Marin Bear Valley 1991 - Tape over serial number

[Dami]

Hi!

Has anyone ran into a similar case? I acquired a bear valley frameset and while cleaning and refreshening the paint surface I ran into this. There was a tape under the paint surface on the serial number. When I took the tape off, there was the serial number (M40IA0576) which is equivalent to other bear valley -91 serial I found in retrobike thread archives.

Compared to my other -91 Marin (Palisades Trail) paint work, to other -91 Bear Vallyes and considering the condition of the paint, I have no reason to believe this is a repaint. What could be the case?

P.S. The scratches on the serial number are made by me when trying to figure out was it a zero after the four (it was)

-Turkka

 

[Bimly]

Factory respray to change colour to another region or country. Or factory respray to use light grey frames in new colour scheme. The tape stops the new primer and paint obscuring and filling the punch marks. That would be my best guess.

 

[Dami]

Re:

Thanks for this, I guess I won’t get a better theory so I will go with that!