Well, that's not a good sample... ;-)

There weren't many Motobecanes in our town. As far back as 1974 we were aware that some of them had Swiss thread fixed cups.

Why Swiss? Several possibilities...

The first being component availability. During the bike boom French components were always in short supply. The bike makers used whatever they could get. I've seen a few GJs that came with TA Cyclotouriste cranks. That's why I used TA cranks on one of my GJs.

Another possibility, Motobecane and the two other big French bike makers, Gitane and Peugeot produced models for specific markets. They may have made bikes with Swiss fixed cups for some European markets. What parts were left over they used on bikes for the US market?

I have a 1974 Gitane Tour de France that came from Australia. It has metric diameter tubes but a British threaded BB and headset. Gitane didn't start using British threads until the late 70s.

We didn't sell Peugeots but we worked on a lot of them in the 70s. Some U-08s came with Swiss thread fixed cups. There was no way of telling except trial and error. If the fixed cup wouldn't come out we tried turning it the opposite direction.


I have a 1972 Le Champion that I got about 4 years ago. I haven't gone over it yet so I don't know what threads the fixed cup is.

Also I have two 1974 Le Champions that I bought as bare frames. One is French but I think that the other has a Swiss fixed cup. The seller sent me a Campy Swiss fixed cup with it. I have to check it out again.


It doesn't quite pass the 5 foot test, some of the worts show up... but it does pass the 10 foot test (at 10 feet it looks good, shinny components draw attention away from the touched up scratches).

Is it wrong... or just French!

Chas. verktyg