Originally Posted by
Livefish
Bargo68, the unusual stamped number is unlikely to be of much help. I'm afraid my knowledge of the Criterium model is pretty thin and surviving published materials from Motobècane for it are also scarce. This bike could possibly be from 1972-73 as you're thinking but I'm guessing perhaps a few years earlier. It clearly was equipped originally with a Huret Allvit groupset (very popular in the 60s) with the Campagnolo Nuovo Record rear mech added later. The components in your photos were all being used in the late '60s. A 1966 brochure shows the Criterium in Reynolds 531 (likely 3 main tubes), half chromed fork, Weinmann 999s with light hoods, tubular rims, etc. and with a Brooks B15 saddle. In the 1966 brochure it lists a TA crankset and Pivo stem so your bike might also be a year or two different.
Great bike. In what country did you find it?
Thanks for the help! Agreed, the information online is also very scarce. This is the one page that has really helped so far:
It is from a 1973 catalog and there are a few discrepancies between it and my bike: different crankset and brakes being the most notable. But it's the closest I've found to a match.
Oh well, let's just chalk it up to the wonderful mysteries of French bicycle production.
And I found the bike on Craigslist from a posting in Walnut Creek, a suburb in the bay area of California. Walnut Creek is the home of Rivendell bicycles, if you're familiar, and the gentleman who sold it to me had a pair of Rivendells and quite a few other nice items of local interest. He had a couple frames custom built in Japan and sold in a Berkeley store called Jitensha that were beautiful!