CR List, Greg, Jerry, Norris
Cleary i sold this frame for a Bernard Carré, what he was. For me was evidently not an Motobecane or MBK (Motobecane became MBK on 1983) and not sold for this. Probably is my fault to not add on descripition but not in my mind to lie or mislead the buyer. I prefere a good transaction and sell other thing. I known lot of ebay seller try to made the best price and minimize the defaut. Not me. For this frame i can't not tell was the marque on. If i'm right Motobecame come late on race and top line bicycle, probably 70's. Motobecane 1950's market target was popular motorbike and popular bicycle. Lejeune brother made by Carré and sometine Rene Herse for his best bike ( a Lejeune track bike made by rene herse was sold on ebay france last year). Bicycle knowledge is a long way...
Regards jaouen BAZIN wissous, France
Well, I think the B. Carre on the seatstay eyes is pretty conclusive, and this is in the Carre style, and we have the authoritative testimony of Jaouen and Norris. No doubt a Carre. What I question is whether it is actually a Motobecane as marked. Note that nowhere in the auction does Jaoun claim that it really is a Motobecane, and in assesing its value the Carre origin is much more important than what company's livery it originally carried. But the decals are clearly nonoriginal, particualrly the MBK decals, which are a couple of decades newer than to frame. MBK is the brand Motobecane has been using since emerging from bankruptcy, which I believe occrred in the 80's. Evidently the Motobecane name and logo was sold off in bankruptcy and is now sadly applied to lower end Chinese made TIGed Al bikes sold through bike store chains (and unfortunately the Mercier name and logo more recently fell into the same hands.)
Carre built for a number of marques, so Motobecane can't be ruled out, but he is probably most associated Sauvage-LeJeune, who Norris points out were only just up the road. And assuming the paint might be original, it happily matches the signature LeJeune color. Now were this a mid 70's frame redecaling it as a LeJeune would seem an attractive solution, as many LeJeunes in the 70's (including mine) carried simple white block letters with the LeJeune name. But as it is 50's, a problem arises in regard to the Sauvage bit of the Sauvage-LeJeuene livery. The decals will probably be hard to obtain and likely have not been widely reproduced, in part because the decals and even the name have today become highly politically incorrect.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Big Spring, Texas, USA