[CR]A very Molteni new year, so far

(Example: Framebuilding:Tubing)

Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 22:54:45 -0800
From: Raymond Dobbins <raydobbins2003@yahoo.com>
To: Classic Rendezvous Bike List <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: [CR]A very Molteni new year, so far

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/index.html

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/_rx2G9TZZZ-0/SU8u9QIJsCI/AAAAAAAAANA/BwWEowO8J8Q/s 1600-h/CIMG2893.jpg

(or go to Scott's blog http://sexyracebicycles.blogspot.com/ and scroll d own)

You can also see it in the auction listing, which is still up:

http://ebay.com/<blah>

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/misc/Bottecchia-Molteni/Ernesto_Motta_Bottecchia.jpg

In this close-up of the same photo you can see the exact same seatstay cap treatment:

http://raydobbins.com/misc/Bottecchia-Molteni/Ernesto_Motta_Bottecchia-Seat stay_Cap.jpg

And in this one you see the same fork crown with the two holes on the side:

http://raydobbins.com/misc/Bottecchia-Molteni/Ernesto_Motta_Bottecchia-Fork _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