The Frameset

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Diggs got in touch with me about a very beautiful frameset he bought from an enthusiast in Paris, pictured below. As you can see, it’s a lovely frameset, black with superb gold detailing around the lugs, gold decals, half chrome forks and stays, long pointed Bocama lugs and braze-on cable guides on the top tube. It has bosses on the down tube for shifters. The fork crowns are stamped “M” and the fork matches the serial number of the frame. The rear dropouts are stamped Campagnolo and the frame and forks are built with Columbus tubing, the gold decals of which are nicely matched to the frame. The seat tube decal was removed as it was peeling, but the World Champion rainbow stickers remain. It looks in great condition.

Motobecane Head Set. Suntour Power Shifter Downtube Shifters. Suntour Cyclone Front and Rear Derailleurs. 5 Speed Freewheel. Maillard 700 Hubs Laced to Weinmann concave 27 x 1 1/4 clincher rims. Weinmann 605 Brake Calipers and Levers. We offer two different shipping services for our bicycles; economy and standard. Motobecane is known for designing very light weight mountain bicycles. Motobecane was the first French maker to start using Japanese parts, in the late 1970s. This was a very good move on their part, because at that time Japanese derailleurs and crank sets were much better than the older French designs common on mid-priced 10-speeds. The frame s serial number is 3364354. The bike Motobecane 1984 Catalog NOS road motobecane bicycle serial number database. 2008 Motobecane Messenger (orange) Serial Number absent Bike Tire Style Narrow Motobecane Fantom CX stolen in Culver City peugeot serial number 2 Reviewed by Car Zone on Saturday 16.

The Model

As it has bosses on the down tube and top tube braze-on cable guides, I would guess that this frame was built at the end of the 1970’s or in the early 1980’s. I don’t know if it has French threading, but I imagine it does. The serial number 6000336 may mean something to someone somewhere, but it’s hard to date Motobecane frames by their serial numbers. Late 1970’s European Motobecane C5s had different paint schemes and decals to this particular frame, so I’m sure it’s not a C5. You can see the difference by checking out this 1980 C5 I bought a couple of years ago. Other high end European models were the Equipe Pro and the Professionel, but these look quite different from this frameset too.

The Other Possibilities

DIngs himself suggested to me that it could be the Tour De France model, as it seems quite similar to this one. It states on that page that until 1979, the Tour De France was built with Reynolds 531 tubing, after which Motobecane used Columbus steel. But I have also read that Motobecane would use whatever stocks they had at the time, and some high end bikes were built with Reynolds one year, Columbus the next. They weren’t sticklers for precision when it came to model replication. What I can’t find is a frame in any of the Motobecane catalogues that is a match for this black and gold example that Ding has found. Was it perhaps custom painted, or was it a specail edition? I can’t really say with any conviction what model this frameset is, so if you have any ideas, please get in touch.

Motobécane was a French manufacturer of bicycles, mopeds, motorcycles, and other small vehicles, established in 1923. 'Motobécane' is a compound of 'moto', short for motorcycle; 'bécane' is slang for 'bike.'

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Motobécane is a different corporation from Motobecane USA, which imports a wide range of bicycles from Taiwan manufactured by Kinesis Industry Co. Ltd. under the Motobécane trademark.

Luis Ocana won Tour de France on Motobecane branded bike in 1973.

In 1981, the original Motobécane filed for bankruptcy and was purchased by Yamaha and reformed in 1984 as MBK. The French company continues to make motorscooters. They also made fingerbar mowers^{[clarification needed]} at least up to 1981.

Motorcycles[edit]

For many years Motobecane was France's largest manufacturer of motorcycles. Charles Benoit and Abel Bardin joined in 1922 and designed their first motorcycle in 1923, a 175 cc (10.7 cu in) single cylinder two-stroke-engined bike. By the 1930s Motobecane was producing a best-selling range of motorcycles. In 1933, they produced their first four-stroke machine with 250 cc (15 cu in) capacity. During the 1930s, they manufactured a longitudinal shaft-drive inline-four engine motorcycle in 500 and 750 cc (31 and 46 cu in). During this period, the firm entered road racing competitions and won the Bol d'or endurance race.

