2 years ago I 'inherited' a vintage steel frame road bike by Motobecane. It was in pretty poor condition with rusty rims, hubs and spokes. I refurbished as good as I could without painting the frame (which seems to be a repaint anyway).

1. I disassembled the wheels and cleaned the hubs, replaced all spokes and cleaned & polished the rims.
2. I replaced the Huvet derailleurs with Suntour Superbe and the cotted crankset with a Campagnolo C-Record.
3. For brakes i opted for Tektro (solid build, reliable quality and they look pretty good I think).
4. Replacing the bottom bracket turned out to be pretty research intensive and expensive as I had to resort to either a vintage Campagnolo with FR threading (400$ and up) or what I settled for a Phil Wood sealed bottom bracket with FR cups (220$ incl. shipping and install tool). Yellowjacket.org was super helpful in this regard and knows a lot about vintage bikes.

All in all my goal was to have a rideable commute bike and I am pretty happy with the results. Rides super nice but doesn't look too flashy to attract thieves.

What I would like to know from the forum experts here: can you help me ID the type and year of this bike? I am considering restoring the paint and decals to original glory...












Finished.

With steel rims and crank I suspect it is a Nomade, the bottom of the line.

Take a look again at the pictures. This bike has forged rear drop outs. It is not a bottom of the line hi tensile steel frame. Plus it has far too much chrome to be a bottom of the line. This was a nice bike whatever it was.

To the OP: why don't you post some pics of the original parts that came with the bike. I don't know enough about MBK bikes to tell you what it is for certain other than that the forged rear drop outs tell you this is not a bottom of the line bike; plus the chrome on the rear is usually the sign of a nicer bike back in the day.

Yeah, I just did. I was WAY off!

I'm thinking that this bike could be quite old. I believe that the motobecane/pantin headbadge came on older motobecanes. The wiki entry on MBK shows the more recent headbadges: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motob%C3%A9cane

Plus this is a quality frame that apparently came stock with a cottered crank. Those came on older high end bikes; cotterless is a better design and high end bikes moved over to that quite a long time ago.

We'll wait for some MBK experts but I think you may have a very interesting bike on your hands. Like I said, please post pictures of the parts you took of the bike.

Thx for the prompt replies. The bike has Mavic tubular aluminium rims with Normandy hubs.



I made some pics of what I took off the bike...

More pics of the hubs...

The normandy hubs with the round holes are I believe fairly old as well. We should ask the mods to move this thread to C&V. You're not looking for an appraisal and there are more people on the C&V forum who will have a good idea of what this bike is.

I sent a report so the mods will move it.

Allvit is 2nd generation which, if OEM, would place it 1961-1968. Given the era and the presence of forged dropouts, this would make it at least mid-range. I'd expect it to have at least butted main tubes, though the presence of cable stops was generally allocated to entry level models. Post should be 26.4-26.6mm for a butted seat tube. The lever bosses are almost certainly an addition at the time of repaint. Sorry, but I'm not familiar with pre-boom Motobecane models.

Yeah I was thinking 60s as well given the head badge and the parts.

It's possible that before about 1970, around then, the known Motobecane line up, Nomade to Grand Record, etc. did not exist yet but there was a "Grande Luxe" model and I gather other names. You see this one was chromed back and front. Also see next post for some additional photos taken off of an add from CL.

Also, I don't know the significance but there is some when the headbadge says "Pantin".


Motobecane Pantin era: Forum Tonton Vélo ? Afficher le sujet - le velo Motobecane de mon grand pere

Meaning, who knows, even earlier than '69? Mid-'60s or before?

Forum Tonton Vélo ? Voir le forum - Vélos de course de 1945 à 1980

I know I've read people talk about "Pantin" before, so I guess it would be in this forum as well.

Just from last November: https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...tin-bikes.html

It looks early 60s to me, possibly mid 60s. Definitely not late 60s and certainly not 70s. I'm sure someone could place it exactly by the headbadge.

Cottered cranks were still used on top shelf racing bikes at that time. Not everyone thought that cotterless cranks were better for a few years, preferring the older steel type, or so I've been told.

Found this: Vintage Motobecane Astra Grand Record Luxe Bicicleta Bici Reynolds Tour De France

Looks pretty similar... Grand Luxe seems to be pointing in the right direction. I would also think that chrome on the fork and the rearend points to higher grade bike.

While I agree that the Gran Luxe are pointing in the right direction, I believe the OP's frame is older, for a couple of reason's. First, the yellow Gran Luxe has the 3rd generation Allvit, which dates no earlier than 1969. Secondly, and more importantly, neither the white or yellow Gran Luxe have a bridge brazed to the seat stays for the rear brake cable stop, like the OP's bicycle. Seeing this bridge really threw me for a loop when I first it, as I had never one on a Motobecane. They definitely didn't use them during the boom and that is what makes me think that the yellow and white Gran Luxe, while pre-boom, are still newer than the OP's bicycle.

It seems plausible that both the dt lever bosses and the rear brake cable stop were additions at the time of re-paint.

The headbadge screws don't look original. They could simply be substitutes for original rivets, or I suppose it's possible that someone stuck a MB headbadge on some other frame. I'm not saying that's what I think happened, but in the absence of other Motobecane identifiers, it should at least be considered.

Is there a serial # visible?

It's a cool looking frame in any event.

The rear derailleur angle looks a little funny to me btw. Does it shift OK?

Beautiful badge

That seems to be a good analysis; lugs fit.

I note the bike in the original post does not have a chrome fork crown, it looks a bit like it could have been painted over.

The ebay bike is obviously of more quality, quite a few of these Astras came out. This one seems to be lower quality of which quite a few are around: https://madison.craigslist.org/bik/5340639770.html

As I am taking the bike apart for the winter overhaul I noticed something that I never paid attention to before, it seems it's orange underneath the yellow and green paintjob. When I first noticed that a while ago I always presumed it to be orange anti-rust undercoat as I know it from my childhood but a closer look reveals it's too shiny. I never questioned the yellow being a paint job because it looks pretty legit but now I understand why it never shined the way a proper coat should. I couldn't find any serial numbers but I took some more detail pics for the bike sherlocks here.

Unfortunately not. Thx.
Rear derailleur shifts fine. Looking at other older bikes it does seem pretty angled but the stop on the dropout allows for it to twist this far to thr front... Never had issues with it though. Rear derailleur works like a charm, only my front is a bit rough around the edges.

The bottom bracket has no number which I'm sure one would know this? Also, I think I even have a number near the seat tube cluster.

The campagnolo rear drop outs weren't visible in the first set of pics; this has to be a nice bike with expensive forged drop outs. Are the fork drop outs stamped campy as well?

Found some interesting info in a 1963 Moto catalogue that points to it being upper range. The only difference to the 2nd best model of that year is the hubs which are large flange Normandys instead of Brivio. The rest is pretty spot on, the crank, the chrome parts, the pump holding pins, the 10 speed Allvit setup(all lower models have 3 or 4). I am intrigued by now. I got the catalogue snippet from here: https://tobeconline.fr/assets/les-plu...(1963)-001.jpg

Yes. See the pic. Chrome with campy stamp.