What have I rescued? Motobecane Team Champion

Hello all.

Literally pulled this poor thing out of a skip barely an hour ago and have been furiously trawling the internet for information to little avail.



From what I have read on the internet it may or may not be a very nice bike! I'm not familiar with the campagnolo components on it, they look much chunkier than the 8sp stuff I'm used to, I'd love to know what I have though.

What i do know;
Columbus tubing of some kind, the whole frame and forks are chromed under the paint.
Simplex Dropouts
Cinelli BB shell
Mavic Ma40 rims on smooooth campy hubs, the hubs have little clips that cover an oil hole.
Cinema Bars and Stem, the stem itself has a unique tightening method I event seen before.
Its quite a bit lighter than any of my other steel bikes, although its is missing a few pieces.

Any ideas fine people? what I'd like to know is what year it is from, what grade of columbus tubing, and what I need to do for a sympathetic restoration. I finally have a bike worthy of l'eroica!

For more images including high res close up's - http://imgur.com/a/M3kBZ

the cranks look like some late-80s chorus ones I had a while ago.

How many gears on the rear?

Fast reply!

Its a five speed hub. confusing right!

just a bit, I suspect it may be a lashup of spares from someone's garage. All quality items though.

bar tape is a very late 80s/early 90s kind of style, and MA40s were an 80s product that lasted on into the 90s I think

some info on dating MA40s here.... http://velobase.com/ViewComponent.aspx? ... 19940dff5f

The frame looks to date from the early eighties, with a number of parts upgrades circa '88-'90.

There's a good set of Motobecane catalogues here:

http://bulgier.net/pics/bike/catalogs/Motobecane/

Columbus SL tubing seems about right.

The stem's a Cinelli 1R:

http://www.classicrendezvous.com/Italy/ ... lli_1R.htm

I wish I found such tasty rides in skips!

it looks kinda like an 82 Team Champion actually....

'82-'83 looks right. I think the cranks are early Athena (no self-extractors), and the hubs look like Croce d'Aune, both late eighties. Plenty of catalogues here to plough through:

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/gallery2/v/M ... atalogues/

It should have a six- or seven-speed freewheel. No indexing to worry about, so any decent period derailleur will work.

Re:

Ah man you guys are awesome. I am so excited about this bike now. I am pretty much obliged to get it running and ride it to france right? Theres the added bonus that I'm half french and have classic bike from my maternal homeland!

Bonus question, how likely is it that I'll be able to replace the cassette to a 7sp? it has sprint gears on it at the moment and I'm by no means a time trialist...

Re: Re:

matteroftaste":2b5h9axr said:

I am pretty much obliged to get it running and ride it to france right?

Click to expand...

I'd say you have a moral duty.

how likely is it that I'll be able to replace the cassette to a 7sp?

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These hubs were made for six- and seven-speed freewheels, so there shouldn't be a problem. It's possible a previous owner respaced the axle for use with the five-speed freewheel that's currently fitted. If that's the case, you can just shift the spacers back. The freewheel threads are standard BSC, as marked on the hub body.

Just in case you're not clear about the difference between a cassette and a freewheel, Sheldon Brown has a helpful article here:

http://sheldonbrown.com/free-k7.html