After the Second World War they produced the single-cylinder D45 motorbike that filled a need for cheap transportation. The successor was the Z46, equipped with modern suspension. Like many European motorcycle manufacturers, the 1960s proved difficult for Motobécane as cars became affordable. As a result, sales decreased. The arrival of cheap, efficient Japanese motorcycles also hurt sales. They continued to produce two-cylinder 125cc motorcycles throughout the 1970s. They also manufactured a small number of two-stroke, three-cylinder 350cc and 500cc bikes.

For a time in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the company competed in Grand Prix motorcycle racing claiming several victories in the 125cc class and finishing second in the 1980 125cc road racing world championship.

Bicycles[edit]

Motobécane was a major manufacturer in the French bicycle industry. Motobecane is known for designing very light weight mountain bicycles. Motobecane was the first French maker to start using Japanese parts, in the late 1970s. This was a very good move on their part, because at that time Japanese derailleurs and crank sets were much better than the older French designs common on mid-priced 10-speeds. The change was largely due to the influence of their U.S. importer, Ben Lawee. The frames on Motobécane's mid-to-upper bikes were typically double-buttedlugged steel made from Vitus or Reynolds 531 molybdenum/manganese steel tubing with Nervex lugs. Unlike most French makers of the era, Motobecane used Swiss thread bottom brackets for most models. Motobécane finished their frames in beautiful and high-quality paint, a practice not often followed in the French industry. Considered the second most prestigious French bicycle (after Peugeot, whose more durable design they emulated, but ahead of Gitane), Motobécane's mid-range bikes were good value; the company kept prices reasonable by matching high-quality frames with lower-priced, but higher-quality components from Japan, at a time when competitors were putting higher-priced, lower quality French components on mid-range bikes. Motobécane bicycles included the Nomade, Mirage, Super Mirage, Super Touring, Grand Touring, Sprint, Super Sprint, Jubilee Sport, Grand Record, Le Champion, and Team Champion.

In addition to the standard diamond frame bicycles, Motobécane produced mixte frame versions; the mixte frame Grand Touring had twin lateral stays in place of a top tube, extending from the head tube to the seat tube, while the Super Touring and Grand Jubilé had a single top tube sloping down towards the seat tube, but diverging into twin lateral stays just before the seat tube. Later mixte Grand Touring models also used this design. Motobécane also produced a tandem bicycle.

In the early 80's Motobécane launched a new range of bikes under the 'Profil' name. These bikes were made from 2040 tubing and this had been 'Ovaled' or formed into a tear-drop shape to aid aerodynamics (supposedly one of the first bikes designed in a wind tunnel). They included some hidden cabling through the top tube and full use of Shimano's Adamax 600 ax components which had been designed specifically for aerodynamics.

French bicycles before 1980 often used French-threaded bottom brackets (now difficult to find replacement parts for). French bottom brackets, like Italian ones, used right-hand threading on the fixed cups, making them subject to loosening by precession. Motobécane broke ranks with most other French manufacturers in the mid-70s, using Swiss-threaded bottom brackets (also difficult to find replacement parts for now). Swiss bottom brackets were identical to French, save that the fixed cups were reverse-threaded (like English ones), making them immune to loosening by precession. For more information, see bottom bracket specifications.

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In addition, French headsets are sized and threaded slightly differently from the more common English headset.

The name Motobécane is also used for current bikes of Taiwanese manufacture. These vehicles bear no relation to the older French made bicycles, other than the name.

