1983 Motobecane Mirage
 

Well, I took the plunge this week. Have been reading quite a bit here in the C&V sub forum after running across this website when I was looking for a tandem bike message board (took the plunge on that as well!). So I am now what I believe to be the 3rd owner of a gold 1983 Motobecane Mirage. It appears to be mostly original, although I'm not 100% sure about the saddle & pedals.

My original thought was to turn it into a (gasp) fixed gear for commuting, but now I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. I do know that the 2nd owner didn't own it very long or ride it very much because the rear wheel went out of true on him and he decided to buy a new bike instead of working on this one...so that will be one of the first things I need to determine - can the rear wheel be brought back into true or do I need to source a new one...

It even came with the owners manual...owner #1 passed it along to owner #2. Owner #2 claims that it had been hanging in owner #1's garage for about 8 years. No doubt about it being an '83 with the manual being dated, the hubs have the '83 stamp and the bottom bracket is also stamped with an '83...

Pictures? Of course! I haven't done a thing to it since I brought it home...

Entire Bike Right Side

Entire Bike Left Side

Rear Huret Derailleur

Front Huret Derailleur/Chain rings/Crank

Huret Shifters

Front Brake/Fork/Headtube badge

Handlebar wrap

Motobecane handlebars

2040 tubing logo

BB stamping




Would appreciate any thoughts on it's condition from those of you that have seen more vintage bikes than I have. I do know the Mirage wasn't the top of the line Motobecane, the Huret deraillurs weren't the best either, the 2040 tubing used is heavy etc...

Ran across this webpage on another BF thread that appears to be one of the best sources of Huret info out there to help ID the various models of derailleurs:

http://homepage3.nifty.com/passhunte...uret/huret.htm

So it appears my bike has a Huret Eco rear derailleur - pictures match them perfectly.

On the front derailleur it appears mine matches the thumbnail photo of the one labeled "Club U." When you click on that photo to enlarge it, however, it is labeled Allvit. Typo of some kind?

My shifters don't match anything on this website. I guess I should say the levers don't match anything there, but the rest of the assembly appears to be similar to the assembly labeled "Luxe type."

So would have it been common for what appears to be a bit of a mismatch of Huret models to be thrown together on this bike?

Your vintage Mirage
 

Ironically, the last few weeks I've been getting my own '83 Mirage in fighting form. I found it ~ two years ago here in Queens, NYC, waiting for the garbage man: despite house paint splatter and years of built-up dirt, I knew I had a quality bike.
To put this in some perspective for you, in 1981 I purchased my first 'racing' bike: a Raleigh Supercourse,
for ~ $ 320, which was significant cash then for a junior in college. I wish there was some way I could find the link today, but I remember around this time reading a review in a road racing magazine that called the Supercourse a legitimate, affordable, entry-level racing bike.
I mention this, because the Mirage I found is basically identical, in almost every way, to the Supercourse
(with the exception of a more agressive racing fork rake: the angle the fork makes with the downtube).
All the components are about the same quality: plenty of aluminum (like the Rigida rims), to keep weight down somewhat. With the exception of the top-of-the-line Italian bikes, the Mirage was a very good 'lightweight' bike.
If you take a close look at your frame, you will see fine lugwork, and I particularly like their use of narrower seat and chain stays. The paint job is high quality: after a few weekends, lots of elbow grease and skinned knuckles, I was amazed at what was underneath all that surface crap: will try to post photos soon.
After some WD40 and a bit of lube, shifting was effortless (with all the original cables, no less). I have not found any links as to the nature of '2040' tubing. I've seen references to '1020', so I'm assuming that this is a somewhat lighter-weight steel. Again, given the comparison to the Raleigh, which has Reynolds 531 main tubes (only), the frame weight seems basically the same, meaning the material used was probably upgrade quality Chrome/Moly.
You have a fine bike, and I think you'll really enjoy the ride you get from your 'vintage lightweight'.

2040 tubing is better than 1020, but in no way equals 4130 (chrome/molybdemum).

My dad has a 1984 MBK Mirage and it's a very fine bike. The frame is Motolite tubing which seems very rigid and light. I put the bike on a scale and it read just over 10.5kg.

2040 tubing
 

Thanks for your input. I have not been able to dig up any solid (reliable) references as to the composition of '2040' tubing, or that compare it to other frame building steel from that period (late '70's-early '80's).
Would be grateful if any one has any real sources I could refer to.

This article might give you some clues to your frame construction...

http://spokesmanbicycles.com/page.cfm?PageID=329

Mirage's seemed to be constructed of 1040 until the 80's when they were "upgraded" to 2040...My 85 Mirage frame no doubt the tail end of production is labeled CrMo...I think they are good fixie projects. That's what I have planned for mine...

http://www.geocities.com/alicestrong/motobecane.jpg

Excellent Link!
 

Hey Alice:

Thanks for posting the excellent link outlining the fundamentals of frame building materials: first time I've seen such a comprehensive summary in one place.
Clears up a lot of the garbage that's out there.

What is Vitus 888 tubing? That's apparently what my 1981 Motobecane Jubile Sport has.

I believe it's cromoly.

How would you rate the Vitus 888 compared to, say, Reynolds 4130?
I've seen comments like its "noodly", what does it mean?
Oh, yeah here's my '81 Jubile Sport.
http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/a...5/IMG_0135.jpg

The components on your Jubile Sport are a little different than mine. Any idea where to get touch-up paint? (they are the same color)

Smunderdog: I'm liking the paint job on your bike from what I could see it looks like it has some metallic flake in it, is that the case? I'd like to find one of those for a good deal and build it up

I found a very sparkly dark grey metallic finger nail polish to touch up my Moto.

