In regard to bicycle distribution in the 60s and early 70s, Ben Lawee in Long Beach, Ca was the US distributor for Motobecane, as well as Raleigh, and Bianchi. Lawee assigned East Coast distribution for Motobecane to Ben Olkin, who had both wholesale and retail operations in the Boston area. If Astra was an entry level offering from Motobecane, then they came from one of these two locations. Service Cycle was a Schwinn Distributor through this period until Schwinn took over it's own distribution on the East Coast in the late 60s, operating out of a distribution center in Cherry Hill, NJ. Although Service Cycle was an independent distributor and therefore free to purchase for resale anything they wanted, they stayed with Schwinn bicycles, but did offer many other products on the parts and accessory side of the business. In fact they developed the Cycle Products brand for the mass merchants. Later probably some time in the late 80s, Service Cycle bought out Mongoose, then Mongoose was purchased by Brunswick, who in turn sold it to Pacific Cycle. Franklin Imports was the East Coast distributor for Peugeot, and United Import was the West Coast distributor. Regards, Dave Staub Sunny, warm Orange, Ca. Going for a bike ride now