Maohaus

I recently acquired, what appears to be, a 1974 or 1975 Motobecane Grand Jubilee. The model year is based upon researching the widely available Motobecane catalog database. I have three questions which I hope to get some clarity. First, I see that someone in this forum started a very long thread with the intention of creating a Motobecane serial number database. Although the thread is filled with many posts I don't see that a final database reference was ever established or posted. (From what I can surmise the s/n for the bike is 1886526 which was found on the Campagnolo rear dropout.) Perhaps I am not looking in the right places, or perhaps we are still lost in the weeds. Second, the head badge on my Grand Jubilee is plastic as shown in the photos. Perhaps someone can give me an idea of when this badge was used.? Finally, my acquisition was void of the derailleurs although I have confirmed that the bike originally had the Huret Jubilee derailleurs that would indicate a 74 or 75 model. I am actively looking to find the exact replacements - If anyone is selling, I am buying. Or if you know a good source, I will chase it down. For that matter I am also looking for French alloy 27" clincher rims that I may need for this project, and a Mercier project, I am also working on. Thanks all!

zandoval 

My cuz had one of these so many years ago... Brings back memories of charging full speed on golf course trails in the moon light at two AM...

That frame is real sweet and gives a long easy ride. If you find you can't find or afford OEM, or even period replacement parts, don't be to concerned. The beauty of this bike is its frame and fork. I recently gave up on "restoring" a Peugeot Dolomites and just got it ridding with what ever components I could find at a reasonable price. I am totally satisfied with the bike and ridding it almost every day. What I am trying to say is that this bike you have deserves to be ridden rather than the complex and often expensive task of full restoration...

Of course most of us do have a Wall Hanger... Ha

mpetry912 

the Jubilee rear derailleur will prolly not allow you to use a gear ratio wide enough to suit your needs. A massively over-rated part in my view.

with the campagnolo dropouts, you are looking for a particular version of the Jubilee with the tabbed washer on the upper pivot (Andrew check me here)

There is a long cage version that easily bends if you allow the bike to roll backwards. You always wonder if this shift will be your last.

suggest get new tires, replace the FW and get a new chain, use Shimano 105-level derailleurs, and change out the shift levers, they take a special cable fitting, clean, lube adjust and then ride it.

nice riding bike, you won't be disappointed.

PilotFishBob 

I rode mine just last week. Despite being rigged out in full randonneur mode, it feels incredibly light and nimble. It's one of those I was thinking of selling this spring but riding it has convinced me otherwise. Again. Mine is fully decked out with Huret Jubilee as is a 1970 Raleigh Competition I have that I also went full rando on. Both are long cage RD. Opinions vary of course but in my experience the Jubilee shifts just fine and is not particularly fragile if treated well. The rear shifter, however, does require quite a bit of travel to go to the largest cog.

juvela

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the plastic head emblem was standard for the 1973 model year

its presence indicates the cycle to be a very early Grand Jubile

1973 was also the first year the machine's Stronglight model 49D chainset received allen key chainwheel bolts

the year was as well the launch for the Jubile gear ensemble

the Jubile fittings can be quite costly to purchase individually; it is your decision if you wish to go the resto route or follow a more practical "make it roadworthy" approach...


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majmt 

Gorgeous bikes. Hard to decide between the black/red or red/black versions. Would it be too out-of-line to put a DuoPar RD on it?

droppedandlost 

I also have one of these early GJ frames. Notable differences from the official 1974 catalog debut are Campy dropouts, script font on downtube, chrome fork crown and the headbadge (mine is foil). Parts seem to be whatever was on hand from other models.

cb400bill

Please, no buying or selling offers in the regular forums. Take it to PMs.

SurferRosa

It appears, Huret named their group, Jubilee.

And it appears, Motobécane (in the US, at least) named their bike model, Jubile ... until 1982, when it changed to Jubilee. Maybe some of those earlier versions had an accent on the "e."

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bikemig 

That's what I'd run on this bike. It's a good derailleur but you do want to be lighten up on the pedals when shifting under a load. That's a good thing to do with any RD but especially this one. I used on on a cross country tour and it worked like a champ.

verktyg 

https://www.velo-pages.com/main.php?g2_itemId=524

Bike Boom era review. While Richard Jow was a good writer, he didn't know a lot of the nuances of fast changing models.

The 1973 GJ was mostly a European model and the frame was somewhat based on the 1970-72 Grand Record with a 3 tubes Reynolds 531 frame.

My mostly original 1971 Grand Record



In 1974 Motobecane made some major changes to the frame geometry on a lot of their performance models. More Italian style - 74° seat and head tubes, 40-45mm fork rakes. They also changed from the stamped steel for crown to a Wagner chevron top forged crown.

