Motobécane 'Gran Jubilé' conversion

This isn't really a 'Gran Jubilé' at all, rather a dirt-cheap post-pub eBay accident that I plan to build up loosely along the lines of my Raleigh 'Super Course' town bike-like project but this time fixed.

So that means a tough powdercoat paint job, some older-than-it-actually-is period decals (like the look oif the Gran Jubilé) and chunky tyres for that (tow) path racer look. Here's the frame stripped and ready for its trip to Armourtex:

It's actually a Motobécane Super Sprint and I think its dates from around 1979ish, maybe early 80s. I quite like the decals but they are way beyond saving - and that green/gold/brown mix is quite charming too. Sadly the frame has many a scratch and scrape plus its fair share of rust along with those peeling stickers. Tubing is slightly less-than-light Vitus 888 (shouldn't have to worry about dropping down the odd kerb) and the equally sturdy forks have a little 'M' stamped in the crown. .

Anyway, it's at the paint shop now for blasting and a coat of something brozey-brown with a light metallic. More pics once I've picked it up.

It's back from Armourtex. Nice job - sort of metallic brown-grey. Hard to photograph without a better camera but has a nice sort-of-sepia look to it:

The little 'M's on the fork crown still clearly visible under the powdercoat - an unexepected detail for a low-end frame.

These are the decals I'm planning to use. You have to imagine a bit as the tubing is really Vitus 888 rather than 172 and the frame is obviously a late-'70s Super Sprint and not a Grand Jubilé (just realised I missed the 'd' off the title of this post - shit):

I'll stick these on tomorrow and should have the wheels and tyres ready, so better pics then I hope.

Very nice colour! Its great the fork details are still visible under the powdercoat. Sometimes it can be a little too thick. Be great to see how this turns out.

This looks lovely, looking forwards to seeing it built up

wow, the decals are lush!

where did you get 'em and what did you pay?

looking forward to see more of this beauty!

Decals were from Greg Softly (Cyclomondo) via eBay and cost about £30 including postage. Good quality too. Since then eBay has been flooded with UK decal suppliers (some very helpful that will do one-offs from Illustrator files) but not much for Motobecane yet. And they aren't always that much cheaper than Greg.

One of the primary requirements for this bike is to handle a gravel path - I live in Richmond and would like to lap the park without sticking to the roads. Wheels, then, are wide Alex rims (DM18s I think) laced to Formula hubs probably in a factory somewhere in Taiwan. They were an unused £50 bargain on eBay from someone who no doubt got up-sold to a pair of white Velocitys or something. Their deep-V obsession worked out well for me as these are robust but still vagauely classic looking.

Tyres were a closing-down impulse purchase from Velorution on Great Portland Street. Still not 100% on colour (especially as Panaracer make the gumwall Pasela tyre in a 700x35 and they would look great) but these were better than half price - and they offset the brown paint. Will see what they look like after a bit of use.

This frame, being a bit closer to the scaffold-pole end of the range than you might prefer, has clearances you could almost sit in. Plenty of room for mudguards but the idea is these chunky tyres will fill up the acreage nicely:

Brakes are polished pretty-much-new-old-stock Spidel made, I think, by Mafac and are of about the right period. There's a bit more room beneath them and the top of the tyre than the picture suggests:

The original brakes were similar but cheaper-looking. Had some nice little 'M' motifs but were well worn and, well, didn't make the grade.

Hope to get the remaining decals on the frame later tonight and then there is a crankset dilemma to solve...

Colours are really good, not that Paselas wouldn't work, but here it's more unusual, and quite attractive...

Spidel is sweet stuff... I read this somewhere and saved it as I have spidel cranks on my Mercier track bike:
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Spidel did not take over anyone. It was a top end component group formed by French manufacturers in response to Shimano, Suntour and Campagnolo who were producing complete groupsets. Mafac, Maillard, Stronglight, and Simplex were the main members. Later Modolo provided brakes for the groupset upon the demise of Mafac. Super Champion may have also been involved to a small extent, but I cannot say I have ever seen a Spidel rim. I have a NOS crankset with the arms marked Spidel and the rings still marked Stronglight. Obviously the venture did not fare too well.
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Keep posting!

