I have what I believe to be a 1983 Patterson, I was wondering if anyone could help me identify what model it is, My best measurement of the top tube is 19 and 5/8's and the serial number is 8830123.
With a Capital "P" stamped on the inside of the drop out where the serial number is.

My memery tells me that it was a Brian Patterson Factory issue, but I may be wrong, does anyone know anything about this bike, I have had it since day one, I am fairly certain the the forks are no longer original, but the frame is 100% Patterson.

Here is a pic of the bike as it sits today, any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks guys.

http://www.mp3room.com/jacobs/IMG_1386.jpg

"883xxxx" is august 1983 built. "P" is pro-sized. made by GT.

Thanks, would you say that this is then a pr -200 or a pr -200 s. I have heard there was some talk about a pr- 200 long or something, does this mean if it was a Pro bike that it was a special issue or available as a store bought unit? Thanks so much, I didn't think it would be this difficult to track down information, but it wa only like a couple of weeks ago that I even found out Patterson went out of business in 86, that was about the year I stopped racing.

the earlier Patterson frames had a "long" model. these were made before GT started building them and are different than what you have.

a PR200 is the pro frame that you have.

a PR200s is the standard sized frame (expert). these have an "S" stamped near the serial #.

You da man, thanks bro. Now I can order stickers for it. Thanks a million, Jay

PS. know a line on any forks for this?

I've a patterson pr-200 and there is no serial number!
can anyone tell me more about such no serial PR-200 frame set?

take a look on the inside of the rear drop out, free wheel side, that is where I found mine, I had the same problem about a week ago, thought there wasn't a serial number.

Mine has realy no serail number

maybe someone else knows, that is where I found mine. Maybe a production error or something, cause some of them I have seen researching this one they are on the outside of the rear drop out and then I found mine on the inside? Maybe the welded on two lefts or something?

probably just an error. welder grabbed a blank dropout, reversed the left and right dropouts...etc. that sort of thing is fairly common with just about any brand.

If you compare the dropouts on the PR series of frames (PR200S, PR200, PR240), they are exactly the same as the 82-83 era GT frames. The Patterson frames of that era were being built by GT, and used the same dropouts, and the same dating convention.

The only difference, is that GT number their pro frames with a 4 instead of a P, and their expert frames with a 2 instead of a S.

The Patterson forks are exactly the same as the GT forks too, apart from having holes in the dropouts. 1983 photos showed Brian and Brent Patterson, as well as Richie Anderson, running GT forks, complete with GT Santa Ana decals, on their cruisers.

I'm currently building a PR240, and I have to say, they are great bikes. I wish I had raced one back in the day. They feel really fast.

Ya I saw one on ebay, with a serial number real close to mine, probably built in the same batch, but there is no "P" stamped on the drop out, would you say that one with a "P" on it is more rare than one with out it?

nah. they all shoulda had a letter stamp. if it doesn't, it's probably just an oversight on the part of whoever was supposed to stamp them.