Originally Posted by
Prunesquallor
Well, maybe. Hard to prove. It seemed very clear and distinct “3” to me.
For the purpose of identifying the bicycle by serial number if stolen it is probably best to use F3105450, because that is what it looks like.
When dating the frame using the serial number it is another matter. The serial number is for a frame made by Fairly Bike of Taiwan. There are many examples of serial numbers from Fairly manufactured frames. It is generally observed that the date of manufacture is encoded in the serial number, as is true for many of the Taiwan bicycle manufacturers in the 1980s.
For Fairly serial numbers the first digit is for the year of frame manufacture.
The striking of the serial number characters into the frame is not always clean and precise. Then the frame is painted. Because of this serial number characters are not always clearly definable at first glance.