On new year's day I watched La Course en Tete on DVD (thanks to Chris Pro topapas). It think it had been about 20 years since I first (and last) s aw it, so it was like watching it for the first time. I think I enjoyed it even more this time around, and I definitely picked up on a lot of details that I missed before, such as the Colner style pantogra phed seat post (with a spade instead of a club), on one of the Molteni team bikes, and the various milled, drilled and panto'd parts on Eddy's many bikes. For a Merckx/Molteni fan (nut) like me, this movie was a rea l treat, and a great way to start the year.
On the second day of the year I visited speedbicycles.com and discovered a great presentation of three different Merckx Molteni bikes of the early to mid 70s: a Kessels, a Colnago and a De Rosa, all original. Stefan Sh aefter's many quality photos of all three machines provided another goo d dose of pure Molteni entertainment. Check out his beautiful photo, "The Moltenis," here (BTW, you can access the individual photo albums by clicking on the respective bikes in the photo - which is a very nice technical feature):
http://www.speedbicycles.ch/
Today I took a look at some photos I received from Ken Denny, which I t hink are worth sharing with the list. He sent me these photos in respons e to a post I made a few days ago about the purported early Molteni Colnago bike that was on eBay a couple of weeks ago, and then more recently at Alberto Masi's Christmas party. It was discussed on the list and the majority opinion was that it was not a Colnago frame, based in large pa rt on an unusual seatstay cap treatment, which you can see here on one Scott Davis' photos:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/
(or go to Scott's blog http://sexyracebicycles.blogspot.com/
You can also see it in the auction listing, which is still up:
Ken wrote to say that he thought the bike was a Bottecchia, based on this p hoto from 1965, which shows Ernesto Colnago working on what appears to be G ianni Motta's Molteni bike:
http://raydobbins.com/
In this close-up of the same photo you can see the exact same seatstay cap treatment:
http://raydobbins.com/
And in this one you see the same fork crown with the two holes on the side:
http://raydobbins.com/
I think at this point it is safe to assume that the Molteni bike from eBay and the Masi party, is not a Colnago, and in all likelihood it is a Bottecc hia. (It's good to know these things ;) My thanks to Ken for his help .)
So, a very Molteni year so far for me - not a bad way to start the year!
Happy 2009 to all.
Ray Dobbins
Miami, Florida, USA