Daveyates

I went to my local bike shop today and noticed this very nice Motobecane hanging up.

It is Colombus tubing but not sure which one.

It's an ex pro bike with a number holder braze on.

A bit of the paint has flaked off at the bottom of the headtube and it was chromed underneath.
So this frame appears to be fully chromed under the paint.

Full Campagnolo.

Heres a photo i took to show you guys, what do you think to it?

due ruote 

Spiffy, although I do prefer their earlier graphics. Looks like early 80s maybe?

OldsCOOL

I dont know which or how old but I want it.

That wouldnt be the alu Litage FX fork, would it?

rootboy 

Pretty cool, Dave. Jim Muller, are you looking at this? Graphics pretty much the same as your frame.
Is that deep burgundy color? Pretty.
Did the shop owner know the model, if any?

KenNC

Very nice! I am fond of Motobecanes....

auchencrow

My guess is it's an "a la carte" built model. Verrry nice!
Any guess what year it is based on the group?

billnuke1 

Your size? For sale?

jimmuller 

I have seen it now, thanks to Rootboy. The research I did says that that decal pattern was started in '84 on the CT, which was a special order bike. At least one color option would have been "night blue", but perhaps there was a burgundy option too. IIRC, it came with chrome fork for some years, but none of the catalog pics showed the fully chromed rear. From what little detail I can see the frame detailing does look like my bike.

Pretty cool!

A quick look at an '84 catalog shows "night blue" as the color, no burgundy option. Also fully chromed fork and rear, just like that one.

Catnap

Wow, a Motobecane that looks gorgeous! I haven't seen many that I can say that about. Looks like a very classy machine.

zazenzach

what a stunner!

kroozer 

Huh? Of course this is a matter of personal taste, but a lot of folks think the 1970's Motobecanes were some of the prettiest mass-production bikes made. Even their lower-end stuff looked great.

rootboy 

What I noticed, Jim, is that the decals on this bike …size and placement…look like yours, as I remember. Much bigger than the decals show in the domestic 84 catalog, though the CT is not shown I don't think. Leading me to believe yours might be a European market bike.

Daveyates

No too small for me. I think it is a 1000 euros.
If anyone is interested i can pass along the shop details.

Daveyates

If i remember right it's a dark chocolate colour.
I would imagine it's a custom build so no model name exists.

I have also had a custom build Motobecane before with the same decal font.

Daveyates

Here you can see the chrome under the paint on the headtube.

rootboy 

Neat bike. Didn't happen to get a shot of the head badge, did you Dave?

Daveyates

I shall have a look and see, if so will upload it later.

rootboy 

Thank you. Just curious.

repechage

Thanks Dave. I smiled when I saw the VeloOrange packaging hanging on the wall behind.

jimmuller 

Yes but... The font on my bike is mono-color white. That bike's font appears to have an outline. On my bike the lettering appears to be painted or stenciled on so it wouldn't necessarily be the same as anything.

There are a few other differences in the frame. On my bike the seat stays aren't scalloped and the bevel cut isn't as long. My stays wrap over the top of the seat lug, almost but not quite touching at the top. On that bike they do not appear to go over the top. On my bike the cut on the back of the seat lug extends below the bottom edge of the lug. However all the lugs I can see in the pics do appear similar to mine. The fork crown is different. On my bike the points on the corners are much longer. (A month or so ago I knew what it was, but I've forgotten.)

All of which is to say that bike looks like what someone wanted mine to look like but isn't.

I think I recall imagining thinking seeing burgundy as an option in a catalog on one of the high-end Motos, but haven't seen it lately. Perhaps it was in a French catalog. The models weren't directly comparable with the US catalogs, so it did me no good at tracing the details of mine. If I can find it again I'll post something.

Daveyates

I was waiting for someone to pick up on that.

dweenk 

I have a mid-seventies Mirage. I think Motobecane had the best looking bikes at that time - very classy and understated. Even though the Mirage was sort of low-end, it has a wonderful ride. I rode it to a local bike swap last spring and got lots of favorable comments on it. Mine is now single-speed (freewheel) with upright bars. It's my "cruising around bike", but I have stored all of the original parts.

Catnap

Other than the Grand Record and Grand Jubilee models of the mid-70's (before they went with Japanese components), I'm just not a big fan of them. I'm referring to this paint scheme:

rootboy 

Yeah. That's the late 70's and early 80's paint scheme. Not too much a fan of those graphics either. But the mid 70's ones? Those are nice.

Catnap

It's not just the graphics - I haven't seen any Motobecanes from that era (late 70's - early 80's) that are high-quality, in terms of the lugs, tubing, or components. they all seem to be mid- to low-end.