Gazelle? Does anyone know anything about them?

Who wants my early 80's Champion Mondial A-Frame, Shimano 600 and 105, almost perfect original paint, 53cm. £270 picked up...

^^Ha! Don't bother.. ;) Things have all worked out in the end.. Watch this space!

Sexy time!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Beautiful-Vintage-Gazelle-Champion-Mondial-/230702078685?pt=Road_Bikes&hash=item35b6ea5add#ht_13093wt_1026

Nice, but insane BIN price.
I would suggest him to keep it that way for another 50 years. At that time it will have some real value.

any idea about the year it was made? thank you.

2 Attachments

Ik kan een Champion Mondial frameset verwerven in 56 cm c/c. Voor zover ik kan lezen is het framenummer 3234371 (de '2' kan ook iets anders zijn) welke samen met 'GAZELLE' is ingeslagen op een bracketpot, waarop ook 'cota' en 'Italy' staat. Op de balhoofdlug staan aan de voorzijde de merkjes 'B' en 'M'. De staande achtervorkscheden zijn gekruld bevestigd over de bovenbuis en raken elkaar bij de punten. Het frame is uitgevoerd in een soort groenig parelmoer en heeft 'kliko'-groene panelen. Randen van sommige lugs zijn roestig en er lopen her en der wat 'roestwormpjes' onder de verf. De voorvork is volledig verchroomd en van Reynolds 531-buis. Op het frame zijn alleen nog restanten van deze sticker te zien.Dropouts zijn Campagnolo. Heeft iemand enig idee wat de leeftijd van dit frame is (en wat is een reële waarde)? Volgende week mss foto's.

Summary in English: I can acquire a CM-frameset with 3234371, 'GAZELLE', 'cota' and 'Italy' stamped(?) on the bracket. On the frontside of the headset lugs are engraved/stamped 'B' en 'M'. The topends of the rear forkstays are bent over the toptube. Same edges of the lugs have rust on them, there's some rust under the paint also. Dropouts are Campagnolo. Does anyone have a clue about the age of it and of the approximate value?

Is the bottom bracket cast or stamped? What does the fork crown look like? Does it have mudguard eyelets? Answers to these questions will tell you if it's an AA-Super, AA-Special, AA-Frame A-Frame, AB-Frame or B-Frame. That (along with the condition) will give you a price.

From the sounds of the kliko panels and a bit of rust, it's late 70's early 80's. Fully chromed fork is good news. Is the seat stay bridge a plate with cut-outs (looks a bit like a butterfly) or a bar? Up until about 79' they were the butterfly design, I'm sure DC will correct me on this. Is the brake cable routed internally or on top of the top tube? This will also tell you about the age. Actually, DC will probably be able to tell you the day it was made from the serial alone.

I guess I'm a lazy bastard 'cause I found a lot on fivenineclimber's website: http://fivenineclimber.com/bikes/gazelle/frisol.htm. I'm not sure about the the bracket. I geuss it has been cast because it has some (4?) parallel slots in it. Unfortunately I wasn't able to make any pic's. The fork crown was kind of angled and not at all looking like the one in 59climber's site. It is fully chromed.

Four slots are good, it means it's a Roto (not 'cota') BB shell, which is AA / Special / Super territory. Minus the rust it sounds like a nice bit of kit. £140+ on here.

Thanks, that makes things more clear.

Roto BB and R531, so it can only be an AA frame.
I don't think there are AA-Specials with ROTO bracket shells, but I can be wrong.
1970s I assume.
Value in such a bad condition? Naahhh!
Say, between 25 and 150 Euro.

And serial numbers: could give a good indication, but none of the databases I have seen (2) are very reliable.
The only reliable one is the handwritten book in the frame building department in Dieren. But even that one wasn't 100%.

Give us some pics or browse through the old catalogues that JvS collected.
Oh, you're lazy, aren't you?

Yeah, maybe the price was a bit steep.

Nice link Dutch Cheese, I'm browsing them too find what sort of gazelle I have. Also, the owner of my local (small) bikeshop, which I always ask for help, told me he had a NOS gazelle formula triathlon frame, which I can get for free :) Hope it is my size!

Yup, I was lazy, but then after I posted...! ;D

I read the 1976 and 1980 catalogue and guess it is 78-ish because it has external cable routing and cable routing above the BB shell and is in Frisol-teamcolours. Thanks for the input!

@ VanUden, i like your brake lever set-up. i would like to relocate my brake lever to that position. i searched lfgss and google but could not find a name for that set up. please point me in the right direction. thanks

scratch that, had a break through in my search : ) reverse or inverse brake lever

Erikfox has a beautiful ex-team TT Gazelle for sale, just saw it on Marktplaats:

I've been lusting after that too. Very nice.

Roto BB and R531, so it can only be an AA frame.
I don't think there are AA-Specials with ROTO bracket shells, but I can be wrong.

Yes, the AA-Special came with Roto too Dc. I have one here in greyish/silver with blue panel and HT. If I recall correctly my old Stayer has a Roto shell too. Probably also for early pistas?

wow an exception for the 21st century ?

now remind me again what stainless steel is ?

^^ That's a special Champion Mondial edition for the 120th anniversary of Gazelle.. Its 953 if my memroy serves me right, but on the seattube it says in awful font stainless steel 931.. So probably Reynolds 931..

the exception was stainless steel ? and I thought that was 531 or something, with a shiny plated surface ?

This is a new frame for next year. Limited quantity.
It's Reynolds stainless steel.

Earlier Gazelle Stainless steel frames had Poppe und Potthoff (German) tubing.

A Zieleman: of course, there were more Gazelle frames with Roto brackets.
But the one in question in clearly not a Stayer or Track frame.
I was just referring to the road frames.
Roto has been used on all older high end frames. Like Gazelle did later with Cinelli cast brackets.
Cheaper frames had plate steel bracket shells (A, AB).

Dicki, I have a '94 Exception.. It's Reynolds 731OS with Noblex stainless steel forks and rear stays..
That's an old marktplaatspicture of off when I got it in March this year.. Changed the 8-speed DA to 8 speed Chorus.. Now in the proces of finding something suitable Campagnolo 10-speed to pick up cheaper during winter..