Tired Wheel Deal IV: Motobecane Grand Record from the 70s

For all of you out there following the Tired Wheel entries astutely, you will notice that I have skipped over entry number III and proceeded directly to IV. Do not be afraid. Number III is in the hopper and awaiting the upload of some final images, after which prepare to be blown away by a bike that enjoys cult status thanks to the mystique of its enigmatic designer, a man who currently plies his trade in the Bay Area and still makes road bikes with lugs.

In the meantime, here is a counterweight to that ugly Mirage I posted previously, a lovely old Motobecane Grand Record built with Reynolds 531 tubes in the days when brazed-on housing and cable guides were out of fashion and the French still hadn't figured out how to paint metal (note the closeup image of the top tube below for evidence).

Since it is so French, and I haven't the parts or patience to deal with that, I did not build this bike up, but sold it to a friendly older chap who I can only imagine had some extra time on his hands in between building his own wooden kayak and climbing Mt Rainier.

Tired Wheel Deal I: Motobecane Mirage Mixte

There were about 4,000,000,000 of these bikes made back in the glory days of French bicycles. Motobecane was the biggest mass-producer of French bikes during the days this was made, but it has since gone bankrupt, so any new bikes you see carrying the Motobecane name are certainly made in Taiwan (not that there is anything innately wrong with that, despite some snobs' protestations to the contrary, but it is certainly quite a different operation than the French production plants).

Fortunately this bike did not suffer from the usual complications that come with being French, however. During the bike boom days of the late 70s and early 80s, all you had to do was slap "made in France" on the side and it upped the value $200. The Mirage was the bottom of the line, cranked out in huge numbers. The heavy straight-gauge 1020 Motobecane steel tubing, original steel wheels and stamped dropouts (among other things) reveal it to be a remarkably unremarkable bike. But it is still lugged steel, and made with the highly functional yet highly misunderstood Mixte design, so bikes of this caliber always have the potential to be spruced up into perfectly decent city bikes for commuting, grocery getting, etc.

When I got this bike it was all stock, and rusty. Suntour drive train (VX if I recall correctly), stem-mount shifters, did I mention steel wheels? I tossed the wheels and replaced them with mismatched alloy-rimmed guys (the rear was a nicer Suzue with an ACS freewheel spun onto it).

Also swapped out the cranks for a set of RX100 (with a single ring of course).

MISSING PICS WILL BE BACK UP SHORTLY