The reason Motobecane went out of business is because their products were overpriced and low quaility. Saddled with French manufacturing unions and French work attitudes, Moto was unable to survive the letdown of the first boom. French manufacturing's short-comings are no secret, Gitane and Motobecane let down the world for bikes, Renault and Poo-goat did it for cars, Mirage for areospace. Fuji, Trek and Schwinn started the end of Moto, USA Raleigh and new brands like Lotus killed off Moto. BD bought the Moto name for cheap because it was worthless thanks to all the low quality products from the 70's. Now, thanks to BD, it's a well thought of brand with great sales. I'd say BD has rehab'ed the Motobecane name quite nicely, people are paying stupid prices of the old French Motos now, a few years ago you couldn't give away them away. Sell while you can!