BikerTex

Can anyone out there help identify this one? It appears to be a 70's model Motobecane, it's equipped with all campy record parts, and the frame appears to be made in Italy, or at least the tubing is. Can anyone help me narrow down which model and year bike this is? It's missing it's headtube badge, and most of it's decals.

Thanks
Eric

outakontroll

what makes you think it's a motobecane ? they are french bikes.

Max Busch

Ack, Never saw a Motobecane with Oria Tubing.

luker

lovely bike. need pictures of the headtube and the top of the fork. are the dropouts campagnolo?

BikerTex

It has motobecane decals on the down tube, and seat tube.

BikerTex

Thanks, she is a pretty nice ride. As I stated in the first message, there's no head tube badge, but here's a photo of the front, you can see the box crown fork. Yes, I'm pretty sure the dropouts are campy, but I'm not positive. I'll have to get back to you on that.

T-Mar

Campagnolo dropouts and a full NR group suggest a Team Champion or Le Champion with upgraded brakes. The seat lug and stay treatment is certainly reminescent of these models. However, the frame has a very curious assortment of fittings, finsh and tubing. My literature indicates that brake cable clips and clamp on shifters and bottle cages were still in use as late as 1975 on these models. The next most modern literature I have is 1978 and by then the brake tunnels were brazed on, as were the shifter and bottle bosses. This would seem to indicate the frame is somewhere between these two periods. Yet during this period, the tubing was Reynolds, not Oria. I don't recall Oria arriving on the scene until the mid 1980s and this bicycle has definite 1970's characteristics. The total absence of chrome also appears strange, given the period.

The frame would appear to be a repaint by the lack of a head badge and model name on the top tube. The color would also seem to be too red for a Team Champion. The ones I've seen were a definite orange. This leads to the possibility that some of those fittings could have been added.

In addition to verifying the dropouts, take a look at the bottom brackets and check if they are 35 x 1.

luker

It looks to me, at a glance, that the frame has been "modernized" at some point in its life. This is usually to make it trendy so it gets paint and all of the options that were in vogue at the time that it was refurbished. Thank God they didn't chuck all of the campy stuff on it.

My Masi had gone through the same treatment: top tube cable guides, shifter bosses, water bottle bosses, bottom bracket cable guides, and shimano vertical dropouts! A lovely orchid color, the wrong decals, and a complete 1981 Shimano 600 ex grouppo. This bike's been through the same mill, and the Oria sticker is probably an "upgrade" as well.

BikerTex

Well I checked the drop outs and the BB last night. The dropouts are Campy. The BB shell has five holes in it, they are in a line from side to side, the center hole is the biggest and then they get smaller as they go towards the cups. The serial number is only five digits, and is near the non-drive side of the BB. There is a number "58" stamped in to it nearest the drive side cup. I would assume that is the frame size. Other than that there is a letter L where there down tube meets the shell, and a letter B on the bottom of the non drive side, where the chainstay meets the BB.
Wow this one is a mystery.

T-Mar

Another thing you can do, assuming the parts are original, is check them for date codes. The rear derailleur should have a two digit PATENT year next to the recess for the cable housing. There should be two-digit CAM year on the back side of the hub lock nuts. Assuming it's 1970's, there should be diamond with a single digit year code on the back of the crankarms.