Thank you, Bill.

Of course a discussion of that bike is more suited to C&V than 50+, though some would say all of us here are C&V by definition. All my bikes are C&V anyway. I've told this story elsewhere, but what the heck, I have no qualms about telling it again.

I was browsing ebay recreationally last year and saw this frame. The seller was local and agreed that I could pick it up in person and save shipping costs and trouble. The problem was, it wasn't identifiable. The long-point lugs and chrome indicated a high-end frame but the other details weren't consistent. I think that scared other bidders away and I won it fair and square.

The paint scheme is of the '82 Champion Team, but it should have had TT loops for the rear brake cable housing, and no chrome. The BB cable guides should not have been on the earlier CT's at least, and the later catalogs didn't show enough detail to tell. The rear spacing is 124mm (apparently common on Moto's) and will not accept a 6-speed FW. The DT name is individual letters, not a decal, and font isn't quite right either. The seller also had the wheels that came with the bike when he got it (from a salvager?), high-flange Campy record hubs with one NISI rim and one Super Champion, with a 5-spd Regina Oro FW. Since they were still unlisted on ebay he sold them to me outright. The rear had been rebuilt with the NISI rim and plated spokes instead of SS but still the original 2.0-1.7-2.0 gauge. Those components, the chrome, and a few other minor details suggested a repainted '74 Champion Team, Motobecane's special-order-only bike introduced in '74 after their TdF win in '73. Then I found the '74 date code on the hubs. It looks like I'd stumbled onto an unrecognizable diamond.

So how did it come to its present state? It appears to have been ridden hard by a loving owner, perhaps raced back then. It even carried a local town's registration sticker. The fork was out of alignment. That and the rear wheel's cheaper spokes suggest it was crashed and rebuilt on a budget. It should have been orange, but the complete lack of orange anywhere inside and the presence of the BB cable guides suggest the owner had it painted by someone who stripped it completely (chemically, I suppose) and did the brazing prior to painting. They probably decided to use the brand-new '82 paint scheme but left the original chrome on the fork tips and crown. Since a decal wasn't available they stenciled on the letters. Of course this story may be a complete fabrication - those wheels and FW may not have been original to the bike after all, but merely what it wore when it was finally parked. But it seems more likely than any other explanation. The frame details absolutely don't fit the paint.

Part of the fun of a project like this is the search and decisions re components and aesthetics. I replaced rusted front bearing cones, selected the Nervar arms w/TA chainrings (BF member rhm was involved - a longish story), Weinmann Carrera brakes (I happened to have them but they were original on at least one year of the CT), Suntour Cylone RD and Vx FD (the Cyclone FD clamp is just too precise to grip the French diameter ST), cleaned up the wheels and learned how to work with sew-ups, found the correct size seatpost, stem, bar, etc. The lighter spots on the TT are where the paint was touched up with a too-light metallic blue, and I don't know who did that. Finally I had local frame builder Nao Tomii straighten the fork. (He has since moved to Austin where he makes very nice custom bikes, tomiicycles.com. C&V participant [MENTION=252763]Flog00[/MENTION] saw my original notes was so impressed with Tomii's work that he ordered a bike, currently being built and chronicled here http://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...uilt-bike.html in C&V.)

The bike turned out to be spectacular, far more than I expected. It and the Masi are about equal but with different gearing so their riding experiences are different. I rode a century on it earlier this summer, and rode it up Cadillac Mt. in Acadia Nat'l Park in September. One final note - the catalogs back then called it the Team Champion but the TT decal said Champion Team. Leave it to the French to build a great bike and play around with the words! (Special thanks go to [MENTION=73614]rhm[/MENTION], [MENTION=29368]rootboy[/MENTION], [MENTION=124730]SJX426[/MENTION] and others I've forgotten for their components, help and info.)