Originally Posted by
Mr IGH
Yes, a Fuji or a Trek was much better bike than Moto in every price catagory. Specifically the Jubile was saddled with the Huret Jubile, and crummy French cranks, weird threads and tubing sizes.
The threading seems "weird" now, but French threading on a French bike was hardly "weird" for the time. English threading became "standard" because that's what the Japanese decided to use. Kind of ironic. Stronglite is still a respected maker of cranksets and they're not exactly crummy.
Anyway, by the late 70's Motobecane was using fairly "standard" parts, one of the first French manufacturers to make the switch.
Originally Posted by
Mr IGH
Too funny, you still defending Betamax (cue the Betamax sub-thread)? If the French stuff was so good, how come it died in the marketplace? I sold Fuji and Trek against Schwinn, Raleigh and Motobecane in 1978, it was an easy job back then, like taking candy from a baby. You couldn't have looked very hard, the Asian Schwinn stuff was better too.
It died for probably a lot of the same reasons you don't see many US made bikes (or even clothes) anymore. Manufacturing in Asia became a legitimate and much cheaper option.
Originally Posted by
Mr IGH
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!
BD bought the name cheaply because no one was using it for bikes in the US. The company was bought out of bankruptcy in 1981 and still exists as MBK in France but they sell motor scooters. The old Motobecane sold motorcycles along with bikes.
Motobecane, Mercier, Peugeot and others made both high AND low end bikes. Motobecane had some tour winners and some highly sought after models. They didn't sell just low end junk like you're implying. You may not have liked what they sold, but to say it was all junk isn't true.
Further, to say that people are paying stupid prices for old French Motos now because BD has rehab'ed the name is just plain wrong. People pay stupid prices now for Peugeots too and that's a dead French brand that BD has not "rehab'ed". The prices paid are due to the renewed interest in vintage road bikes. Spend a little time in the Classic and Vintage forum if you haven't.
BD has capitalized on the fact that there's renewed interest in those old French brands. I think your historical view of Motobecane might be a little skewed since they were competing against the bikes you sold.