[CR]Re: Moto Team Champion colors (Ed Granger)

(Example: Events:Cirque du Cyclisme)

From: <EdVintage63@aol.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2006 16:41:12 EST
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]Re: Moto Team Champion colors (Ed Granger)

Orange for the 70's for sure. In the 80's there were a lot of Team Champions in blue, either like mine or a darker, almost midnight blue. Not sure if any sponsored top European teams rode the blue ones though. La Redoute (at one point with Stephen Roche) rode blue Team Champions made (like those available for sale at the time) with Columbus SL, the story being that Motobecane had gotten on the wrong side of Reynolds by building 753 Team Champions before being formally blessed. May be apocryphal, but I believe the 753 frames do occasionally surface. Motobecane claimed for years that their silver-brazed test frame was simply lost in the mail. (Just kidding; please don't flame me off list). Those later Team Champions are beautiful bikes, by all accounts, and reportedly a step up in workmanship from what most of the larger scale builders were producing even at the top end. I'm judging mostly by archive postings and pics of ebay bikes (one of which I missed landing by a buck not too long ago), but I did see one late model blue NOS Team Champion for sale at the Trexlertown swap over year ago that apparently didn't sell at $900. It was built with all French componentry when Motobecane went on it's "tout Francais" kick.

Ed Granger Lancaster, PA, USA Love my beat but oh-so-cool teal '72 Le Champion with those white lugs that look so crisp after Memorial Day.