LWT

restoring my GJ and am convinced I have a 75 or 76. bottom bracket numbers not stamped well enough to read, but by the looks of the hardware hung on. I'm pretty sure it's a 76. Huret shifters, Suntour Cyclone rear, oddball freewheel - DTA I think (I traded up to Shimano, had to modify freewheel tool to get the old one off) However, whats throwing me off are the rear campy drop outs. Were these drop outs used on this model year frame? thanks and appriciate any info out there

SurferRosa

If it's an American market bike Ben Lawee imported, you'll find it in one of the catalogs that our own bulgie hosts here:

https://bulgier.net/pics/bike/Catalogs/Motobecane/

75lechamp 

In my experience, even if you were able to identify any numbering on the bottom bracket, these numbers don't usually provide any clues as to year identification. I can tell you that I have had a couple of '74 Grand Jubiles that both had Campy rear dropouts, one was silver, and my current one is red/black. They both had the Huret Jubilee rear derailleur, which came in either a configuration to fit a Huret dropout or one to fit a Campy dropout. I don't think it's unusual to see a GJ from 1974 with Campy dropouts, and both the 75 and 76 are similar in most respects, and could have had Huret Jubilees similarly configured (or Cyclone as yours has, which may also have been configured for a Campy dropout). What color is yours, if original, that can also be a clue.....

LWT

thanks so much for the info, really appreciate it. my frame is original: silver with red branding and trim. A little beat up, but from 10 feet away.....sweet!
One other question: It came with a Shimano 501 Arabesque front derailleur, I know that's not original! should it be Huret or Suntour cyclone? thanks again.

oneclick 

The Suntour is cheaper, works better, is more reliable, and more available.

(All reasons seen sometimes in this parish as favouring the Huret...)

75lechamp 

A friend of mine in high school had one of those silver/red GJs, I really like that combo. I think you could go with either Huret Jubilee or Suntour Cyclone front and rear, but it seems like you might have a '76 so it is more likely the Cyclone on the rear was original.I would go with a Cyclone FD as well. The previous poster is right, the Suntour stuff works well - and this is coming from somebody who has a Jubilee equipped GJ. On a side note if you do decide to go with the Jubilee front derailleur, they can be very tricky as they come in two band sizes, for metric (French) and non metric. I have personally snapped two bands on Jubilee front derailleurs when they snapped during tightening, due to being the wrong size band. They very very fragile....

motogeek 

If your silver with red panel Jubilee has a short cage Jubilee RD on it, then most likely the front derailleur would also have been a Jubilee, as well as the shift levers. The later Jubilees that had Cyclone RDs also had Shimano FDs and shifters.