This was in the rafters. I was confused with the Italian words. Thought maybe this was a Canadian model. Then I saw size 21 as in inches. The Suntour dropouts further confused me. I was flummoxed.

found out Carabela is Italian design made in Mexico.

what lugs!!



Was this the first GT? No.

Those lugs

Never seen a tubing sticker like that. At first I thought I was reading Italian

From NYC


Campy cable guides 21 “

Suntour drop outs

Say huh?? Is this a combo cable stop, cable guide, spoke catcher?

Another look at this silliness. No idea.

seriously. What is that thing?

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Carabela is a marque belonging to ACER-MEX

cycle appears to be same model as the Windsor Carrera Sport

if you check shell you will likely find it to be 68mm in width but Italian threaded

steerer will be 25.4mm in diameter, BSC threaded but made for .833 size stem
the bicycles came with a Gran Compe brand stem

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while lug pattern resembles NERVEX Professional it is an Agrati one which is sometimes identified as "Bozzi" amongst enthusiasts as it it shown in Bozzi catalogue of 1950




fork crown not shown in photos but wouild expect the Agrati "BRIANZA" pattern N. 000.8038




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Looks like an Acer-Mex bike. I had a Windsor, also made by Acer-Mex with SunTour dropouts. Nice bike. I always thought that we might see more of these bikes from Mexico, but it didn't happen.

The cable stop is also intended to minimize damage to the chainstay from the chain. As shown, it didn't work too well.

I worked in a shop that sold Windsors. We used to call that bottom bracket with English threading and Italian width, a Mexican bottom bracket. It is not too bad if you know what you are dealing with. But if you didn't know....

I just sold one to The Pink Haired Warrior, that one is the Professional or the Cinelli clone. I've got a picture of it in my archive.

I will look for the fork

sounds like this may be worth a lil restoring.

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in the U.S. market the Carabela marque seems to have functioned as a "B" or second marque for ACER-MEX distributors

after the salesmen from an importer/distributor covered the territory and signed up the Windsor retailers they were going to get they could make a second pass through the same territory offering non-Windsor shops the Carabela line

a means of packing more product into a given area

Ventura served a similar function for the Centurion badge and Juvela for the Mondia name


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Interesting to see this Carabela "Carrera Sport" model has a Falck tubing decal (plus the Sun Tour DOs) since most Carreras (either Windsor or Carabela, when you find those) were said to be nothing better than gas pipe.
Falck would be a bargain tubeset but still a step up.

Is this a combo cable stop, cable guide, spoke catcher?
Exactly so but to hold spare spokes you need something at the other end into which your threaded ends w/nipples are fixed, at which point your spokes act as "chain slap protection"...win/win/win!

torn here

this is a co-op bike that I would be selling for the co-op.

I don’t know if there is a matching fork. There are buckets of random forks that could be used.

Is it worth powdercoating?
$80 for chem dip
$150 powdercoating
$35 for decals if available?

to sell for what?

may not be worth it but doubt the OEM fork (with .833 steerer) is any gem, if you have a good Tange fork that fit...especially all chrome, you're ahead of this game.
used to be a PC-er would blast the frame as part of the coating package deal. and if they used sand or other strong media that takes care of the chrome, meaning it's all gone!
I might just keep it cosmetically as-is since it's more interesting and you keep the historical trail intact...but up to you of course.

To advance any informed opinion it would be very helpful to see a Photograph of the entire Bicycle.
There's probably a Serial Number somewhere which may or may not be informative.
Suspect your example has clearance for substantial rubber.
Only original once...

Though overshadowed by Columbus, Falck fashioned fine tubing;@T-Mar wrote well of it. Falck was the largest manufacturer of non-bike specific tubing in Italy at the time.

"Carabela" is (masculine) Spanish for the Portuguese "Man of War" ships, and the Portuguese Man O' War siphonophore.

Currently making a rider of a ~1973 Carabela Profesional. The Acer-Mex products from the early 70s are interesting.

Thanks for posting this, and thanks in advance for posting a pic of the bike entire. Maybe post one over on the "Acer-Mex" Thread for Posterity?

This is an absolute HARD NO.

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here are two views of the FALK tubing transfer on another Carabela cycle -




(machine dated by owner as 1974)

here is the VB listing for the discussed chain stay stop -

https://velobase.com/ViewComponent.a...103&AbsPos=742


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I had left the building

in central OR

back Tom night.

Thursday I’ll get better pics.

might sell as is…$150? That is if I can find the fork

I had/have one in good nick.
Gave it away. I didn't prefer it, buddy liked it even less.
I know the garage where it hangs, so I have a ride next time I visit Nashville, Davidson County, TN
Maybe the combination of: Too little BB drop for a large frame on 27" wheels, affordable tires.

...I did this to a Carabela track frame once. It came out nice, once I built it up. I probably wouldn't do it again. You're unlikely to recoup the investment at a co-op. I don't recall the frame tubing on mine to have been an issue ?

Not to worry; they come like that, it gives better chain clearance.
Vitus did something similar.

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that is the way the dropout is made; there is an offset for the part of the dropout with the eyelet

try looking at other machines with this dropout; it is a rational design to provide additional clearance for rack or mudguard mounting fastener


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As for the BB you can just use a modern sealed cartridge BB with a spacer on either side to get get the chain line tread line about right for whatever crank set one builds it up with. So not really problem but as said something to know about.

this prompted me to actually test my assumption about the SunTour chainstay stop, and Mea Wrongio! I don't think ST ever intended the curved lip on the top edge to actually capture a spoke head cause that doesn't work very well, plus never saw any matching bolt-on bit end for the threaded spoke ends.

The (typically brazed-on) bits that DO grab-hold and permit tight storage of 2-4 spare spokes that work as chain-slap protection have distinct slots for the spoke heads, the ST stop is too slippery.

And speaking of poor performance by design: when correctly positioned it's really too far back on the stay to really help much since most chain slap occurs in the center of the chain-run where "bounce" is most pronounced! Nice try, Sun Tour.

On to next hobby horse: I've seen Falck (associated with the Mannesmann tubing international combine) spelled "FALK" but only on this style of tubing sticker. I'm sticking with "FALCK" since that's how it's spelled 90% of every time it appears in print. I think the artist who made this sticker art just couldn't spell (too 'creative' for such mundane stuff!)

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in this image posted by [MENTION=22396]Wildwood[/MENTION] the Agrati "BRIANZA" pattern fork crown, so widely employed by ACER-MEX at this era, can be seen


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I have one that I bought for $15 for the crank arm dust caps. But Aside from the rust and the god-awful saddle, it is all there and original. I tore it down a couple of weeks ago to harvest the rest of the parts, but I kinda decided I like it and I think it will be a winter project for me. Otherwise I would have offered the fork, headset, stem, etc. to you.

The next bike I buy will be for the hoods or pedal straps.

I needed the dust cap for another bike and eBay prices were nuts at $30 for metal ones. Unfortunately this bike only had one. But the Suntour bar ends were a little gravy over all of it.