Classic & Vintage - My catch of the day: Gazelle Speedstream

I had to ride 300 km roundtrip to get this, to the end of the world seemingly (500 m from the German border, scary, dude!), but it was worth the trip. (Oh, this is the bike Lotek hinted on, in Cuda2K's Champion Mondial build thread).
This is a Gazelle Champion Mondial (familiar to this forum by now, I trust), built in Reynolds 531 Speedstream tubing. The gearlevers are mounted on top of the downtube. I would guess from the framenumber that this is a 1985 vintage.
The speedstream tubing has a flattened midsection downtube, ditto seattube, oval seatstays and a VERY :p aero brakebridge. Rear dropouts are semi-vertical Campy's.
The bike is fitted with Campagnolo Victory throughout, besides the ugly Exage brakelevers and the top-half of the headset, which is Shimano 105. Oh yeah, and Ritchey mtb pedals.
As the size is 57, and toptube and stem are too short, this is not a good fit for me. I really like the frame though, so my guess is (surprise!) I will part out all this Victory and other stuff. If ever there was a candidate for 'wall-art', this is the one!

Nice looking Gazelle! :) First time I've heard of the slipstream 531 tubing, but I'm far from an expert on such topics. ;)

Correction to my earlier post: if the Victory parts are an indication of the vintage, this is an 1986 bike. Small difference! But anyway, 20 years old and looking good!

Interesting build too: together with the 57 c-t seattube goes the 55,5 c-c toptube; that's quite nromal. But the wheel base is just under 98 cm's, I guess that accounts for the semi-vertical dropouts.

geez. that's my size. if you decide it needs a new home, lemme know!

Everything's your size, you ****.

:p

That is one cool looking bike-

not everything. just 54,55,56,57 and 58. I did strive to get a 58.5 last week, although that woulda probably been foolish (like trying to date a swedish woman basketball star...)

not everything. just 54,55,56,57 and 58. I did strive to get a 58.5 last week, although that woulda probably been foolish (like trying to date a swedish woman basketball star...)
what's wrong with swedish womens basketball players?

I really like that bike.

marty

The only thing that I've ever been able to find wrong with a swedish woman of any kind is that they seem to like guys that are taller than they are. That doesn't include me, of course (56cm rider). And, I agree most ardently, that this is a fine bicycle.

Well, I just put the phone down after chatting for a while with the Special Products Manager of Gazelle. Unfortunately he can't help me with pinpointing the year of build, as they don't keep records of frame numbers. But it was nice to hear that Gazelle has build only 20 to 25 speedstream frames. Exclusivity is all!
The frame could have been for one of the Gazelle sponsored teams (amateur and professional) from the '83 to '86 years.

Wow, 25ish made, that long ago. And yours looks about as clean as it was when it came off the factory floor. Nice catch indeed!