Originally Posted by
billnuke1
It's got a cool plasti-coating! 1974.
This bike pictured above is a
Lilac 1974 Le Champion that someone glued a later style plastic Motobecane badge onto the head tube.
Why is it a 1974? Reynolds changed their decals in 1974 and added a gold "address box" under the black rectangle. So if the Reynolds decal is original, it's a 1974.
Originally Posted by
billnuke1
Also got the Team Champion at the same time.
In the late 1970's Motobecane got creative with their colors and decal schemes. Bikes were painted the "colour de jour", especially for the European market.
Prior to that Ben Lawee the US Moto importer kept a handle on the colors and decals to help insure brand name recognition... Plus it was easier to maintain inventory with fewer options.
The original 1974-76 "Team Replica" Motos built for the US market were labeled
Team Champion while the ones for the European market were called
Champion Team. By either name, they were very rare bikes. I'd only seen 2 or 3 in the wild during the 1970's.
From the early 1970's when Motobecane partnered with BIC the team bikes were painted BIC orange and were all made of Reynolds 531. In 1977 Motobecane built a small number of sky blue Champion Team frames with Reynolds 753 tubing.
Moto got into a piss'n contest with Reynolds over 753 tubing and lost. From then on all of the Team Champion/Champion Team
replica frames were made with Columbus SL tubing! So who won and who lost!
From 1978 until 1980 or 81 the team replica bikes were painted light metallic blue.
In 1982 they switched to a dark metallic blue which they used until at least 1985 before Moto turned keel up...
verktyg
Chas.