francophile 

I've seen a bajillion Benotto BBs, but I ran across my first one with what looks like a surgical butterfly across the heart recently, used for a cable guide, as pictured. This seems like a relatively cheap way of doing things to me, but I'm hunting everywhere for similar stuff and coming up empty.

Is it unique enough that it would make it easy for a Benotto guru to at least ballpark the model or year range when this style of cable guide was used?

francophile 

Sorry, bumping this for another cycle in hopes someone can chime in.

Michael Angelo 

Well, they were made by Mexico's best brazers......

3speedslow

Had to be cause of the dry climate. My gosh, the size of them holes.

I have never seen an arrangement like this.

francophile 

@3speedslow I've eyeballed a bunch of Benotto in the past but never bought in. Every one I've ever looked at had the heart cutout on the BB shell, even the ones made in Mexico. Although the pink one I linked above has the "I" or "dogbone" on it which may indicate it was actually made in Italy versus Mexico, where a lot of the North American bikes came from.

Check out some of the variations and you'll see ...

I'm just curious, I'd never seen the cable guide "bridge" setup before, crossing over the heart. I found a bike nearby this month that has it and the owner wants to sell, but it's been converted to fixie and I don't know if they have the original gear. I'm ballparking the bike around mid-late 70s, possibly early 80s based on it actually having cable guides under the BB shell. Was hoping there was something significant to this bridge guide that could nail it down closer, either to a model/series or 2-4 year range.

Bike is too small for me, but would probably fit my wife...

3speedslow

Interesting quest. Always good to see new info come to the BF site.

Kudos !

Thanks for the link.