Cycles Gitane serial number: data collection and observations.
I have now collected over 130 Gitane serial number observations. I believe that the time period of the subject bicycle observation are from the late 1960s and into the 1990s.
The serial numbers are all stamped into the frame. There are no label or metal strip serial numbers that you find on Peugeot bicycles.
The serial numbers are stamped on two locations on the frame: the non-drive side dropout and the bottom bracket shell.
Next, look for patterns in the stamping of the numbers. The first thing I notice is that there are three general categories of stampings:
- The dropout with all numbers.
- Across the bottom bracket with almost all numbers. The numbers are in rows and the number of rows varies from one to three rows.
- Across the bottom bracket with the first character as a letters and followed by numbers numbers.
Observations of the collected data
Dropout numbers
The first pattern in the dropout numbers is that there are four digits evenly spaced and stamped in one font. Then there other digits, two or three, stamped in various places on the dropout usually in a different font from the set of four.
Bottom bracket numbers with no letter in front
Some of the numbers are stamped oddly and unevenly on one or two rows.
Some of the numbers are stamped in three rows, with the middle row numbers stamped upside down from the other two rows. The numbers in the other two rows are stamped oddly and unevenly.
The oddly stamped numbers are in two groups, the first with four digits and the second with a varying number of digits.
When there is a middle row the characters are upside down to the other rows. The middle row is stamped very uniformly. The uniformly stamped numbers are three digits or five digits, both with a space and a trailing digit. The same uniformly stamped numbers, except the last digit, can be found on several different bicycles.
Preliminary Analysis of the data
The uniformly stamped three or five digits appear to be a frame type number.
I turned my attention to the dropout numbers first. I ordered my data in numerical order of the four digit number. I did not see any pattern.
I looked at the bottom bracket numbers that were stamped in one or two rows. These numbers were grouped in a similar way to the dropout stamped numbers. Both had a four digit group and a second group of digits.
I looked at the bottom bracket numbers stamped in three rows. If you remove the uniform , upside down, middle row, then the other numbers are the same as the other bottom bracket stamping in that there is a four digit group and a second group.
All the serial number stampings have a four digit group.