rugerben

My mother was given a Motobecane Grand Jubile as a gift from my dad's parter some time in the mid 80's. She rode the bike about 100 miles or so, and then put it in the basement where it resided until last week she asked me to refurb it. "I WOULD LOVE TO!!!!" It was her birthday two weeks ago, and this was part of my present to her.


I brought the bike back to my house and got a good look at it. The paint has some sticky, dusty crap all over it and the metal was all dull and tarnished looking. First I addressed the frame. Simple Green cleaned up the paint perfectly.
Some Mother's Mag and Aluminum polish cleared up the metal lickity split!!! It was great!!
Then I cleaned off the gears and they looked like absolutely brand new.
Removed the chain and sprayed it down with brake cleaner, and then wiped down and scrubbed with a toothbrush and WD-40. It looked really nice and clean, but just to be sure I put it in a glass jar with some Mobil1 5w-30 fully synthetic motor oil. Well, after 2 days the perfectly clear motor oil was black!! It managed to leach out a ton of gunk!!
Anyway, wiped the chain down and used some FinishLine dry teflon lube on the chain. Grease on the gears, and reassembled the works! I adjusted the derailleurs to shift perfectly. I mean...perfectly. wow these are smooth.
I didn't take apart the bottom bracket, or hubs. I figure I know it was ridden so little that there is nothing to clean out. And even the old grease that is in there seems to be fine. Everything spins freely and very smoothly with no rattles bumps, rough spots etc....
I don't mess with a good thing.

Two coats of Turtle Wax and a polishing later, and oh wow is this thing...just delightful. I can't express how charmed I am by this elegant, perfect little bike.

Panaracer Pasela 700cX28 are on the way from Nashbar as is a new saddle since the plastic on the old one cracked up. The older IRC tires are in good condition, but as long as I am bothering to fix up the bike, might as well get everything like new for her. Unfortunately, I don't where to find that foam handlebar stuff the put on old bikes. That's great stuff!!!

Anybody have an idea how to date this old girl? Derailleurs are Suntour Cyclone, brakes are Weinmann, and wheels are 700c Arayas. The frame and fork are butted Vitus tubing.

Full Body Shot

Headbadge. (you can see it still has some turtle wax stuck in the crevices that I need to remove.)

Polished up Motobecane symbol handlebars

Fork to stem. I love this part of the bike.

The rear. Pure elegance.

Well, how'd I do guys?

stringbreaker

Oh man thats a beauty. Nice job

Blue Order

You did great! That bike is a beauty!

To date the bike, you have to use the date codes on the components. Use the Vintage Trek Component Dates page to help you with that. Good luck!

rugerben

Thanks guys.

Well, according to the link you provided, the derailleurs date from '79 and the brakes date to '80.
Seems the bike is older than I thought... interesting.

East Hill

Love those mixtes!

East Hill

Blue Order

Based on that, and with that headbadge and those graphics, I'd say the bike is a 1980-- graphics and headbadges changed after 1980.

rugerben

Wow. Good info!! Thank you.

Glad you guys are enjoying.

If you can think of anything else I can do for this bike that I may have missed, feel free to let me know. i'd love to do another favor for mom and her bike. It's truly a labor of love.

cizzlak

At least in the 70s, Motobecanes had the manufacture date (or, at least the year) stamped into the seat lug. Good work on cleaning it up, too. Those old Motos with the proper tubing and decent components are worth the time. Too bad most often you find low grade models like Super Mirage being sold by yahoos on craigslist for hundreds of dollars because they're "vintage"

bigbossman 

The dog wearing the helmet - priceless!

rugerben

Why thank you. That's my friend's dog, Booger. We love Booger. Funniest dog ever.

cyclotoine

Agreed, he looks so regal but the helmet just makes it hilarious.

Those new Giants are pretty well thought out commuter bikes. I have been assembling a few at work along with the carbon C-Dales and Cervelos.

rugerben

thank you about the dog.

I got the Giant TranSend as a commuter because I couldn't stand the thought of banging up my steel frame bikes!!! My C&V bikes like my Puch, Rampar, Specialized, and Raleighs are only light duty commuters and touring bikes for pleasure.

So I got the aluminum abomination to be my grocery getting machine, and something I can ride to school and whatnot. I actually really like it though. it really works very well. Especially since I tossed a DeoreLX derailleur on the back, that I had on another bike that I was selling. I rode 50 miles on it yesterday and it was great.
But still nothing like my steel babies.

Lamplight

This bike is just pure class in every way. Very nice job!

hxzero

Oh man, that is beautiful. I wish that my mom had a hidden treasure of a bike like that that I could fix up.

I think you should ditch the foam handlebar covers and go with the elkhide covers from V-O, I think those would look extremely classy and maybe you could go with a sprung Brooks on there, both the grips and saddle honey of course, to pick up the gum-wall tires.

WNG

Nice job! All these nice mixtes hitting the pages of C&V. First Stringbreaker, and now your's.

Great dog pic too. Made me laugh.

The Grab-On foam grips are still available online through their website.

dbarnblatt@usa.

Agree... it's 99% there! Super nice job! Maybe even some upright handlebars and make it a city bike! I restored a Motobecane Mixte last year and used this bike as my inspiration:

https://www.jitensha.com/eng/ebisumixte_e.html

Tacfarinas

I fixed up my Grand Jubile with a nitto stem, a nitto noodle bar, Cane Creek pseudo-ergo brake levers, and (most recently) Salsa top cross levers. I now feel MUCH more confident and comfortable. Obviously it's less authentic this way, and if your mother is happy the way it is of course you should leave it, but I was amazed at the difference the upgrades made. You feel much more in control with the wider bars and the Ergo-type hoods. You need to sand the Nitto stem down to make it fit, but that only took about 15 minutes.