Help please - Steel GT serial numbers

[kingoffootball]

Saw that thread pop up again, just as I had the girlfriend's 1993 Borrego in for some work.
Sadly, the BB area is pretty chewed up by the chain - I rode it hard when I bought the bike new at 17.

?2K1 6279


View attachment 665804

Thank you, more valuable data!

I can just make out the first character as H - although it is easier to make out when I know it's a Hodaka frame and therefore will begin with an H

As you may know, the frame was built in late 1992 and it's a 1993 model.

 

[kingoffootball]

Looks like H3G on my phone, so made in 1993.
G maybe/probably being September, for a 1994 model frame?

The 94 at the beginning of the third number also gives the model year. This only started in 1994, so the 1992 and 1993 Hodaka built frames only have two frame numbers.

 

[Imazagi]

OK, I had to check my last GT now: 94 Tequesta, H3G1 (so late 93 I guess)

I like how it's still blue at the BB and sunburnt purple on the top tube.

 

[kingoffootball]

OK, I had to check my last GT now: 94 Tequesta, H3G1 (so late 93 I guess)

I like how it's still blue at the BB and sunburnt purple on the top tube.

View attachment 665822

That's right, frame made late 1993 in Hodaka, Taiwan for the 1994 range. I think that is the colour scheme callled Black Light, right?

 

[Imazagi]

Yep they came in Black Light and Raging Red. The orange decals are now almost white

 

[kingoffootball]

Bump.

 

[fmierlo]

Noticed

1995 GT Outpost | Candy Red | SY5A000408

Sharing the serial because it's not much use on a 27 year old bike, but just out of curiosity, what do you do with the serial numbers?

 

[fmierlo]

As this thread helped me with a quest, I'll share the story here

Long story short, It's been a long time since I was looking for the 1995 GT Outpost color names and today I finally found it.

I love this bike! In addition to having the most beautiful color I've ever seen, even after almost 30 years its rigidity still impresses me and others, the feeling is like riding on a train track. It's curious considering the Outpost was the second cheapest model.

Bikepedia is wrong about the color because I have a red one and red is not mention there: https://www.bikepedia.com/Quickbike/BikeSpecs.aspx?item=32278

Wayback Machine only goes back to 1996 https://web.archive.org/web/19961105164247/http://gtbicycles.com/catalog/mountain/outpost.html, the reason is because the domain was registered in 1995-05-03 https://who.is/whois/gtbicycles.com, that was close.

Here https://www.retrobike.co.uk/gallery2/v/Manufacturer+Archive/GT/Catalogues/ the 1995 catalog is not the complete one and don't mention colors. I think someone mentioned that never saw the 1995 complete catalog in this thread.

This was the only 1995 Outpost Red that I found on Internet:

https://www.reddit.com/r/xbiking/comments/c2py9s

Finally, today I found the 1995 catalog in German on this forum https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads...elist-catalogs-not-yet-in-the-archive.447988/

The name of the colors this year were: Candy Evergreen and Candy Red \o/


Here is a picture from 2011:

And here a picture from 2021:


The bike is almost all original, only what broke was changed.

Thank you for creating this thread

 

[kingoffootball]

Thank you for creating this thread

I am glad it was a little helpful. Thank you for sharing your story!

I love the colour and the fact it is being appreciated.

 

[kingoffootball]

Sharing the serial because it's not much use on a 27 year old bike, but just out of curiosity, what do you do with the serial numbers?

I record them all in a spreadsheet. From that, I try to work out what can be deciphered from the different formats they used over different periods.