I finished the Motobecane I bought some time ago for $20. It had been stored on an apartment balcony for a long time , the wheels were long gone . It lingered on CL for quite a while with a starting price of $75 which got my attention. After looking at the pics I decided it was too much work. When the price dropped to 25 I offered 20 and he bit. It took a week to get the seat post unstuck and another few days longer for the stem. The parts that were on it were all over the place with Shimano 105 RD and FD , plus Aero brake levers. The crank arms were mismatched and it had Look pedals. I asked myself more than once why but I just kept tinkering with it.
I had the frame powder coated to match , as best as possible , the original color. He got it close enough but it is a bit more orange looking now….no problem. I put some Campagnolo stuff on it that I had in my bin and used the original Spidel brakes but changed the levers to some NOS Gipieme that I had. The cranks are period correct off eBay for $25 and dated 84. It actually had a new chain on it. The wheels came from two different sources , one local here and the other from Stanton Island off eBay. They match perfectly , blue label Rigida 27” laced with SS spokes to early Campy Record HF hubs. I know…the tires don’t match but I will ride it until the new Panaracer tan sidewalls arrive. Everything else except the B17 saddle I believe is original, bar stem, seat post, etc.

You did good on this project. Plus it's orange. What's not to love about this bike?

Looks great! I hope you enjoy it.

I was gifted a GS a while back that rode great. Yours looks fantastic. Mine came with Weinmann brakes, steel wheels and Suntour derailleurs with stem shifters.

Classtime, are you sure that is not a Nomad Sprint? I don't think the Grand Sprint came out until 1979 or so and did not have stem shifters. They made a Nomad Sprint that is a bit different and more like the bike you had

A stock 1980 Motobecane Grand Sprint
. I know because I had to buy two sets of top tube decals to get Grand Sprint in the older style graphics. I cut the Grand Record and Nomad Sprint decals in half and fused them together to get the seventies looking graphics that I prefer over the eighties graphics.
A bit of an update on this bike, I just finished a 23 mile ride and it rides very well. I got a flat about 7 miles in and changed the tube to continue on my way. The Zeal HP+ pump is awesome and got me to full pressure in very little time. I am going to change the tilt of the handlebars app a bit but that's it....OH and new tires! I am contemplating fenders on this one as it has longer chain stays than my other bikes and even with 27" tires there is plenty of room. I have had my eye on some hammered copper fenders that will go nicely with the burnt orange.

Glad to hear you enjoyed the ride, and I was wondering how you got those decals.

Beautiful

Yep. I think your correct. Nomad Sprint.

The OP did well on this bike! Watching the price go from $75 to $25 and THEN offering $20 seems a bit shameful but I may have done the same . (My B-I-L would have got it for $15 and made the seller feel good about it ). The seller must have been desperate . Perhaps the large frame was a factor for being on the market so long. That leads me to believe that the OP is more than a little bit tall. Bonus for the OP! Can’t exactly tell from the way the OP describes component swaps if the Brooks saddle was on the bike “as sold” but if so, the OP was ahead of the game from the moment of sale. Anyway, bravo on a nice refurb/resto!

Yes , I believe the tall frame had something to do with the lowered price and the lingering for so long. I also believe that a bike that needed wheels and SO MUCH work had also contributed. Yes , I have long legs , not that tall only a tad over 6' . I take a 63cm frame but ride a few that are only 60cm. The Brooks B17 came on another bike that was well used and I decided that it looked too "new" for that bike so I just kept it aside for a project like this.

This is what I bought! the wheels were just odd ones that I had lying around to move the bike around

I guess that I misread the part about the wheels being “long gone”, thinking that meant beyond salvage . Now, visualizing the pic of what was bought (without wheels), put things in better perspective. A bit of a (but not total) hot mess. I usually try to convince myself that something of this sort is more of a “diamond in the rough” unless it’s (and always was) a POS.

Mine was two sizes too big or I would have kept it.

Top