If the serial number can be obtained, the shop is usually gracious enough to look up their records and tell you when it was built.
Marie, I have another suggestion. Contact Cycles Alex Singer directly and inquire about used AS bicycles. They do sell them and might have something in your size.
Mike Schmidt Millington, New Jersey Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 22, 2009, at 1:48 PM, Jan Heine <heine94@earthlink.net> wrote:
> At 9:38 AM -0500 1/22/09, marie autrey wrote:
>
>> Anyway, what I'm asking is this: is it going to mess up that
>> highly-vaunted SInger handling to substitute a longer seatpost on
>> this bike? Is the shorter top tube going to leave me bunched up,
>> or is this a classic randonneur geometry?
>
> That Singer on e-bay is the second-ugliest Singer I have seen in my
> life. I doubt it was made in 1970 - the geometry looks more like
> 1980 to me, and so do the fork blades. The 1980s were a slow period,
> and they accepted almost any order. (In 1970, the shop was busy
> during the bike boom, and probably would not have built such an odd
> bike.)
>
> For a few years in the early 1980s, Singer slackened the head tube
> angle for unknown reasons - Ernest Csuka claims not to remember
> doing so at all! - which made the bikes handle less well with front
> loads. So I doubt this bike has the "highly-vaunted" Singer
> handling, no matter the seat tube extension.
>
> I think the bike has potential, but I'd want to remodel it a bit to
> make it more like a true Singer (move those shift levers!), rather
> than a reflection of the "interesting" tastes of the original owner.
>
> Jan Heine
> Editor
> Bicycle Quarterly
> 140 Lakeside Ave #C
> Seattle WA 98122
> http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com