Thanks VeLLo - think I read something along those lines too. Off topic question - I saw (and tried really hard not to buy!) that Mercier bike of yours. Are the Spidel cranks track ones? If so, what BB axle width did you use? I plan to use a pair of Spidel trank cranks on this...

Decals finished tonight. Pleased with the result - the gold goes perfectly with the brown and the splashes of blue add something too (I sound like I imagine my parents did when they finished painting their front room in the '70s):

All went on ok, although undecided about the head and seat tube yet. Original decal detail I can find by looking up old Grand Jubilees suggests a head badge design I don't have in sticky form, so I might hold out for a metal one. Seat tube appears to need a sticker similar to the silver one in the pack above, but it looks big on the frame so needs some thought too.

Some of the old frames I found have bands on the seat tube - not supplied but I have some left over from a Raleigh set I may be able to use if the gold is a close enough match. Learned at cost on previous builds not to rush these things so going to live with it for a while first, make the decision once it's built up.

You're right to be pleased - the frame looks very smart and presentable. Not convinced by tyre choice yet, but that could change once more parts are thrown on.

Thanks VeLLo - think I read something along those lines too. Off topic question - I saw (and tried really hard not to buy!) that Mercier bike of yours. Are the Spidel cranks track ones? If so, what BB axle width did you use? I plan to use a pair of Spidel trank cranks on this...

On the Mercier I've installed a NOS Dura Ace bottom bracket (complete, so the axle is DA too) Not sure about ISO / JIS standard here, but it fits perfectly, with a perfect chain line...

Nice stickers, it looks great like this... Have you considered gold lug lining? I did that on an old black Holdsworth, with gold enamel paint from a model shop and a very small brush, if you do it while your bike is not built, it's easier... If you don't do it, what about the M of motobecane on the fork crown at least? Just a thought...

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That looks really great! I would go with black or gumwall tyres personally, though.

What's the exact colour/lacquer combination?

I like the tyre choice. Reminds me of this Trek (and would do even more with the orig. paint).

VeLLo, thanks for the reply. Fortunately there was a BB with the Suire/Peugeot frame so I'll start with that and see how I get on. As for the luglining, maybe... I bought a paint pen from London Graphic Centre and it worked a treat on another bike. It's just that it's basically irreversible (or at least fiddly to remove) if it doesn't turn out right. To outline the 'M' is a tempting idea though, hadn't thought of that. Hmmm...

Lae, stupidly I didn't make note of the colour choice. Armourtex actually sprayed it twice - the first attempt was a brown/black solid powdercoat with a metallic lacquer but it came out looking like a disco ball. The metallic lacquer is hard to apply evenly and it looks a bit like the metal-flake craze on '50s American hot rods. Think they clocked the look of utter disappointment on my face and very kindly resprayed - we chose the new colour (metallic powdercoat with a clear lacquer) on the spot and I didn't scribble it down. I'll ask them next time I'm up there.

And agreed about the tyres. I'm still pondering those but they were soooo cheap. Problem is everything I build eventually ends up on gumwalls (must be a reason for that I suppose). I chose cream/white tyres for the CIOCC and ended up dismantling the whole bike in favour of a period geared restoration - I'm sure it was the tyres that sparked it. Think I'll build this one up and see. Maybe with some gold luglining...

Edit... doppelkorn, that Trek is spot-on what I was thinking for this bike, maybe turning down the all-terrainness by about 10%. Going to stick with the cream tyres. For now.

Did this go any further? Bike was shaping up nicely!

