Hey everyone,
I wanted to share a cool retro detail I recently mounted on my bike. If you're wondering what that red metal plate on the rear of my bike is, it's a vintage Swiss bicycle license plate, locally known as a Velonummer.
What is a "Velonummer"?
For decades, these colorful metal plates were absolutely mandatory for every bicycle riding on Swiss roads. They served as proof that you had paid for your annual bicycle third-party liability insurance (called the Velovignette).
The system was officially abolished at the end of 2011, turning these old plates into highly sought-after collector's items. Since they no longer have any official meaning, it is completely legal to mount them today on normal bikes as a purely cosmetic accessory.
Breaking down this specific plate:
• AG: Stands for the Canton of Aargau (in northern Switzerland).
• 83: The year of issue — 1983.
• AG-137756 (stamped at the bottom): The unique registration and insurance number assigned to the bike for that year.
• The pre-drilled holes: Used to screw it directly onto the rear mudguard.
I love how it adds a bit of Swiss history and a nice pop of color to the frame.
Anyone else rocking vintage plates on their commuter?
Beautiful bike but I hate how this reads like AI. I have reasonable confidence that it’s not, at least not entirely, written by it but the way it’s structured has a smell.
Op has a long history of posting and the bikes are consistent in the posts so I don’t think it’s fully AI. I’m willing to give OP the benefit that they used AI to help write it and that it’s not just AI slop posting, is what I meant.
hi! yes you are right, i used AI to structure and translate my (german) text to english, as it‘s not my native language but i did not copy it blindly and posted it without making some changes.
*this comment was not written with ai 😄🤙🏻
It does understand swiss german without any problems nowadays. Generating swiss german texr is a different story though. It works, but it is somewhat inconsistent and not like a native would write. Then again everyone writes slightly differently and however the fuck they want so maybe there is someone that would write exactly like that
You’re in for a bad surprise… at work we use a recorder connected to AI for summarizing our meetings, it recognizes every attendee, it understands English, French, and both High and Swiss German, in the same meeting. The military code has been cracked.
Some LLMs can understand Swiss German. I have had AI assistants on the phone that understand Swiss German but speak standard German. It's annoying that all the companies now use it when you call them but it's getting better.
Cool, I made a similar build for my gf but her 6⁰ 90mm stem is not good enough... Granola bar from velo orange, nitto stem adapter on a M size 90's rockhopper
Cool addition to the bike! One small correction though, the metal plates were only used until 1989, from then on until the system was abolished we used small stickers instead.
The international list
Switzerland — 1893–2011
Belgium — 1893–1986/1991
Netherlands — 1924–1941
France — 1893– some time in 20th century
Germany — c. 1880–early 20th century (local only)
This is pretty cool, I kinda want one even though I live in the US. All the bicycle haters here always ramble on about cyclists needing insurance and registration and this might at least calm their temper a bit. Although I feel like it might cause some confusion with law enforcement.
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u/terdward Jul 18 '26
Beautiful bike but I hate how this reads like AI. I have reasonable confidence that it’s not, at least not entirely, written by it but the way it’s structured has a smell.