Today was a lucky day! Found a pair of Motobecane Grand Records on the local CL last night and happily was the first person to respond to the ad. The seller graciously agreed to hold them for me until this morning despite the avalanche of calls and emails that she said followed mine. The story is that this set of bikes was abandoned a decade ago by a previous caretaker/resident and the seller had decided that she'd looked at them long enough, and just wanted the space in storage back. Apparently, she had offered these for free to the rest of the staff (over 30 folks) before posting them on CL and there were no takers!

Mostly original (seats and levers changed out, replacement wheelset on the larger bike), and in rough but restorable shape. Date codes on the Campy rear derailleurs are stamped 1971. These will be next up for a total teardown and rebuild. They probably haven't seen fresh grease since Richard Nixon was in office!

The larger of the two frames is 58cm; the smaller appears to be a 53. Here are the usual bad cell phone pics of the larger bike.

photo (1).jpgphoto (2).jpg

Score!!!

Wow! A pair of Grand Records. Did she give you same deal as she was offering her co-workers?

I think that this pair is going up to the cottage. The yellow frame is liberally covered with a sort of greyish transparent "stuff" that comes off with my fingernail, but oddly not with an abrasive pad! This is not the usual crackly Motobecane paint issue; anyone encountered this on an old Motobecane before?

Caveman - it wasn't exactly the same deal, but it wasn't far off from it. Both bikes were less than a decent lunch for two!

B******, I was on that waiting list for those bikes.

Sorry!

where were they? san juans, or??

They were in the Saratoga area; near Palo Alto, Ca.

I seem to be building up a small armada of good or better quality Vintage steel bikes for folks to ride when they visit or stay at our place on Orcas Island. Oddly, all of them seem to be French; 3 Motobecanes and a Bertin. Bring your beret!

Talk to frank-the-welder, he had a similar yellow Moto GR that came out beautifully, albeit with lots of crackling in the original paint...and it looked great like that!
This is a fantastic score!

Haven't seen Frank post here for a long time.
I wonder if the grayish film could be oxidized clear coat?
If degraded enough, it might flake off with finger nail,
but be resistant to surface scuffing like with an abrasive pad.
Just guessing.

Really glad she didn't just take them to the dump. Glad they found a good home. Looking forward to a photo-rich rest thread.

One of these days I'll have to pack up the bikes and drive across the country- I think we ride the same size.

Rootboy- I think you nailed it. It does look and act like a degraded clear coat. Any ideas a on how to remove it, other than by fingernail? There is an awful lot of it on the frame, literally everywhere...

have you tried compounds (rubbing or polishing)? they may have some "encapsulating" properties that would both abrade the gunk and grab it, but have no first-hand experience with this particular "degraded clear coat". I'd also experiment with some of the Howard's compounds that are more "liquid wax" suspensions and offered in "fine" and "Ultra fine", and /or plain pumice or rottenstone with either oil or water.
Last there's the "clay bar" that show-car nerds swear by...
SOMEthing in all those options might just be the magic bullet.

I'll have to give one of those types of things a try. The bad clear coat really makes the yellow color look dirty and unattractive.

My frankebike project includes a 1975 Gitane frame. Your goo reminds me of that. After 40 trips around the sun the purple paint on that Gitane was not hard - would clog up sand paper. I could crease it with a fingernail. I wonder if there was something the French were using back then that turned out more like plastic than paint?

I resorted to using a babbitt scraper and it came off nicely but it was tedious. I used KleenStrip Airplane paint remover ("Do not use on airplanes") in the nooks and crannies. Worked fine there.

What is a "Babbitt scraper"?

In the old day, as a Millwright, I used to pour bearings (molten lead and something mixed in) to make bushing assemblies. Once poured and solidified, it would be necessary to scrape the bearing surface to ensue smoothness. I did hundreds of these things, in the old days.

Would I use a babbitt scraper to remove paint? Not a chance!

Of course, I could have misinterpreted the term babbitt scraper.

Here are two photos of the smaller, silver Grand Record after about an hour of de-gunking. The clear coat is almost totally gone on this one, and the remaining paint looks a lot worse than these photos might indicate. This one has me thinking about a repaint. Blasphemy?

I'm not following Prowler's post. Removed just the bad clear coat? Or, all the purple paint too?

Boy, I'm not sure what I'd do. Had the same problem with my Le Champion. But it wasn't too bad so I left most of the clear coat. Easy to remove from the chrome fork ends. Over paint, I'm not so sure. I think I might try a very judicious and careful use of Citrus strip or some not-too-powerful stripper. Leave on only for so long, maybe five to ten minutes, then wipe off and see if it lifts the soft clear coat safely without effecting the paint. Tricky operation.

No Randy, you got it right. I still have the babbit scraper from many decades ago when I was in the steel mills and it was for just what you said. However that was long ago and far away and I do know how to file a new edge on mine. It is a very nice steel, a nice size and has the straight and curved edges. If I was still a Millwright I'd feel differently but now I've repurposed that scraper and use it when needed. Boy, when you get a good edge on one it works just great.

Say, did you guys ever hang the old bearings from a chain and use a torch to melt them down into soup cans for deep sea fishing weights? Best do that outside on a windy graveyard shift, eh?

Tried a little bit of Mineral Spirits on an abrasive pad, and it seems to be lifting more paint than clear coat! Yikes; this clear coat is tough!

I spent a chunk of the day working on the smaller of the two Grand Records. Rebuilt some of the bearings, changed out the wheels to a set of 1980's Sunshine hubbed wheels I had around, and continued with the de-gunking and rust removal. I threw these wheels on it as a temporary placeholder until I could rebuild the originals, and found that the rear Campy derailleur could handle the 6 speed freewheel with a 32 tooth large cog. It shifts great! I didn't think it was even a possibility to run that large of a cog with a Nuovo Record derailleur...

Does anyone know where I might find replacement brake hoods for the Universal Model 61 levers? Are there alternative hoods that will fit?

The paint is pretty funky on this one. It doesn't even pass the 10 foot test, and definitely will act as a theft deterrent. I'm thinking about trying my hand at a repaint. Cant decide whether to try to match the original silver, or go with one of the other Grand Record paint schemes from the early '70's. Those black and red Motobecane color schemes are really sharp. Thoughts on this?

Tonights photo: