Sam Benoto Cazenave
 

What a cool bike forum. I have decided to resurrect my old high school bike. It is a yellow Sam Benoto Cazenave (1972?) that needs a front fork and a front derailler. Does anyone know where to find original parts or a frame for this bike? I have scoured the web and except for one expensive one on ebay I can't find any information on this. I'd like to know what happened to the company, how many bikes did they make. Is this a quality bike or a cheapie? Can I get parts for it?

A quick search says that (despite the Spanish-sounding name) it's likely a bike-boom French job, and quality may be sort of low:
http://search.bikelist.org/?SearchString=%20Cazenave

But...photos would help!

East Hill

I think that I know the a bit of the history of this one. Not sure if the bike was French or Italian. There was a chain of independent bike shop in CT under the name of 'Euro-Bike' in the early 70's. A bike dealer in the Hartford area set these up in CT. They imported these bikes and sold them as a house brand bike thru their stores, which I think all closed by about 1980 or so. This was a bike boom era bike that came and went really quickly. If I remember correctly, one of their features was CLB alloy center pull brakes with racing brake levers and safety levers that looked like they were carved out of solid aluminum.

Yep,french,bike boom,low quality,but still kinda cool.
Here is a pic of a mixte model I found on the curb.

It is definatley french, it says made in france oin the side. It has simplex gears which as I understand is typical of french bikes. Thanks for all the info. I would still like to find front forks for it as I crashed into our garage at full speed when I was a kid and bent them pretty bad. I also need a fron derailler, somewhere during years of storage it broke. Too bad it is a cheapie, I kind of like it, it does have sentimental value I guess.

If anyone has parts le me know and thanks for all the info.