37fleetwood
Riding a '37 Fleetwood
Slightly Updated!
First, if this is to be helpful, please post a serial number and a photo of your bike only, ask all other questions in the appropriate section of the forum.
Second, This is a thread for identifying the year of manufacture of Huffman made bicycles through the gathering of serial numbers. If you know the year of your bike, but have other questions, this is not the place for you to be posting. Please post a thread in the appropriate section of the forum. if you don't hear from me you can send a pm and I will try to get you an answer. Do not only send a pm, post a new thread so I can answer where everyone can benefit from the discussion.
If you would like to simply ad your serial number, and a photo, with a description of your bike to add it to the database, please feel free.
Hopefully this will make this thread more manageable.
Huffman's serial numbering system is very difficult to figure out. Many numbering systems overlap, while some were used only on certain brands or certain models. The serial chart provided by ABC Services is useful only to a certain degree. Many number patterns are not covered, and it gives a huge spread of numbers that cover several years leaving us with no real discernible way to pin anything to a certain year.
When I started this project several years ago, I made the mistake of letting people tell me what they thought their bike was. I should have simply grouped them by general number pattern, and alpha numerical order and only pinned a date on the ones we had definite dating for. during the years that have passed, I have forgotten the discussions and circumstances of many of the numbers in the chart, and have almost no record as to how the owner came up with the date given. in future, bikes will only be added if a serial and photo are posted.
Please, if you have a serial that has not been posted, post it, and a photo of your bike, ask questions in the forum that most fits your bike.
I used an 8 to represent any number, and an H to represent any letter, except in the case of 1939 Firestones which all appear to have FAH following the serial number. In the same manner 1940 Firestones seem to be marked with FBH, and the few 1941 Firestones I have recently seen have FCH. I don't know if this carried on any further than that as the 1942 and later war time bikes are rather scarce.
As with most bicycle manufacturers, you should view year model in the same way you would view automobile year models. Bicycles were then, and still are, mainly a Christmas driven market. new models generally came out just early enough to be featured as "New" in the Christmas catalogs.
as an example, the Firestone catalogs came out as Fall/Winter and Summer/Spring. The Fall/Winter started somewhere in August September, and went to February or March sometime. so the new 1937 Models were actually available in late 1936 and so on.
Here are the rudimentary findings so far:
8888 - 88888
(4-5 numbers) appears to have been used from 1934 to 1936. (there may be various curious letters or numbers around the serial which I have no idea of the meaning)
88888
8
(5 numbers with 1 number below the other numbers) appears to be used from 1937 to 1938.
H8888
8
(a letter followed by 4 numbers with 1 number below the other numbers) appears to have been used from 1937 to 1941.
8888FAH
(4 numbers followed by FAH was used in 1939 by Firestone only)
8888FBH
(4 numbers followed by FBH was used in 1940 by Firestone only)
8888FCH
(4 numbers followed by FCH was used in 1941 by Firestone only)
H888888
(1 letter followed by 6 numbers) appears to be used from 1939 to 1944.
88888
H
(5 numbers followed by 1 or more letter, or with 1 or more letters under, or around the numbers) appears to be used from 1941 to around 1944.
888888H
(6 numbers followed by 1 letter) appears to be used during and right after WWII, maybe 1944 to 1947.
8H888888
(1number followed by 1 letter, followed by 6 numbers) will be a bike made between 1947 and somewhere in the early to mid '60's
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