Fyoosh - hello - thanks for the note. Work stopped play for a few months but just started this up again. Bought some Andel cranks from Herne Hill the other weekend and fitted an old chainring I polished up:

Partial assembly of the bike happening this afternoon but I need a saddle and seatpost (26.4) to finish. Fancy a sprung Brooks...

hey ...stay with the cream tyres...anything of this type of non sporty utitily bike in france in the late 60's early 70's would have had cream tyres...or brick red...so far it's lush...good work!

i'd do the fork crown M's with a gold pen so i would

This is a really nice project! The color of the frame looks very nice and the decals are also top notch. Did you apply them on top of the clear coat? Also, might I ask have you removed the anodising on the Campy cranks? The Americans seem to use Easy-Off oven cleaner, but that isn't available in Europa as far as I know.

Nice frame, really like it.

This is a really nice project! The color of the frame looks very nice and the decals are also top notch. Did you apply them on top of the clear coat? Also, might I ask have you removed the anodising on the Campy cranks? The Americans seem to use Easy-Off oven cleaner, but that isn't available in Europa as far as I know.

they're campy copies...;) they're good value, (I'd prefer them with the opaque anodising tho) and they do look nice, I agree with picking out the 'M' on the fork crown, and also the lugs would look lush in gold with the decals, even maybe some gold boxing on the forks or seat tube, ,quiet a few pugs from that era that were french imports had loads of detailing compared to the english market equivalent.
Alot of the late 60's early 70's bikes had quite a lot of detailing even those that weren't too expensive, tho whatever you choose I think you are doing well with the styling, the colour is really nice, and as you don't see it that often it does stand out.
Without rambling on, I so like bikes getting a 'sympathetic' restoration, when I was 'doing' cars the tricky part was not making them look too fresh, I once saw an amazing D-type Jag that the guy had restored and the attention to detail was phenomenal, he'd corroded all the fresh ali with special concoction of salt water and other secret ingredients, so that everything looked as tho it had been used for 40 years, the build was 4 months old and looked like it had been rolled out of dust covers after sitting for an aeon.
I always aimed for that and to see it done so well, really helped me with further restorations, my Cooper (before it was stolen) any part that was too 'new' I set about to age a little bit, I buried the newly stamped engine and body number tags in wet salty rags in the garden for 3 months. Which sounds a bit mad tho they looked so good when I dug them up.
Thats what is so nice about some of the bikes we are seeing from the Netherlands...It helps with people restoring bikes so that our frame of reference is continued, even tho we are quite used to seeing super original bikes on here... out in the real world, unless you are a cycle geek and go to jumbles, you don't see that that often, anything used on the street is always some bastardised version for the persons own preference over 20-30 years...I'm all for hipster sleds...some are slick and I do like them tho like I always go on about (me ...never...;D) the romance and patina that you get from bikes that were from the golden age of cycling hero's ie Taylor, Coppi, Magni or Merckx...
Now the sanitised sporting world would never allow Magni to race with a broken collar bone...even then win a stage with a broken collar bone and a broken femur in the middle of a snow storm...
Which bring us back to your project, attention to detail is the key, as old builders generally had more time, they could fart about with detailing more... or
Anyhow...back to your build...nice, keep up the good work, things that are prepared well ride better, it's all a bit zen tho it's tru, anyone that has built a lot of bikes will tell you it's the small things make the big things better...

People go on about the purists on here and other forum going for function over form with old groupsets over a new 11 speed, tho a well set up bike with old components rides well, and you know your riding, I used to be tired after driving the cooper and music was a bit lost in the sound of the engine. because you were involved, you had to drive it...it didn't drive itself. I think that's a little like old bikes...tho the tiring thing is different, they aren't really tiring...just more involving. I find new bikes...a little bland, I rode a new bmc the other day...and it was nice, it was a good ride, it was fast... I could get used to it...and If I was in a competition I suppose I would use one, but just didn't do it for me. Wow...now I am rambling...keep up the good work.

subbed - love it so far!

subbed, can't wait for the finished product.