Originally Posted by
Danddd
How do the serial numbers work to tell you what year/month?
In the case of bicycles with your serial number format, this is a generic format used by many Asian brands/manufacturers (Centurion, Raleigh/Merida, Yamagura, etc.).
The 1st letter/character is typically the manufacturer, in this case, presumibly F = Fuji.
The 1st number (2nd character) is typically the year indicator. However, in the case of Fuji, it is not based on the calendar year, but the Japanese Imperial Calendar (notice that the number is the same as the last last digit for the year of your cranks). To date, I have only three cases with this format but they all appear to use the Japanese Imperial Calendar (see post #21, 22 and 26).
The 2nd letter (3rd character) is usually a year stratifier, indicating either the month or fortnight. In your case it is a C, indicating either the 3rd month (March ) or 5-6th week (February). I don't have enough data yet to determine which, but either way it is early in the year.
The remaining number string is typically a sequential frame manufacting number for the month or fortnight.
I had not wanted to go public yet with this finding as the sample (3) is very small and I really would like more samples to increase my confidence level. But you did ask and it is a simple variation on a known format. The format does however appear restricted to 1970s boom era models. The 1980s uses a different format entirely.