One of my more recent acquisitions is a Humber town or sports bike. I'm having trouble accurately dating it. The frame number is: 224843 H. I spoke to one of the chaps from the local CTC and he said not just to go from the date of the rear hub. That is 1950. He also said that the really desirable ones had the Dunlop wheels which mine has! It's complete minus the pedals. Still has the original key for the fork lock and it works. I know Raleigh took over Humber in 1932 but I've looked on the Raleigh database and that does not help me at all. I would very much appreciate a hand in dating this. I know other Humber owners have tried to contact the Vintage Cycling Club but reading their experiences has very much put me off going down that avenue.

Humber was one of the most renown makers of bicycles in Britain. No clue about serial numbers, and then there's the problem the bikes with the name Humber. I have an old humber bycicle the frame number is 310008 i want to know in what year it's producted thanx.

Although this is not my bike in the photo, mine is exactly the same as this one.
Any help would be very much appreciated

- 1886 The Raleigh factory starts making bicycles.

- 1888 The Raleigh Cycle Company was founded.

- 1932 Raleigh acquires Humber bicycles.

- 1933 Raleigh starts producing a three-wheeler car.

- 1938 Raleigh launches its Gazelle budget bikes.

- 1939 / 1945 The Raleigh building is used as a munitions factory.

- 1970 Raleigh launches the Chopper.

- 1997 Raleigh launches the Select electric bicycles.

- 1999 Raleigh ceases productio of bicycles frames in the UK.

- 2002 Raleigh closes its Nottingham factory.

- 2003 Raleigh bicycles manufacture switches to Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Determining the Age of a Raleigh Bicycle :

ENGLICH

made Raleighs manufactured in Nottinham

1888-1925Prior to 1925, genuine Raleighs (not necessarily brand names made by Raleigh) had a straightforward numerical frame number. Early years have been estimated by the Company. (Info from the Nottinghamshire Archives)

Note that the serial number information below is fragmentary and incomplete, and many bikes have proven to be much newer than the serial numbers would suggest. It appears that Raleigh recycled many of the older serial numbers in later years, so there are lots of bikes from the 60s and 70s that have serial numbers that would suggest much greater age.

1888: 1500

1889: 3200

1890: 5200

1891: 7600

1892: 10500

. I use the Mac OS for day to day email, most graphics, browsing, I run a VMWare virtual Windows machine, and I do most analysis in the unix terminal. So far this has been sufficient for me. 40 wrote:I have a Mac Pro dual quad core that I use for everything. Windows runs much better on the Mac hardware, Excel is much faster in Window, and I can fileshare between the Windows and Mac systems.

1893: 13900

1894: 19100

1895: 25300

1896: 32100

1897: 39913

1898: 45981

1899: 54032

1900: 65152

1900: 69868

1901: 77342

1902: 89622

1903: 102954

1904: 112673

1905: 129228

1906: 154917

1907: 183073

1908: 215650

1909: 249081

1910: 285669

1911: 328748

1912: 375693

1913: 427829

1914: 482851

1915: 517198

1916: 545198

1917: 569737

1918: 592473

1919: 621678

1920: 654502

1921: 688291

1922: 738447

1923: 809184

1924: 899465

1925: 998077

1925-Second World War

Between 1925 and the cessation of cycle production during the Second World War, letters prefixed or suffixed the running frame number although no indication is given of the starting point of the numbers. They seem to reflect only the number of machines produced whilst each letter was in use. All dating would therefore be approximate.

(Info from the Nottinghamshire Archives)

1925: A1

1925: B34181

1926/27: B56536

1929: E15693

1930: G94785

1933: L84682 1934: T93945

1934: U14540

1935: W71147

1936: W93161

1937: Y184552

Post Second World War - 1955

After the war, Raleigh began adding letters after the running number series which restarted when a new letter was used.

(Info from the Nottinghamshire Archives)

1947: 437689 P

1948: 556894 P

1949: 695051 P

1951: 151179 T

1952: 236530 T

1953: 367369 T

1954: 566722 T

1955: 747951 T

1956: 852312 T

1957: 872584 T

1955 - 1966

A new numbering system was introduced in 1955, though this ran concurrently with the old one for two years. The new system involved a second running letter, added to the first, which began at the start of the alphabet.

1956: 23839 A

1957: 27227 AB

1958: 17910 AD

1960: 27273 AE

1961: 13126 AF

1965/6: 40814 FD

1966: 64521 FE

Note: Some of the mid-60's straight guage 531 frames had serial numbers starting with a single letter which was towards the end of the alphabet.1967 - 1973

Yet another number system was introduced in 1966. This new system applied to the high-end (i.e. Reynolds 531) frames, and involved the placing of a character at the beginning of the serial number. The character began at the start of the alphabet, and indicated year of manufacture. Detail about the numerals that follow the alphabet are sketchy, and are presumably sequential serial numbers of some kind.

1966: A, followed by four numerals

1967: B, followed by four numerals

1968: C, followed by four numerals

1969: D, followed by four numerals

1970: E, followed by four numerals

1971: F, followed by four numerals

1972: G, followed by four numerals

1973: H, followed by four numerals

Note: While this numbering scheme is generally true, there may have been some crossover use of letters at the beginning/end of each year (e.g. a 'G' serial number may have been built into a bike in 1973, but the frame may have been built in 1972).1974 - 1980's

In 1974, an entirely different numbering system was introduced for the higher end (531 and subsequently 753) Raleighs. Serial numbers should begin with a 'W', which stands for Worksop, the facility that produced theses frames. This is followed by another alphabet. This alphabet indicates the fortnight in which the frame was built (i.e. A = 1st fortnight, B = 2nd, etc.). The third character is always a numeral. It indicates the year of manufacture, the decade being assumed (i.e. '4' could be '74 or '84; it is up to the interpretor to know enough to tell if the frame is from the 70's or 80's). What then follows is a series of numbers. At this point, these appear to be some sort of sequence, but this has not been substantiated.American made Raleighs manufactured in Kent, Washington, By Derby Cycle

Sample number: R 003310123 A

R (all)

Digits 1 & 5 are year. Sample is from 2001

Digits 2,3,4 are day (001-365). Sample is from February 2

Digits 6-9 are sequential. Sample is the 123rd bike built that shift.

A = morning shift B= evening shift. Sample is morning shift.

Letter code may or may not be present, depending on production schedule.

spoke

Notes:

The 531DB Gran Sports built in the early 70's did not have letters in the serial number.

Frames built at the Ilkeston facility have serial numbers that begin with 'SB'.

The 1973 track frames begin with an 'A'.

There are several documented cases of '73 and '74 Professionals, Internationals, Competitions and RRAs with 'A' serial numbers.

Let the color scheme, decals and components be your guide.