Re: [CR]Motobecane History

(Example: Bike Shops)

From: <DTSHIFTER@aol.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2003 15:24:32 EDT
Subject: Re: [CR]Motobecane History
To: Dwhitney@sheridancorp.com, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org


Dave and CR'ers,

Welcome to The Classicrendezvous!!!!

Thanks for the post and the info from M. Edgerton. I concur with everything he said except with reference to the Weinmann brakes. The very early Grand Records (and Le Champions) were fitted with Universal 61's - I know because I bought a Grand Record (531 TUBES DE CADRE) in 1971 and it had Universal 61's. The Weinmanns appeared on GR's in either '72 or '73, and the Universals disappeared along with the yellow paint!!

I sold the Grand Record and bought a PX-10 in '72.......both are looooong gone :-(

Ocana won the Tour de France in '73 and the Team Champion became available the following year.

Have one for me at Gritty's!!!!!!

Regards,

Chuck Brooks Malta, NY

In a message dated 8/26/03 12:46:50 PM, Dwhitney@sheridancorp.com writes:

<< I'm a new lister that hasn't introduced myself yet, so I thought I'd share

some fun info I received from a former Motobecane sales rep - Mike Edgerton.

I purchased a Nuovo Record headset for my 1973 Grand Record frame to replace

the original Stronglite Competition, and he sent me the following note:

I was the first Motobecane sales rep in the state of Oregon many years ago.

I worked for a company called RH Brown that was the distributor for that

bike. The guy that imported the bikes into the US was a guy named Ben Lawee

that had a company in Long Beach, Ca. The original Grand Record (pronounced

Reh-coord) had three tubes of Reynolds 531(the main tubes), the rest was

chrome moly. It had a Stronglight cotterless crank set, Weinman center pull

brakes, Campy NR deraileurs front and rear, and clincher 27 X 1 1/4 tires.

The original model came in two colors, silver and black, and yellow and

black. A few years later they added Black with red and dropped the yellow.

The first Grand Champion ( the Luis Ocana bike, he won Le Tour that year)

that came into the country came in as a special order for me. I was racing

track primarily but trained on the road (as everyone else did). This little

French guy that was the factory rep measured me like I was buying a suit and

entered the order. That would have been an orange BIC colored bike. The next

year I got the first purple one. I also owned every Le Champion model.

Motobecane finally died in the US when they tried to eliminate the

distributors and main importer and go directly to the bike shops, hoping to

sell them mopeds as well. Becane is a slang word for bicycle in France and

Motobecane is the name they gave their mopeds. That was their big business.>>