Ah, British bicycle serial numbers. Anyone who doubts the British did break Germany's vaunted Enigma code in WW2 need only peruse the arcane, almost schoolboy clever for no good reason bicycle serial numbers of British bike makers. The French and Italian were typical in their approach: who cares when a bike was made, so we'll just stick a stack o' digits on each frame that make even less sense than the British model.
Peter Kohler
Washington DC USA