Jonny69
Senior Retro Guru
The L here is the year.
Are you sure about that? The chart we usually go to for dating Sun and Parkes frames is in this thread: https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/what-year-sun-frame-beginning-d.344162/
L would be 1944/1945.
I've not seen it confirmed that having an L present as a second letter denotes a lightweight frame (e.g. EL3739 instead of E3739 on a 1939 frame). When I looked into it a couple of years ago, it looks like when FC Parkes launched the Sun bicycle company, Sun branded frames were the factory-built frames and the Parkes brand was kept for the hand-built (lightweight) frames. Someone like @keithglos might be able to confirm because he's mentioned in the past that he had dealings with FC Parkes back in the day.
Are you sure about that? The chart we usually go to for dating Sun and Parkes frames is in this thread: https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/what-year-sun-frame-beginning-d.344162/
L would be 1944/1945.
I've not seen it confirmed that having an L present as a second letter denotes a lightweight frame (e.g. EL3739 instead of E3739 on a 1939 frame). When I looked into it a couple of years ago, it looks like when FC Parkes launched the Sun bicycle company, Sun branded frames were the factory-built frames and the Parkes brand was kept for the hand-built (lightweight) frames. Someone like @keithglos might be able to confirm because he's mentioned in the past that he had dealings with FC Parkes back in the day.
