Univega Serial Number Year Guide

The first line of the serial number will 4 characters, widly spaced. The first two characters will be “D” and “S” for Dod Sun. The next character will be a number for the year of manufacture of the frame, probably “9”, “0”, or “1”. 1970's Redline Squareback. First production bike was serial number 100. A low number bike would be early 1974. By the 500-600 range somewhere begin. Here is an email I got from an actual employee of GT: If the bike frame was manufactured at the Santa Ana CA facility, the first three or four digits of the serial.

Univega Serial Number Year Guide

Miyata’s frames manufactured in Japan since 1972 have been stamped with a serial number, the first letter of which indicates the year of production.

1972-1984: Yxxxxxx, where A = 1972, B= 1973,….M= 1984.

1985-1989: YFxxxxx, where N=1985, O = 1986,…S=1990.

The lettered stickers/decals are thought to be inspection stickers.

EXAMPLES
1982 Team Miyata J784969
J = Build year 1981 [Model year 1982]
784969 = Build number

1983 Aero Miyata K955434
K = Build year 1982 [Model year 1983]
955434 = Build number

1984 Miyata 1000 M272921
M = Build year 1984
272921 Build number

Some Miyata serial numbers had two line serial number. These models were manufactured by Dodsun of Taiwan.

Univega Serial Number Year Guide Pdf

Miyata entered a manufacturing contract with them around late 1986. Dodsun made the entry level Victor, Triton and Nimbus models in 1987. (Martin, T. 2020 Bike Forums)

An example of this serial number is below:
D S 7 1
204929
The subject bicycle was manufactured by Dodsun of Taiwan in December 1987, making it a 1988 model. (Martin, T. 2020 Bike Forums)

The first line of the serial number will 4 characters, widly spaced. The first two characters will be “D” and “S” for Dod Sun. The next character will be a number for the year of manufacture of the frame, probably “9”, “0”, or “1”. The last character will be a number “0” or “1”, the tens column of the number for the month that the frame was made.

The ones column for the month is the first character of the second line. The rest of the characters are numbers.

Univega Serial Number Year Guide 2020

Another way of narrowing in on the year of manfacturing is if the model number on the top tube is either printed in numeric form or written out. Early on Miyata models carried numeric names (e.g., Miyata 710). By the late 1970s Miyata began using the same names, writing out the numeric names (e.g., Miyata Seven Ten)

Univega Serial Number Year Guide 2019

There were also different model sub-catagories, for example, there was a 110SP and a plain 110. The main differences between the two were the 110SP had aluminum rims and a self centering device on the Dia-Compe 500 brake calipers.

Univega Serial Number Year Guide

The original price of the 1982 model 110SP was $198 US, while the standard 110 was $175 US.