Mopeds[edit]

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Motobécane introduced a moped, the Mobylette, in 1949; over the next 48 years, Motobécane manufactured 14 million Mobylettes. In India the same model was manufactured under licence by Mopeds India Ltd under the name Suvega. In the UK Raleigh manufactured Mobylettes under licence from Motobecane as the 'RM' series from 1960 until 1971. In the late 1960s these 'Raleigh' mopeds accounted for 38% of UK moped sales. American retailer Montgomery Ward imported Motobecane mopeds and sold them via their catalog under the Riverside captive import brand.

The motorcycles up to the v40 version without shock absorbers ago, had a maximum speed of 25Km hour and were limited to 0.23Kw, after this series and from 1961, with the use of Japanese parts and adding rear suspension was born the Models V50 and higher, able to reach a speed of 45Km hour and with a power of 1.2 kW.

In 1978, Canadian Walter Muma rode a 50V 11,500 miles on a 3-month trip that began in Toronto, brought him to Alaska, and back to Toronto.^[1]

After being acquired by Yamaha, MBK continued producing mopeds, becoming a force in French moped racing.

Cars[edit]

In 1942, responding to the disappearance of civilian fuel supplies, the directors instructed an engineer called Éric Jaulmes to look into the possibility of producing a two-seater pedal car to compete with the Vélocar.^[2] The result was a three-wheel pedal car.^[2] Pedal power reached the single rear wheel via a chain and an 8-speed cycle-style gear system.^[2] The emphasis was on weight reduction, and the vehicle weighed just over 30 kg, of which approximately 28 kg was accounted for by mechanical components and just 4 kg by the light metal lozenge style body.^[2] A single central fin on the tail-piece of the body was featured not for aerodynamic reasons but in order to accommodate the rear wheel.^[2]

During the 1950s and 1960s automobile use and ownership in France grew consistently, and much of this growth came at the expense of motorcycle producers. Long lens photographs appearing in L’Auto-Journal in December 1961 showed the results of a serious Motobécane project to fight back by developing a small “quadricycle” format automobile.^[3] One of the pictures showed the Motobécane prototype on a boulevard near the company’s plant and the Porte de Valette being overtaken by a Renault 4CV: the little Renault looked uncharacteristically large and the Motobecane, positioned between the Renault and a Paris bus, looked barely larger than a child’s pedal car.^[3] In fact the prototype was 2730 mm long and 1180 mm wide, which was enough to accommodate two people side by side in a fashionably boxy little body: from the side, at first glance, it was hard to tell which end was which: however, the cut-out sections on each side covered with a dark coloured fabric 'door' was angled towards the front of the car.^[3][4][5]

Although the manufacturer was unfamiliar with automobile technology, they were happy to incorporate into the design a form of the innovative infinitely variable transmission which a few years later became a defining feature of DAF cars.^[3] Power came from a 125 cc two stroke engine installed at an angle of 7 degrees from the vertical in order to keep the flat front hood/bonnet low enough for the windscreen to be foldable forwards over it in the manner of a traditional Jeep.^[3] The prototype's motor-cycle connections were apparent from the large spoked wheels which might not have survived on a production version of the car.^[3]

Both a two-seater “KM2” microcar and a “KM2U” microvan were foreseen. In the event, however, neither passed beyond the prototype stage.^[3]

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Scooters[edit]

Under the name MBK, the company continues to manufacture scooters for the European market.

Sources[edit]

1. ^Al Strange (July 5, 1978). 'Moped traveler likes to see the country'. The Record-Gazette. Peace River, Alberta, Canada.
2. ^ ^abcde'Automobilia'. Toutes les voitures françaises 1940 - 46 (les années sans salon). Paris: Histoire & collections. Nr. 26: 47. 2003.
3. ^ ^abcdefg'Automobilia'. Toutes les voitures françaises 1962 (salon Paris oct 1961). Paris: Histoire & collections. Nr. 19: Page 36. 1200.
4. ^A picture of a Motobécane Microcar KM2 prototype
5. ^Another picture of a Motobécane Microcar KM2 prototype

External links[edit]

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