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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.

I've always had right-left confusion--now "fixed" is fixed. The Swiss direction is like BSC, but threads are 35x1mm. Peugeot's way allowed them to make the same frames for the different markets, with only a minute's work needed on the steering tube and different stems and hubs supplied. Mr...

Good question! I own exactly one Motobecane, which I imported from France, so I'm not the person to ask, though I think I know one who is. As for Peugeot, I can say that it was a mixture: export frames were metric throughout--tubing diameter and HS and BB threading--but starting in the early 80s...

It does, a little bit. There is a 1981 dealer document I've seen that says exactly which models can be customized. One thing to keep in mind is the difference in both models and options between France and (probably) other markets. In France, the "SP," sold in the US (and UK?) as the Team...

Gents, I guess I don't have that old Motobecane price list anymore. But I have just received the aforementioned and long-sought 1984 French brochure. It is quite interesting (to those who like such things), as it fills in some gaps in the model history at the very end. I can scan and post it if...

I've seen many attempts to correlate the European and US models but many of then just don't line up. I've mentioned Ben Lawee before, the US importer and sort of a legendary figure over here. He in effect created some of the export models. "Le Champion" came equipped for a number of years with a...