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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration Bicycle After Restoration |
May is mostly tune up month around here. The temps start getting nice, the chill is gone, at least sometimes and things dry out which gets everyone thinking about there bike and a tune up. That slows down restoration work a bit but between the tune ups I have been able to start work on this early 1980's Motobecane Grand Touring. I place it in the early 1980's mainly on that a lot of the quirky things about a 1970's Motobecane are not here.
At first glance at the Motobecane Grand Touring I see a very understated but very classy bike under the grime and dullness. The Grand Touring has some nice Rigida alloy wheels, center pull brakes that I prefer over the side pull brakes from the era and what I think is going to be a very nice paint color when polished.
The Motobecane is in descent starting shape, the paint is dull and has a few chips but I think it will polish beautifully. I think all the alloy will polish beautifully and in the end the Motobecane will be a stunner.
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Before |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Before Handlebars |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Before Brake Levers |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Before Stem |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Before Head Badge |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Before Front Brake |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Before Fork Crown |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Before Front Wheel Hub |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Before Front Wheel Rim |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Before SR Stem |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Before Top Tube Decal |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Before Shift Levers |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Before Down Tube Decal |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Before Saddle |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Before Tubing Decal |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Before Crank |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Before Sun Tour Front Derailleur |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Before Bottom Bracket |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Before Pedals |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Before Cable Hanger |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Before Rear Brake |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Before Sun Tour Rear Derailleur |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Before Rear Wheel Hub |
I really like the color of the frame, its kind of between a khaki green and a bronze. I think its a cool understated color. Not crazy bright but rather classy. With the components striped from the frame I see the paint to be in okay shape. There is a lot of dullness and some chips and scuffing but I still think it will polish very nice.
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Before |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Before Head Tube |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Before Head Tube |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Before Top Tube |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Before Down Tube |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Before Seat Lug |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Before Seat Lug |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Before Seat Tube |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Before Bottom Bracket |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Before Bottom Bracket |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Before Bottom Bracket |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Before Seat Lug |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Before Seat Stays |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Before Chain Stays |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Before Drop Outs |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Before Fork |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Before Fork Crown |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Before Fork Crown - Cool Black Accents |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Before Fork Blade |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Before Chrome Fork Drop Outs |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Before Fork Blade |
I did a deep cleaning of the frame and started the polishing with a course grit to remove the scuffs and scratches. With the course grit complete I worked threw a few finer grits. I am thrilled with the results, the frame looks fantastic with mainly just a few spots of cable rub and where the cable brackets go. The color is a really nice classy color and the black and gold accents are perfect!
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Polished |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Polished Head Tube |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Polished Head Tube |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Polished Head Tube |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Polished Top Tube |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Polished Down Tube |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Polished Top Tube |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Polished Seat Lug |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Polished Bottom Bracket |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Polished Bottom Bracket |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Polished Bottom Bracket |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Polished Seat Stays |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Polished Chain Stays |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Polished Drop Outs |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Polished Fork |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Polished Fork Crown |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Polished Fork Crown |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Frame Polished Fork Chrome Drop Outs |
The bottom bracket and headset went into the crock pot for cleaning and then polishing. The pieces cleaned and polished beautifully, I am very pleased. One of my favorite photos during a restoration is always the one of the polished headset and bottom bracket pieces, there is always such a big difference before and after.
Somehow I forgot to take before photos of the rear wheel. The wheels really came out nice, the hubs look great polished, the rims really look great polished and the wheels are true and spin forever. I love this stuff!
Just for posterity, the little odometer on the front wheel was at 2436 miles. Cool to know.
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration Front Wheel - Before |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Front Wheel Hub Before |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Front Wheel Rim Before |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Front Wheel Hub Old Grease |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Front Wheel Hub Polished |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Wheel Axle Pieces Ready |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Front Wheel Bearings Packed |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration New Tires & Tubes |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration Front Wheel Complete |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Rear Wheel Hub Old Grease |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Rear Wheel Hub Polished |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Rear Wheel Bearings Packed |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration Rear Wheel Complete |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Wheels Complete |
Its now time to wire the Grand Tour and install the handlebar tape. I think the Ice Grey cable housings and black handlebar tape are the way to go on the Motobecane. The Motobecane really looks good with the handlebar tape installed and the cables run.
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - New Bits & Pieces |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Wired |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Wired |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Wired |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Handlebar Tape Installed |
Last thing is the pedals, pedals take a beating and these pedals have taken a beating but they still spin really smooth so I am going to try to save them. I cleaned the pedals and started the hand polishing. The pedals cleaned really nice and polished pretty good considering how they started. They spin extremely smooth and look pretty good installed.
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Pedals Before |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Pedals Complete |
That completes the Motobecane. It was raining at the time of completion today so tomorrow I will test ride the Motobecane and take the final photos. The Mototbecane looks great on the stand.
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Complete |
I was able to test ride the Motobecane this morning, after a few adjustments I am shocked by the ride, very nimble, very fast and smooth, I was not expecting that at all! I figured the Motobecane would be more on the heavy side for the era which is not a bad thing because the heavier bikes from the era ride like Cadillacs. The Motobecane rode more like a sports car.
Another surprise was the brakes, I don't know if it was the weather or what but they worked so well I almost flipped it on the first brake test, amazing.
I am extremley pleased with the Motobecane Grand Touring, it rides like lighting and feels great. The best part might be its understated classy looks, its a snake in the grass.
When I was carrying the Motobecane around and riding it it felt a lot lighter then I was thinking so when I was done with the test ride I decided to weigh it. The Motobecane comes in at 25 lbs 1 oz, very very respectably for steel and the era, very cool!.
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration 25 lbs 13 Oz |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Complete |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Complete |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Complete Front |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Complete Handlebars |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Complete Handlebars |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Complete Head Badge |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Complete Front Brake |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Complete Front Wheel Hub |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Complete Stem |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Complete Head Tube |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Complete Shift Levers |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Complete Front Half |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Complete Top Tube |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Complete Down Tube |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Complete Seat Tube |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Complete Bottom Bracket |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Complete Crank |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Complete Front Derailleur |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Complete Rear Derailleur |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Complete Saddle |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Complete Rear Brake |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Complete Rear Wheel Hub |
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Early 80's Motobecane Grand Touring Restoration - Bicycle Complete Rear |
Thank You!
John Z.
I have this exact model from a few year earlier -77 or 78 - in the same color scheme, even the Vitus tubing decal on seat tube has worn the same! (http://ryansrebuilds.blogspot.com/2014_05_01_archive.html) I bought it a year ago after looking for one for years and plan do to the complete tear down this summer. Very cool to see yours go through your process and come out beautifully as usual.
ReplyDeleteI have two of this model- Motobecane Grand Touring from very early 80's. On one, I did a tour from California to Massachusetts in 1995. On the other, I did Alaska to Florida in 2008 and an 8,000 mile All-48-US-States tour in 2014. I love this bike. It fits me well and rides like a dream. I will never tour on any other. Currently restoring both to do RAGBRAI with my nephew this summer. Thank you for showing your restoration in such great detail.
ReplyDeleteAmazing! How many hours did you spend on this restoration and what kind of polishing tools do you use?
ReplyDelete