[MENTION=61614]verktyg[/MENTION] that is excellent, thank you! As I said before, sorry I was posting my initial string of posts one after another without realising you had replied in the middle, definitely appreciate your input and first hand experience

Your follow up is even better, love the bat cave, given that I have only bought bike components and haven't managed to part with any yet I sometimes think I'll end up with a cupboard / shed / garage like that. I keep thinking, well maybe the next build will need ...

I did notice you gave the Fr. Belga model name as Franco Belga, that's that solved at least. Maybe something to do with the Circuit Franco Belge race? I hadn't looked closely at the 78 catalogue, interesting to see all the different bends in there, as you say: TdF, Franco Belga, Gimondi, Merckx, Defilippis, Pista. That after the 74 only mentions the Merckx, Gimondi and Pista, even saying the Merckx is sometimes known as the TdF. So probably best to disregard my earlier comment about understanding why a manufacturer would rationalise their offering!

What you say about the marketing material makes sense too, and may also explain why the measurements of neither of my bars match any of those in the 66 or 74 Cyclo-Pedia (especially given the 2 catalogues are so similar 8 years apart - only the drop on the Bobet gets longer - there's a joke there somewhere, so if they were both accurate you'd expect the years in between to all be similar too). Particularly confusing that the reach of my bars is so much shorter than those shown in the catalogues. I would guess my Grand Prix bars are a Gimondi bend, they are a bit more track like in the way the tops turn quite quickly and the ramps are a bit steeper and the Gimondi measurements aren't listed at least.

All the pics are interesting but the 'all original 1972 Motobecane' is exactly what I was looking for. A good data point to confirm that's what the logos looked like in the early 70s.

[MENTION=124730]SJX426[/MENTION] Same to you you, thanks for the pic. Another good data point. What a nerd

Is it bad form to put comments on velo-base if you think something has been mis-classified? I find it a bit difficult without out-and-out proof. Should I just ask myself if it really matters? Maybe just something like "I've seen these on an all original 1972 Motobecane so must be earlier"