1979 Motobecane Child Racer 'Clean Up'

I've got a few bikes at home in the garage so I decided to recommission one of the old school kid's racer bike with my brother.

We have 2 Motobecane 3 speed drop bar racers, both from 1979. One blue, one red - We did the red one up.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a 'before' picture but you can imagine what state the bike in after being abused by various kids in the early 80's then store in a dusty loft for over 20 years...

This was a complete pull down, clean / polish / buff /grease and put back together, changed all cables (inner and outers), regreased all bearings, changed tyres and tubes, and retaped the bars.

Here are some pics - it took us about 2 days and 5 litres of beer to do it all.

We started with the wheels which took ages due to the pitting on the chrome. They came back up fantastic.

Here are all the parts cleaned and polished - ready to be refitted, Haynes Manual style!

Here is the beast finished. A lot of time and effort for a bike that's not really worth anything!

Great christmas project. Any question, please ask!

Vince

That's really nice, great job, would look great on top of my bookcase in the living room!

That looks really very shiny, great job, and a really lovely little bike.
What size is the frame / wheels?

Sweet..let me know if ur selling one of em

WOW! Really great. One of the best projects I've seen here for months, I think. Even with this brake cable routing.

That's awesome.

That's really nice, great job, would look great on top of my bookcase in the living room!

You better have a solid bookcase, the bike is about 9kg! They used to make quality solid stuff back in the day.

That looks really very shiny, great job, and a really lovely little bike.
What size is the frame / wheels?

Not sure about the frame size, it would be for a kid about 5-7 years old. The wheels are between 20 and 22 inches, tyres are 500A 440mm which are common on european juvenile bikes and some folding bikes.

Shinyness courtesy of WD40, Meguiar's all metal polysh and Belgom Chrome!

Sweet..let me know if ur selling one of em

Not sure how much these are worth, I know the parts to sort it out came to £50 but I really can't put a price on it!

WOW! Really great. One of the best projects I've seen here for months, I think. Even with this brake cable routing.

Thanks - cable brake routing is as per original fitting, the loops do look rather long.

It's funny how well made this was, such quality components on a kid bike - especially the brakes with Weinmann Type 730 and Dia Compe levers.

Also, I love that stem mounted bell. Sweet as.

Vince

Ace! That is all.

That is great work, looks fab.

Personally I would not have refitted blue cables and tape, even it was per original spec sometimes the manufacturers get it wrong, luckily I am here to put things right - hahahaha

What was your method for tarting the wheels up?

Great job btw.

I think the cables and tape was supposed to match the decal colour on the frame. Red / Blue isn't a bad combination.

Wheel wise, I have:

• Removed tyres/tubes/rim tape off the wheels then use steel wool to polish off the surface rust of the chrome (WD40 would have worked all the same), applied the same technique to each individual spoke;
  
• Polished the rims with Belgom Chrome and the spokes with Meguiars Metal Polysh;
  
• Degreased the hubs, bearings and cassette with chain degreaser;
  
• Regreased the ball bearings and the cassette;
  
• Used fresh Jantex cloth rim tape, new tube and new tyre.
  The wheels still need to be taken to a bike shop as the spoke tension is poor, although the wheels are true.
  
  

A long time spent on these to get them back up to what they look like now!!

It's surprisingly difficult to get good quality racing bikes for kids. It was almost impossible until Isla bikes came along. Really nice.

It looks a bit like the fork has been crashed non?

Fork are just at a weird angle and are definitively not bent - but being a kids bike that has been around 33 years, it would have had an eventful life and picked up grazes along the way.

I was asked to put a price on this little guy but it's a bit tricky - I've directed the enquirer to Isla bikes too.

They do a 7spd with STI levers for £399 which I think is a great price for what you get ( http://www.islabikes.co.uk/bike_pages/luath24.html ).

What size are the wheels?

What size are the wheels?

The wheels are between 20 and 22 inches diametre (closer to 22" really), tyres are french size '500A', which corresponds to 440mm ISO, A equates to narrow width, in this case, I took 28mm wide tyres.
These 500A tyres are common on european juvenile bikes and some folding bikes.

Intriguing! I'd like to build a decent bike for my little brother (who is a whole 15 years my junior) but even finding a suitable frame is difficult. He's stuck on one of those really awful Y-frame-looks-like-it-has-rear-suspension-but-actually-doesn't Tesco value bikes at the moment.

Must spread more rep before giving to Vince again.

Great project.

Nice job there.
I rebuilt a scruffy Raleigh '42' mini racer for my nine year old last year. I turned the original white padded saddle into a 'mini swallow'.

What's with all the "safety" levers around here?
Get rid of them, they're dangerous, especially for kids.

Whyso? Interested to hear, I had a bike with levers like those when I was a bairn.

Such a cool project. Reminds me of the kid in our gang who got a Raleigh Micron 5 for Christmas whilst we were all lusting after Ultra Burners and Falcon Thetas.
He came screaming around a corner on the drops in top (fifth!) gear one day, hit the brakes hard to avoid something in the road and performed a perfect forward-roll, still attached to the bike.

^^ Sheldon lists a number of reasons, but the inherent flex of the cheap ones (and they were all cheap) means that in emergency stops the lever has to be pulled up to, or even past the top of the bar to adequately slow you down. If you keep the brakes finely adjusted, ie, touchy, they will do the job, but just barely.
Better to either use regular drop levers and show the kids how to use them, or go with an upright style.

Excellent work Vince!
There's something very satisfying about a totally shit bike in NOS condition. I used to cycle past a Decathalon racer in Camberwell on my way to work every day... basically a totally rubbish bike, but so well looked after; it was stunning!

Christmas is upon us so I shall fix up the blue Motobecane child racer with my brother...
I will update this thread early next year!