? for Gazelle gurus
 

Looked at a Gazelle Champion Mondial this morning. Cool design with top tube hidden cable routing and a cut-out seat tube for tire clearance. Looks to be 531 doublebutted, forks has 531 stickers but seat tube sticker not present.
Downtube shifter boss on top of downtube, double cable guide braze-ons near bottom of down tube.

Bike currently has Dura Ace 8speed stuff. The frame is rough in my opinion with a slight dent in top tube. Definitely could be repaired but it's still there. Overall I'd rate the current visual condition including paint etc as a 4 or 5.
It's a 58cm I'm pretty sure. The guy thought it was a 56/57 but it was larger than that for sure.

Anyway, I'm not familiar with Gazelles other than seeing them now and again. It's a cool frame, especially with the different braze-ons and indented seat tube. It also has wishbone rear seat stays.

Any guess as to value or a decent offer would be? Without the dent I would of jumped on it but that and my lack of knowledge of the marque held me off.

Any help is appreciated.

KRhea

I spend a large amount of time browsing dutch auction sites and I've not seen
a Gazelle with wishbone seatstay. Do you have any pictures?
If it really is a Gazelle I'd be all over that if I were you (good thing it's not my size).
they (gazelle) are wonderful riding bikes, there are more than a few gazelle owners here
at BF.
Perhaps sr70guy will see this thread, he probably knows more about gazelle than anyone
else here.

Marty

I've seen a couple Gazelles with the internal cable routing, but can't recall one with wishbone stays. Sounds like it could have been one of their special models of Champion Mondial, so likely a fairly rare version. Top of downtube shifting makes me think mid-80's build date, when the "aero" craze was moving shifters there on many makes and models of frame.

My '86 Champ has the internal brake cable routing but standard shifter bosses and straight stays. Interesting!

If it's the one in Vancouver, I'd say grab it!

That is indeed a Gazelle Champion Mondial AA-Super.
And it's indeed very rare, even in it's home country.

Those things are said to be a great ride.
I've only had Gazelle Champion Mondials as A-frame, AA-frame, AA special [which is the one caloso has] and kruisframe, so I haven't ridden the Super myself, but all in all the Gazelle Reynolds frames make very good bikes. (I even have seen just one of those rarities with my own eyes, they are really special!)

And - it's a dutch bike.
I have quite some french bikes and it's clear that the Gazelles have a lot better workmanship than those, even if the dutch hold a similar utilitarian view on racing bikes.
I do have italian bikes as well and must say that I find those a bit boring, if you have two or three you have them all - they don't differ too much in geometry, in the mechanical department and they eventually don't have a sufficing individual feel.
That is very different with dutch bikes. The dutch "fietsenmaker" build their bikes for a purpose. Each brand feels really different 'cause they have different mentalities and different concepts of the "perfect" race bike [if there'd be such a beast]. They have noticably different models to match different needs of the customers and they don't care too much about mixing groups or even mixing part brands.
My A-frame is a very nice allrounder with no specific strong points, the RIH, the Vittorio or the Batavus all have their special strengths and the AA-frame I rode [and still have for sale BTW] was very quick and very stable, just a tad too aggressive for my taste.

So the AA-Super lies exactly in that tradition, in this case a very consequently built fast bike with an uncommonly short wheelbase, intended for time trials or criteriums (in that way it heads a bit in the italian direction).
You can have a look at Supers on the net here, here or here (naturally).

But - if you are looking for outstanding workmanship or artistry like early Masis or Cinellis you're into a different kind of bikes.
Dutch bikes are great for riding, can be very nice to look at but aren't made to stare at their lugs with a magnifying glass.
I am a fan, nonetheless.

Everything just IMO, that is.
I hope I could make your mouth water a bit :).

Hey, the Vancouver Craigslist Super is gone!
Now come on, who got it?

Cool Steel, sounds like you've got quite a collection of Dutch bikes around, got any pics? (channeling East Hill here) :) Now that you liked to the WoolJersey images of the AA-Super I do recall seeing those pics before. Thanks for jogging my memory.

(eagerly awaiting the arrival of my second Gazelle frame here, should be here some time in the next 3-4 days!) Hoping for sooner than later!

Cool Steel,

Another like minded C&V er
My stable includes: 1 RIH, 1 Remy, 1 de Reus and 1 Zieleman.
on my prospective list: Batavus Professional, Gazelle A or AA frame (I'd take a speedstream!)
and possibly a Concorde.
On my Wish list Joco and Jabo, of which I've seen exactly none in person.

Marty

And as the Batavus ad says "If it ain't Dutch, it ain't worth much"

It's like this one. Couple of other pics also. As someone already said, very nice and very rare. Oddly enough, this one had a dent in the top tube also.

I forgot about that one. . .

