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Hi, Nate Taylor here. Please reach out to me at nate@sscycleworks.com for inquiries on parts availabilities and shipping estimates.

South Salem Cycleworks Museum:
Owner Michael Wolfe’s 60cm Motobécane Grand Record

Owner Michael Wolfe’s 60cm Motobécane Grand Record bicycle

• 60cm center-to-center seat tube
• 59.5cm top tube
• 17.7cm head tube
• 43cm chainstays
• 130cm wheelbase
• 7.0cm bottom bracket drop
• 1" French-threaded steel steering tube
• 24 pounds with pedals
• Built entirely with Reynolds 531 double-butted tubing.
• Serial # 3859n85-D17-704
• 1974 model

A beautiful classic bike from a half-century ago.

Bike specs:

• Idéale Swallow saddle.
• Simplex Super LJ 26.4mm seatpost
• Simplex Super LJ shifters and derailleurs, Huret cable guide clamp
• Stronglight Model 49D square taper 170mm crankset with 42/52 chainrings.
• Stronglight French-threaded bottom bracket
• Mavic 640 SSC pedals, cartridge roller bearing inside, ball bearing cartridge outside.
• ALE toe clips
• Silva laminated toe straps
• Sachs Sedisport chain
• Mafac 2000 brakeset, Huret top tube housing clamps
• Stronglight V4 Competition 1” threaded headset
• Cinelli 1R 13cm stem
• Cinelli Model 65 coat-of-arms bar, 40cm c-c.
• Cinelli Cork handlebar wrap
• Front wheel built with Plessier 2000 36-hole cartridge bearing hub cartridge, Araya 20A rim & DT Revolution 15/17/15 spokes, with DT 7005 alloy nipples.
• Rear wheel built with Plessier 2000 36-hole cartridge bearing hub, Araya 20A rim, with DT Revolution 14/17/14 gauge spokes driveside, cross three; 15/17/15 gauge spokes non-driveside, with 7005 alloy nipples.
• SunTour New Winner UL 7-speed 13-26 freewheel
• Rox rim strips
• Michelin Airstop threadless tubes
• Michelin HiLite SuperComp HD 700x 23 tires
• T.A. Specialties cage

I rode this Motobecane on the Peach of a Century, in the fall of 2016. Trying to stay in a paceline of riders using electric shifting 11s was difficult, as the 7s 13-26 meant the gear changes were far wider apart than those of the 11s cassettes, and reaching the downtube shifters to shift, or re-shift, albeit fractions of a second, would cause me to lose ground.  Repeated catching up to the paceline was tiring and by the time I reached Stayton, I had no energy, though in hindsight, it might have been the coming effects of the cancer that would hit me hard the following spring.

Detail pictures of the Motobécane:

Here's the bike's non-drive side.

Front view

From behind

The cockpit

Side view of one of the Mafac brake levers.

Side view of the cockpit, showing the black-anodized Cinelli 1R stem, the Stronglight V4 Competition and a scalloped Nervex lug. C'est parfait!

The top Nervex head lug.

The lower Nervex head tube lug

Front view of the Cinelli 1R stem and Model 65 Giro d'Italia handlebars

Head tube and front Mafac 2000 brake caliper

Close-up of the head tube and the head-tube badge.

One of the Cinelli bar end plugs.

The Idéale Swallow saddle showing where a rat had gnawed on it a bit.

The saddle from behind.

Side view of the saddle showing the rat gnawed spot.

Close-up of the nose of the Idéale saddle

The Simplex Super LJ seat post.

Close-up of the Simplex seat post.

The tup tube with Huret housing clips.

The downtube

The wraparound seat stay junction.

Seat tube Reynold decal

On the downtube: Simplex Super LJ retrofriction shift levers. Until index shiftring came along, these were by far the finest shifters made by anyone.

Of course, a classic T.A steel water bottle cage with a Motobécane bottle

A beautiful Stronglight 49D crankset.

The Simplex Super LJ front derailleur

One of the Mavic 640 SSC pedals

Close-up of the back of one of the pedals.

A Silva toe strap

The Silva toe strap end button makes a nice finishing touch.

The rear Mafac 2000 brake caliper

The SunTour UL 7-speed Winner freewheel

The rear Simplex Super LJ rear derailleur

Side view of the fork

The Pelissier 2000 front hub

Front quick-release skewer.

The rubber: Michelin Hi-Lite Supercomp HD 23's

Serial number on the bottom bracket

The bottom bracket shell rotated a bit to show the rest of the number.