Dear Todd:
There's no guarantee with any bike, but there's a few probablilies. If t he frame has a butted seat tube, a french frame of that vintage will 80% of the time take a 26.4mm seat post, with 26.6 being the next most common. My mid 70's Follis takes a 26.6. If the frame has a straight guage s eat tube, who knows? Somewhere in the late 70's/early 80's, the french b ikes went to english tubing sizes and the ubiquitous 27.2 became more commo n.
Don't buy an expensive post until you've had a chance to try several posts in the frame first. There is a frame sizing gadget that has multiple dia meters one after the other on a single rod. Most good shops have them, a nd will usually check post size when you bring the bike in. Of course th ey're hoping to sell you a post. I think over time I've gotten a sample of most of the common sizes, and keep them in the seat post box for detecti ve work.
Tom Adams
Manhattan, KS
From: Todd Grantham <wtgrantham@comcast.net> Subject: [CR] Seatpost size To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Date: Sunday, April 5, 2009, 6:58 PM
I am putting a 74 or 75 Motobecane Grand Jubilee together, can anybody
tell me what the seatpost size of this bike is?
Thanks
Todd Grantham
Fort Wayne, In USA