Johanna Mez
Swiss company Ferraroli used to build road cycles and got into mountain bikes during the early 90s. We don’t know how old this one is and Ferraroli does not exist any longer. As this bike has the classical frame lugs seen on vintage road cycles, 26reloaded turned the bike into a single speed. And we think it looks swell!
Price: CHF 401.00
Hello 26reloaded,
Ferraroli frames with only one serial number were brazed, painted and assembled in Switzerland.
Look to see if the first digit is oriented at 90 degrees to the following digits. If so, then add a 9 before the first digit, and that should be the year in which the frame was built in La Chaux-de-Fonds.
Ferraroli frames with two serial numbers were given the first, larger serial number by the frame maker in Japan, and then given a second, smaller serial number by Ferraroli before painting and assembly. Look for the shorter, Swiss serial number and apply the same logic as described above to determine the year. I have seen a couple frames with an obvious year code (92F2603 from 1992, for one example) in the Japan number, and the following year coded into the number added by Ferraroli (a prone 3 before 1173 meaning 1993 in the same example).
If there is not a leading digit lying on its side in front of the small serial number, then the frame is likely from before 1990, and can’t be so quickly dated. Earlier bikes seem to have been sequentially numbered, so one can only get a relative idea of how old such a frame is by comparing its number to others with known histories.
In general, older numbers up to three digits long are likely from the late 70s and early 80s, and are more often found on road bikes. They appear to have rolled over to four digit serial numbers in the mid 80s, after which time Ferraroli produced more mountain bikes.
Cheers,
T.K.