Most 1974-75 GJs came with proprietary Huret dropouts to go along with Huret Jubilee derailleurs.




verktyg

bikemig 

I have what I believe to be a '73 Grand Record but it has a Reynolds fork as well as a Reynolds main triangle. I've replaced the decals. The frame decal was gone when I picked it up but the original fork decals were on the bike when I bought it.

52telecaster

Sorry about that

verktyg 

I edited my post from 1970-73 GR to 1970-72. In 1973 they listed Reynolds 531 forks in the spec sheet.... but during the bike boom nothing was carved in stone!



1970-72 Spec Sheet

1973 Spec Sheet



Some of the early Grand Jubiles came with Campagnolo dropouts and stamped fork ends. I've suspected that some of them were made with 1973 Grand Record frames and non Reynolds 531 Grand Jubile forks.

verktyg

Maohaus

Thank you to all who weighed in on this bike. There is quite an impressive depth of information and thoughtful opinions to be mined in this forum.

So, based upon your input and data I am inclined to date this bike to 1973. I think Verktyg nailed it when you said "Some of the early Grand Jubiles came with Campagnolo dropouts and stamped fork ends. I've suspected that some of them were made with 1973 Grand Record frames and non Reynolds 531 Grand Jubile forks." I think that is spot on. I should mention that all but a tiny bit of the frame sticker remains.


I am guessing the Reynolds frame sticker was written in French as indicated by the "rces" left on the frame. I only know this because a quick search of Reynolds frame decals yielded the French version which includes "3 Tubes Renforces". If anyone has a photo of the sticker that may have been on this bike originally, I would appreciate your input and photos.

Finally, regarding the Huret Jubilee derailleur. I have some personal interest in keeping this bike stock. I was a 17 year old bicycle mechanic in 1973 who sold Motobecane and Gitane and Fuji bikes. I could never afford the Motobecane at that time but loved the look and feel of the bike. To me, it was true to the heart and soul of the European bike invasion of the 60's and 70's. Further, I have learned in my research that the Huret Jubilee derailleur was introduced to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Huret. Hence the Jubilee namesake. Given that Motobecane named a bike specifically around the Huret Jubilee derailleur it only seems fitting to track one down and give it a go. I will only be using this bike for rides under 50 miles and will stay out of the steep terrain - I have plenty of mountain goats to ride on the centuries and 5-10K elevation days. No, this bike is simply going to be a pleasure ride and wall hanger when not rolling around on a sunny day.

Oh, and one last thing. I didn't notice a response on the Motobecane serial number database - is that a thing? Thanks again to all for your great input!

ascherer 

Doing some research as I’m checking out what appears to be an all-original 1975 mixte Grand Jubilee next Tuesday…and I notice that this is my photo, taken some years back in Manchester VT! I keep a print of it on the wall in my office (which I’ve been to all of twice in the last 19 months) No worries, verktyg but I’m curious where you found it?

verktyg 

From the 1950's on Reynolds provided decals with English or French text depending of the tubing diameters and the customer's location. Imperial or British (Inch) diameter main tubes had 1" diameter top tubes and 1 1/8" diameter seat and down tubes. Metric (French) main tubes had 26mm top tubes and 32mm down and seat tubes.

Reynolds used this style of French decals from the 1950's until 1973. There were probably enough of these in the pipeline that they could have been used by some producers for several more years.



In mid 1973 Reynolds added a gold "cartouche" to the bottom of the decal with REYNOLDS TUBE COMPANY, LTD. They started appearing in the US market on both metric (French) and inch (British) sized tubing bikes in 1974.



Reynolds provided these "tall" decals in both French and English text for a short time around 1974-1975 but they weren't very popular.



Around 1977 they added the TI (Tube Investements) logo and TI REYNOLDS LIMITED to the decals.



CONSTRUIT AVEC - 3 TUBES RENFORCES --- CONSTRUCTED WITH - 3 TUBES REINFORCED (BUTTED) meaning the 3 main tubes were butted. The Top and Down tubes were "Double Butted" while the seat tube was single butted..

A lot of French text Reynolds 531 decals from the early 70's had gray-green 531 characters (also some in English decals). Back about 1976 I was told by someone at Reynolds that they used 7 different decal vendors, that's why there was so much variation. Also I've heard green was/is a hard color to produce on laser decal printers???

The worst part was that many repop Reynolds 531 decals were bad copies of bad copies!



I had Greg Softly at Cyclomondo in Australia make some of these gray-green French decals for me. You can now buy them direct on his website.



Most of the Reynolds 531 butted main tubes used on French "production" frames had a wall thickness of 1.0mm on the butted ends and 0.7mm in the thin sections. A 26.4mm seatpost was standard for those metric tubes. A few higher end models used the thinner 0.9mm x 0.6mm wall thickness tubes and they took a 26.6mm seatpost.



