2024735. The first number 2, after the F, for the year of frame manufacture 1982 and the J meaning some point within that year.
The "J" probably does not mean February.
In 1981 Fairly serial numbers had a letter after the first digit, the number for the year.
In 1983 within the Fairly serial number the letter for the time period was replaced by two digits for the month within the year of frame manufacture.
The length of the 1983 serial number remained at eight characters, so the number of characters for the sequence number was reduced.