Charles, Interesting you mention having two Motobecane Grand Jubile bikes:
I was walking back from my back door neighbor's house Sunday after discussing what we should do about some trees when I noticed a large silver bike laying against a pile of debris.
It appeared to be too large for me and way too large for him. I know that no one in his family was any taller than him, so I went back to ask about it.
He said he paid $3 for it in a yard sale.
It is a mighty fine Motobecane Grand Jubilee with mostly original parts (brakes and wheels were changed, but both derailleurs, shifter, seat, seat post, brake levers, stem and handlebar are all high end original French parts, but what really caught my eye was the clean Stronglight 49 crank and Stronglight Competition headset.
I told him it was worth a lot of money and was a collector's item. He offered to give it to me since it was too big for him to ride (tires are rotten also). I offered him $23, he said $20 would be enough, I said no you should get back your $3 plus the $20.
I would feel guilty but for three things: I have saved it from being left in the weather any longer and more importantly, I am willing to return it to it's owner if it was reported missing. The third is he is happy with the profit of $20.
I have published the photos of it - minus the bottom bracket.
http://s987.photobucket.com/
Recent threads about the recovery of stolen bikes and the ridiculous price of this one make me ask: What else should I do to determine if it were stolen other than ask the local police and post it here?
Can anyone tell me the year of this bike and if the tubing and fork is all Reynolds 531 DB or only partial? Also, what is the name of the rear Huret - Jubile? It looks good for larger freewheels.
Many Thanks,
Jon M. Crate Marietta, (Live in Woodstock) Georgia USA
-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of verktyg Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2010 2:17 AM To: john strizek; Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: Re: [CR] And I thought it was French
John,
Motobecane intermittently used Swiss threaded BBs on a lot of different models from at least the early 70s until the early 80s.
They also used SR cranks. That's probably where it came from.
BTW, I have 2 identical 1974 Motobecane Grand Jubile bikes. One has a standard French BB and the other a Swiss BB with LH threads on the fixed cup side.
Chas. Colerich Oakland, CA USA
john strizek wrote:
> Today when beginning to mock up a build for my wife based on a
Peugeot mixte, I found something I did not know about.
>
> Knowing the bottom bracket was French and that I was going from a
steel double to a Japanese single alloy crankset; I picked out of
my box of bottom bracket parts what i thought was a set of French
BB cups. They were Sakae SR cups clearly marked 35x1. The fixed cup
would not thread in. I tried another cup from a pair of Sugino
cups. That Sugino cup went right in. when I really looked at the
Sakae cups the fixed cup "said" 35x1L. It seems that somewhere I
picked up a set of Swiss cups by SR. I certainly never sought any
out, only French cups.
>
> I am keeping them for a future project that may have required
re-tapping to Italian if not for this fortuitous accident.
>
> I never knew SR/Sakae ever made any Swiss cups, much less French.
Has anyone else found such a pair?
>
> With the use of the Sugino cups I am now down to one pair of
French cups to use that will give me "modern" axle length choice at
a moderate price.
>
> Thanks for letting me run on. I was just amazed at this
discovery.
>
> john strizek
> sacramento california in the USA