I note the Kessels Molteni has a stem engraved "Joe Willms". Was he a Molt eni teammate of Merckx?
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Big Spring, Texas, USA
> From: Raymond Dobbins <raydobbins2003@yahoo.com>
> Subject: [CR]A very Molteni new year, so far
> To: "Classic Rendezvous Bike List" <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Date: Saturday, January 3, 2009, 12:54 AM
>
> 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/
> 1600-h/CIMG2893.jpg
>
> (or go to Scott's
> blog http://sexyracebicycles.blogspot.com/
> own)
>
> You can also see it in the auction listing, which is still
> up:
>
> http://ebay.com/
>
> 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/
> stay_Cap.jpg
>
> And in this one you see the same fork crown with the two
> holes on the side:
>
> http://raydobbins.com/
> _Crown.jpg
>
> 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