Huret's Jubilee 50th Anniversary was in 1970 but the Jubilee derailleurs didn't hit the market until 1973 - better late than never... The original Grand Jubile bikes came with the short arm RDs with proprietary Huret dropouts. Later in 1974 they switched to the long arm Touring model Jubilees for wider range gearing. In 1975 Motobecane started switching over from the rather flimsy Huret Jubilee Touring derailleurs to the more robust Suntour Cyclone GT long arm derailleurs.

They also changed to Suntour dropouts with the de facto standard Campagnolo style derailleur hangers. That may have been the result of US Importer Ben Lawee's influence because it allowed for the use of most standard brands of rear derailleurs rather than just Huret.

NOTE: the very first Grand Jubiles were called the Grand Jubilee model. I distinctly remember seeing one or two in 1974 and was told by a Motobecane dealer about the change to Jubile.

Motobecane "serial numbers" mean "NOTHING" and are untraceable.

verktyg

verktyg 

Found this somewhere on the vast internet back about 2014....



verktyg

oneclick 

I have what must be the same frame, it came badged as a Dynamax Concorde, but was exactly the same spec as the Grand Record, no surprise as Dynamax was little more than a foreign subsiduary of Mototobecane. 531 fork decals under the white paint (which looked like house paint):




other pics in this thread - which I really ought to update as it is almost built now:

Dynamax Concorde - a Grand Record in all but name

top506

There is a version of the Jubilee RD that was made to be comparable with Campy-style hangers without the washer:




Note that the Campy drop outs were drilled for the Huret-style adjusters.

I've been down the road searching for the proper Jubilee bits (FD, RD, shifters and cable guide). Took me about six years and the gift of a donor bike to round everything up, and even then I had to effect a repair on the FD:





The clamping band is notoriously fragile.

Top

Classtime 

I’ve picked up Two complete 74 GJ for less than 100 each. One with Campy rear drop outs. Keep a look out and that could be the way to complete this one.

ascherer 

Gahan WIlson is a hoot! Carry on....

motogeek 

Keep us posted on the Mixte Grand Jubile. I have matching red/black panel GJs, men's and mixte. and I think the mixte is a really cool bike. I did do as one of the above posters recommended, changed my GJ to a Huret Duopar a couple years ago and put the Jubilee RD in a box for safe keeping. Four or five years ago I had matching silver w/black panel men's and mixte 75 GJs but the mixte was too large for my wife so I sold the pair to a collector in California. My GJ is one of my favorites among the 6 or so upper end '72-'75 Motos I have. Can't be a lot of matching pairs out there.

swapped out the Jubilee RD for another Huret model, the Duopar. Currently running a Stronglite crank in place of the old TA 3-arm.

My wife's matching mixte GJ with the long cage Jubilee RD. This nervex lug Reynolds 531 frame is one of the neatest mixties out there. Very rare to find one.

Another of my Moto Grand Jubiles, also a '75

Motos I have.

ascherer 

I picked it up today, probably half the price it ought to have been, for a reason. It is indeed low mileage and mostly original. Everything checks the boxes, even has the suede saddle with minimal wear, but the rear wheel is a steel rim with a bolt-on Normandy high flange hub with Moto “M” capped bolts. I suspect it came off a Mirage of similar vintage.





There’s a bend in the drive side seat stay above the bridge that does show displacement of the stay at that spot. In a text the seller told me that it was his wife’s bike when new and she rode it a bit until she got chased by a dog and fell, which caused the dent. I imagine that’s when the wheel got replaced.

I went for it anyway because on a brief ride it tracked ok, and in the worst scenario the components value is higher than the price paid. And what beautiful components they are!


Such an elegant component…

Stronglight pattern has been my favorite for 50 years

Nervex mixte goodness. I have 2 other bikes with Nervex Pro lugs. This is the only one with two “prongs” at the center of the head tube, the others have the “fish tail”.

I have it tucked away in my upstate house for the time being. I’m already in a project to clean up a Falcon San Remo. When I get to it I’ll check the frame alignment carefully, and I have enough bits hanging around to replace the rear rim. If I need to swap in another hub I can, it’ll depend on how those old Normandys feel when I strip it down.

When I get to the overhaul I’ll post some photos in a new thread.

motogeek 

Nice score! That'll clean up nicely. I'm intrigued by the Simplex Allen seat post binder bolt. Both of mine just had a no-name hex head bolt. Probably another case of Motobecane throwing on whatever they had in stock. That dent in the seat stay may be possibly camouflaged with an old Blackburn or Pletscher rack.
Can I ask what you were able to get it for?