Well, if Cyclotoine's Gazelle is anything to go by, I must heartily disagree with the first statement. It looks great from about 2 metres away, but up closer it has some of the sloppiest work that I've ever seen on a bicycle - makes a '70s French steed seem like a Marinoni in comparison. Misaligned and crudely finished lugs, seat stay tops, brazing all over the place. He seems to love the way it rides though - says it's the most nimble bike he has - so that's the main thing. Maybe his was done during the last shift on a Friday? I guess this would vindicate your second statement...:)

Wow. That AA-Super looks tighter than a pista bike. It must have been intended for criterium racing, right?

http://i.walmart.com/i/p/00/79/39/93...70_500X500.jpg

Sorry - couldn't help myself.

... Brad

very funny Brad!!!! I might have to go make some more coffee just so I can come back here, take a sip, open this thread and spit coffee on my monitor.

It was intended to have more agility in criterium racing but, to be honest, they were pretty rare in racing at the time ... Maybe I saw one or two in real life, but thats about it.

AFAIK the AA-Super frames were introduced in 1984, at least thats the brochure they appear in for the first time.
I know a guy who has a NOS AA-Super frame (at least I think he still has it, and no, its not me), so if anyone is interested ...

Yes, most of my bikes that are readily built at the moment are shown on velospace.
Please take a look at my membership page HERE. If you click on the small pics you can see the whole presentation for each bike including some comments.
(Please excuse the quality of some of the older pics.)


The crowd is getting bigger every day :thumb:.


Please have a look at my "Fast BAT" on velospace. It rides absolutely great and is surprisingly light.
I can deeply recommend the Batavus Professional, they come in 531, 531SL, 531C and even in SL or SLX. Wonderful bikes.
(I'd take a speedstream too, but I'm not at all confident that you or I will ever get one, sadly ...)


That's not the norm, it must be an aberration. Most of the frames I've seen were quite well made, just not overdone.
The dutch are very pragmatic people, I appreciate that a lot. And you can see that on their bikes/frames: no frills (just skills)!


Now that is true.

:eek: Very funny!
"Is that you, Brad?" :p

sr70guy found a speedstream, I'm very impressed and I don't really like
'aero' bikes.

Nice stable you've got there.
My Dutch fietsen are here
Marty's racefietsen

Oh yeah, I came across your blue A-frame while doing some searching for pics of Gazelles recently. s70rguy has a blue and silver A-frame on its way to me:

http://www.wooljersey.com/gallery/d/...2/KIF_5429.JPG

I particularly like the Remy!
(So you already have a Batavus, and fully chromed at that ...)


That's a nice earlier frame, you may have noticed that I like that blue too.
I think I've seen a quite similar color scheme before:

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2008-..._Rene_1983.jpg

That's Rene Pijnen 1983, their sole Pro rider in the early eighties.

^ ^ I want that jersey. been watching ebay for Gazelle jerseys for months.

Yes, Gazelle jerseys are a bit scarce.
I'm pretty certain you know my later Gazelle shirt, the Roland Pothuizen one - those are even rarer, I'm not aware that there were replicas of 'em in existance.

Just to return to the OP's topic:
now show us your 'new' AA-Super!
KRhea!?

If KRhea snagged it I'm seriously going to have to consider a vacation to Portland since I didn't get to visit his shop when I was there a few months ago. Speaking of new Gazelles, mine should be on a delivery truck around here not far away right now. :D

Hey guys, I looked at the bike and decided to pass. The price was right but for me, the condition was way to rough, even if it is a rare ride. When I saw the bike the guy had a sticker over what looked to be a good size dent. I asked him to heat the sticker and remove it so I could see the actual dent and once that occured I passed.
It was a very cool frame with some neat touches, especially the indented seat tube and braze-ons but overall I'd have to rate it a 4 condition wise.

I have enough projects right now anyway and if my build schedule stays as it is I would not have touched that bike for at least a year or more.
The guy was asking $225 and the bike was built with 8-speed Dura Ace.

KRhea

So I was searching the internet for information about my new bike and coincidently found this thread, about the exact bike I bought. It is a champion mondial aa super, which I think is the top of the line for gazelles. The bike is set up now with a dura ace 7 speed drive train and campy hubs laced to mavic clinchers but also came with a set of suntour cyclone hubs laced to sun tubulars. The guy also gave me a couple jerseys and a computer for $200. The bike is in pretty rough shape with a dent in the top tube and repair done to the seat tube clamp area, but it is straight as far as I can tell and rides great. I was wondering if anybody had anymore information about the bike, like approximate year it was built and what kind of components it might have had originally.

Nice bike, I have never seen an aa super frame.
Look likes it is from the mid 80´s, but it is difficult to see details from these pictures.
What is the serial number? It should be under the bottom bracket.