Nice setup

Did you read the Vitus essay at Classic Rendezvous?

http://www.classicrendezvous.com/Fra...us_history.htm

The deraileur, handle bar, stem is obviously not original. I replaced them as the Suntour BL deraileur was in bad shape, the handlebar is too narrow and I like the modern stem for ease of disassembly. I also replaced the downtube shifter to stem shifter.
It too, has some paint damage, mostly at the chainstay area. and I'm looking of having it repainted. But from what I've gathered here, its too expensive and really not worth it.





Thanks for the link AliceStrong!
So the Vitus 888 is not that bad at all.

Hey DVC45:

I noticed your bottle cage: did your '81 Jubilee Sport come with braze-ons for a cage? At least with the 'lower end' Motos and Raleighs from the late '70's, early 80's, I've not seen them.
I've purchased clamp-on brackets from Nashbar for this purpose, with considerable installation frustration.

I really like the decal work on your frame: big and sharp lettering. But I have to ask, are you sure your bike is an '81? I've seen quite a number of pics of Mirages on ebay and this forum, and it seems this scheme didn't appear until ~ 84/85? Or was it MODEL specific?

Up until yesterday, there was a mint, almost unridden '84 Mirage Sport listed, all original, with a two-tone (red/grey) color scheme, and decals identical to your bike. The listing is gone now, but that was one sharp bike.

Sorry my bad, I think its actually '82 or '89. It does come with a braze-on bottle cage. I don't think its an add-on. It's a pawnshop find, I'm not the original owner .
I'm basing the dates on the BB stamp. The lowest stamp says 0382 and the upper very faint stamp say's 1989.
Here's a pic:

http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/a...5/IMG_0167.jpg

Now I'm very confused. The stamp on mine says "0381",which I assumed meant March of 1981. There is also a lighter stamp like yours that says "1978", which I assumed was the age of the bottom bracket housing. I thought I had this all figured out, but now I don't know........

:D same here.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...snort!.....huh?!?! I'm sorry...wasn't sure if we were still talking about my bike in this thread. :D

Thanks...I was actually waiting to post again until I had worked on it a bit. I removed everything but the BB/cranks last night in fact and will be cleaning up the frame next. Will post some better pics of the paint after I get it cleaned up, but I think you are correct that there is a bit of flake in there....

I plan on boxing up all the parts in case I ever want to convert it back. Gonna change stem/bars (keeping the originals intact in the box o parts), possibly put a Shimano 600 series front brake on it with lever type TBD and a fixed gear rear wheel and see how I like that type of ride...will continue to post pictures along the way...

Moto dating!
 

Folks:
Thanks to a prior dialogue I had with Alice, who has posted on this current thread, I'll share some wisdom.
I too was fooled into thinking that the last two numbers stamped on the BB: '78' had significance: THEY DO NOT!
Provided you have the original hubs/wheels that came with your bike, wipe-off the crap, look carfully, and you will see two very finely stamped numbers (on BOTH hubs). In my case, it was very clear: '83'.
Mystery solved.
For kicks, I checked my Supercourse (purchased by me in 1981). You see: '80', front a rear: makes sense.
The hubs on the Supercourse were also Maillard, so this must be there thing, but for the addicts out there with a barn full of bikes, maybe some of you can poke around and see whether other manufacturers did this as well.
BJK

Follow-up
 

Hey Smunder:

As you proceed with your project, I would be very interested in how you handle your fixed gear conversion. I've not done this, but learned a lot from a related problem.
You mentioned in your original post that your rear wheel was out of true. In my case, the rear wheel was significantly out of true, and the oxidation of the spokes and rims concerned me (the bike-a trash find-was clearly not well-cared for). I picked-up a nice 700C wheelset, brand new, heavier spokes, so I thought I could simply swap the freewhell from the orig to the new: not so easy.
Your bike, as mine, has a 'helicomatic hub/freewheel' sytem, an early 'cassette' type set-up. I brought both wheels to a weekly bike clinic (run by employed bike mechanics) who had no idea what to do with this. A quick check online revealed this site, compiled by some bike mechanics in NJ:

http://www.yellowjersey.org/helico.html

The bottom line: ONLY helicomatic freewheels and hubs are compatible to each other, and to nothing else.
I've been told that the funky exposed 'locking nut' (which has splines, not threads), can be removed with pliers, though that might destroy the splines.
Assuming you keep the original hub/wheel, I would be interested in how you get around this problem.
In my case, I had to buy a replacement 6-cog freewheel, which I've found out have ~ 1/16 in less space
between rings than the original. preventing me from getting into the highest/lowest rings (not life-threatening).
After all this trouble, just wanted to share what I found out, to those servicing this set-up.

BJK

Oh sure...NOW you tell me! :)

That is some comprehnsive site and pretty good info to have...I have only taken a cursory glance at the rear wheel to this point, but did note the large number of splines that the custom tool matches up with.

A few years ago, I purchased a Centurion off eBay (for too much money) that had been converted with Campy Ergo shifting and used that as my main bike for awhile, until I took a turn too wide one night and the rear wheel went off the side of the road (about a 8" drop off). I went down and the rear dropout completely snapped on the frame. I took all the parts off it and am using some on this project (stem/bars/front brake etc). I need to take a closer look at that rear wheel to see what it has on it, but it may end up being used instead...

And to back up what you mentioned about the hubs being stamped with the year of manufacture - mine are stamped with an '83 - didn't get a pic of that yet. You can see the pic of the stamping on my BB in the BB photo, however. There is the deeply stamped 0583 as well as a lighter stamp just to the left that appears to be 0795 or 0796 (I'll have to check when I get home). I assume the other longer number is the serial number...