Hi everyone, a newbie to the forum here.

I've just bought this classic Francesco Moser and need a bit of help identifying the model and year.

From a few clues that I've gleaned from comparing it to Googled pictures, I'm assuming it's mid-80s but I can't find anything exactly like it online, and I'm not expert enough to know where to find out what specific year (or group of years) it might have been manufactured.

I couldn't find any serial numbers except the number 54 and the letters MB next to the bottom bracket shell cutout / drain hole. I don't know if it's that there is no serial number, or that I'm looking in the wrong place.

Secondly, the paintwork suffers from a bit of wear and tear, and there are no badges or decals, but I'd like to eventually renovate it correctly and purchase the model-specific decorations (if there were indeed any in the first place) and make sure all the components are era-appropriate. If anyone can advise me what decals or badges are appropriate and where I can purchase them, I'd be grateful.

I've included images of the areas of the bike I think are relevant, but if you need me to "zoom in" on a specific area, I can take some more pictures.

Thanks in advance for your help.

What brand are the brakes and headset? There aren't a whole lot of Moser fans here, not that there is anything wrong with them, I think in general they were never big here in the states.

There seems to be an issue with your BB, that cup should not be sticking out like that.

There is precious little detailed info on Moser bikes as I tried to research mine. The panto on mine is different commemorating Moser's hour record 51.151 km. The 54 is likely the frame size. There are usually a few Moser's on eBay at any given time, so you can check those out for possible decal schemes.

https://bulgier.net/pics/bike/Catalogs/moser/

This is a link to a Moser catalog from the 80's but was loading very slowly when I just tried it. Here are a couple of pics of mine fwiw, I'm guessing from about '85

Thanks to you both. I didn't realise about the unpopularity of Mosers on the other side of the pond. I'm in Europe so perhaps the situation is different here.

Thanks for the warning about the BB cup.

Anyway, the brakes are "Exage Motion" and the headset is "Tange Falcon".




That Moser catalogue link at bulgier.net isn't working at the moment, but I'll check if it's up and running again later.

Cheers

Cool bike

Never seen rear gear cable routing through the chainstay. crazy.

That rear derailer cable looks too sharp/ short.

The paint looks ok, you could just clean, polish it a bit, service it, then put some red bartape, bottle cages, nicer tyres, and pedals on then ride and enjoy.

You probably know this but keep abrasive stuff away from your lovely fork. I learnt that the hard way trying to clean up my mosers fork years ago with a scotch brite.. stupid. Replating is pretty damn expensive.

It would look better with a silver/ the correct derailer. But if that one works... most people aren't purists.

I'm pretty much a beginner with vintage bikes to be honest so the warning about the fork was much appreciated. I'm trying to find as much information about it and get a little bit of training before tackling any kind of restoration.

As for the dérailleur, I'm not really a purist as such, but I'd still like it to look right. You're right in that it neither fits the bike, nor matches with the front silver Campagnolo one. Once I save up I'll probably change it, and of course I need to sort out that sharp cable. So many things I haven't noticed about it with my newbie eyes.

I did notice the gear cable running through the chainstay though, it's immediately a very impressive design.

I've still not managed to identify the model, although I've been dong a bit of research:

According to the Steel-Vintage website (Steel Vintage Bikes - F.Moser Classic Bicycle Early 1980s), F.Moser started manufacturing bicycles in 1983 which gives me the earliest manufacture date. However, I've seen people claim that their Moser is late 70s which has confused me a bit (foxgalleria.com/bici/moser2/index.html).

From the F.Mosers that I've seen online, these early ones seem to have all the features of mine. I'm guessing that it was the only model at the time because they are always simply called "F.Moser" or "F.Moser Classic" without a model name. The top of the seatstay is cut away with the word "Moser" engraved on, the bottom bracket "drain hole" is shaped like a stylised "FM" and the fork crown has "F.Moser" engraved and look like this:





In 1985, Francesco Moser broke the 1-hour time trial record with 51.151km and it seems that from then on, commemorative bikes started to be produced called "F.Moser 51.151" or "F.Moser 51.151 Classic". The top of the seatstay is cut away like in the previous model, but the bottom bracket "drain hole" and the engraving on the fork crown now became a downward pointing, C-shaped arrow which thickens as you reach the head, looking like this:





Obviously, mine looks closer to the pre-1985 time-trial bikes so I'm assuming that at that time, F.Moser bikes had no specific model name being just called "F.Moser", with the word "Classic" now being added.

I'm also assuming that at that time, they had no frame number.

I could be wrong but I don't Moser ever built bikes, but rather contracted companies to build bikes for him. Perhaps earlier '70s models were simply endorsement deals.

Lots of companies use through the stay cable routing, Trek did it a lot of the early '80s bike and I think some of their Aluminum ones too. I have a Bianchi that has it.

I suspect this is something someone rebuilt from a frame. Looks like a nice frame though.

You are wrong. Moser built very nice bikes, and still builds today.