Recent content by mikestr

In any event, this is another genuine team bike from 1985. This model doe not appear in Motobecane catalogues. It seems the last team model sold to the public the was a blue La Redoute replica with a groove under the top tube to conceal the rear brake cable, and the A9 roller bearing headset...

Link?

Please contact my solicitors, Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe.

I meant dark blue, "Night Blue," the color of the main years of the La Redoute team. I personally don't follow the herd, but the reason I didn't buy that bike is the size--slightly too small. And the fact that I have enough French racers for now.

I believe the seller decided to keep it after trying for some time to find a buyer at a price that wasn't insulting. Values of vintage bikes are arbitrary. If this bike were blue it would sell fast, especially in England. It's like a Mercier that isn't pink.

Please feel free to download and print for personal use.

BTW, I scanned the brochure at high resolution--enjoy.

You're welcome. The brochure is undated, but I've concluded that it must be from late 1984 because it mentions race results from that year and because the 1985 brochure shows a different product line and color scheme (the same one found on our OP's Special Pro). So this is the end of the...

MBK-Motobecane French Brochure, undated, probably 1984.

mikestr submitted a new resource: 1984 MBK-Motobecane Racing-Training Brochure Read more about this resource...

Our messages crossed: We were thinking similar thoughts. I haven't seen any other SPs as late as yours, so who knows what was going on. It could be that they had the same parts in stock and just continued to build them this way until they ran out--1985 was the last season for that team. But if...

One reason I thought that these last SPs might have been resprays is the somewhat retro bottom bracket arrangement for that late date. Not just the shell, either. If you look at the French kit Gitane was using on the pro bikes two years earlier, it's the new stuff: cartridge BB and a plain...

OK, so this is really interesting! Of course, there are different possibilities: The June date could be a coincidence, and the bike might have been made for a customer. But I still haven't seen any evidence that in 1985 the SP was being offered by MBK, so I find your hypothesis completely...

Almost!. Mine is threaded all the way across the body, like the upper unit in the picture below, but with a titanium axle. It's a 701T. Rather rare, I suspect.

The setup is different on my Motobecane, as on many later French bikes, as it has no fixed cup at all. The BB unit is a one-piece cartridge that threads into the BB shell through to the other side, with a righthand-threaded lock ring on either side.