27motorhead
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That Leleu is exquisite. The detailing on it is stunning. I am in love! 
Vintage French randonneuer's and porteurs.
- Thread starter Guinessisgoodforyou
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That Leleu is exquisite. The detailing on it is stunning. I am in love! Guinessisgoodforyou
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I liked it a lot, you can see how the owner got attached quite quickly
27motorhead
Old School Grand Master
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Looks like a joy to ride as well as to look at. Bloody love bikes me!!!I liked it a lot, you can see how the owner got attached quite quickly
Guinessisgoodforyou
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Motobecane Profil 2. Early 80s.
A little out of the remit because it's a "Racer". It is unusual because everyone just binned them, it comes from the time of "Aero" in the early 1980s. No sniggering in the back. It's the owners first restoration, I think he should be feeling pleased with himself. Owners translation below.
Hello, this is my first renovation project. The base was in good condition, but it took a bit of elbow grease to restore the parts to their former glory. I was lucky enough to find a bottle cage and bottle on another bike.
It's not a high-end bike, but I like it. There aren't any interesting details, and the workmanship is a bit rough, but the desire to work on aerodynamics is there. I think there are several ranges, with Huret being the entry level, then Adamas and AX.
Motobécane seemed to work quite well with Huret, I have the same group on a Mirage Sport.
It's funny, I'd never seen this bike before I restored one, and since then, I don't see them on every street corner, but quite often.
A little out of the remit because it's a "Racer". It is unusual because everyone just binned them, it comes from the time of "Aero" in the early 1980s. No sniggering in the back. It's the owners first restoration, I think he should be feeling pleased with himself. Owners translation below.
Hello, this is my first renovation project. The base was in good condition, but it took a bit of elbow grease to restore the parts to their former glory. I was lucky enough to find a bottle cage and bottle on another bike.
It's not a high-end bike, but I like it. There aren't any interesting details, and the workmanship is a bit rough, but the desire to work on aerodynamics is there. I think there are several ranges, with Huret being the entry level, then Adamas and AX.
Motobécane seemed to work quite well with Huret, I have the same group on a Mirage Sport.
It's funny, I'd never seen this bike before I restored one, and since then, I don't see them on every street corner, but quite often.
Guinessisgoodforyou
rBotM Winner
Fin.
Guinessisgoodforyou
rBotM Winner
How are we still married and not divorced, we'll have to get them both together. Oh on second thoughts..Looks like a joy to ride as well as to look at. Bloody love bikes me!!!
27motorhead
Old School Grand Master
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Look forward to it. One day it'll happen Bob - along with the nuclear fallout of our wives agreeing what the hell are they doing still being with us bike dweebs, now there's a word I haven't heard for a while!!!
The thing I miss most about London is perving at all the amazing weird and wonderful bikes you see. Normally the most amazing bikes are ridden by people who have no idea about what they are riding and it's just a "form of transport" and then I pull up alongside them and talk to them like some crazy bike nerd... oh yeah, cos I am!
Guinessisgoodforyou
rBotM Winner
Motobecane T10 1979. A labour of love for his fathers bike. I love a good story and this is very good imo. Gets some proper use too, owners translation below.
As promised in my introduction, I am opening a thread here about my project to renovate a Motobécabe T10.
Some features:
It is largely original, with only the seat and tyres having been changed. The seat is extremely comfortable, which makes it a little anachronistic.
The 650*44 rear tyre fits very snugly into the rear mudguard and the bottom of the rear triangle. Don't expect to fit anything bigger.
One extra detail: this bike was bought by my father, so the plate engraved on it is in my name, which I'm happy about, and I have the original user manual. The manual even shows that hydraulic brakes were already available at the time.
It is worth noting that this 1979 T10 model has the famous Swiss thread with a left-hand pitch and no markings to indicate this. Fortunately, the last threads are visible.
Actually, it's a little too small. With the saddle at its maximum height, I'm 3 cm short of the right saddle height. So I managed to find a Decathlon seat tube in 23.4mm with an adapter up to 27.2mm that seems to fit. The original seat tube is 23.6mm. It's a shame to lose the original seat tube, but that's how it is. Or I'll have to find a saddle that's 3 cm thicker.
It's a ‘family’ bike, so I didn't have much choice in terms of size, but I tried it out quickly and apart from the saddle height being a bit low, it seemed pretty good. It's definitely not as comfortable as it was originally intended to be, but it shouldn't be any worse than what you see on modern racing bikes. It should be fine for Sunday rides, even if the ultimate goal is to ride from Lille to Hardelot 150 km.
I took apart everything I could to clean and re-grease it. Especially the bearings, crankset, steering, wheels, pedals, hubs. I noticed a bit of play in some of them, especially the pedals. Unfortunately, I couldn't do the freewheel because I couldn't dismantle the first sprocket to access the dismantling mechanism. I'll do that later when I have access to a vice. The last jobs were cleaning the bearings and reassembling them.
It's ready for Lille-Hardelot. Its had new tyres, inner tubes, rim tape, new cables, housing, new chain, new brake pads, new seat post and saddle too, but that's less exciting. I can't wait to try it out, I've never had a road bike before. Just the touring equipment to restore.
This weekend, I finally got to take the Motobécane out for a spin. Before that, I made a few minor modifications. I installed a new 14-24 freewheel (previously 14-2
, as the old one was making a nasty noise and I couldn't find a used 14-28 anywhere.
New pedals and toe clips. It's silly, but I've gotten so used to riding with clips that it annoys me not to have them.
I'm ready for my first ride in the Vexin region, particularly on the 25 km greenway that runs from Gasny to Gisors.
Result: this bike works very well.
This route is mainly asphalt the greenway is easily doable on a road bike, with a few small paths because we mustn't forget that it's a 650B. Not much elevation gain, but a small 9% climb that makes me think that the Alpine pass with 38 front and 24 rear won't be the same as with my mountain bike with 24 front and 42 rear.
There was also a lot of headwind, so I wasn't feeling great when I arrived, which doesn't bode well for Lille-Hardelot. This is my first time on a vintage road bike, so there are a few things I'll have to adjust to.
My goodness, those brakes!!! Being used to hydraulic disc brakes on a mountain bike, it was really terrifying at first! You really have to squeeze the levers hard to get a response. The brake pads are new, so I'll have to see if it's because they're poor quality, if they're not suitable for steel rims or if it's normal and it's just me who's biased because I'm used to discs.
Changing gears on the frame is quite a pain when you're not used to it! I don't dare change gears when I hear a car coming up behind me, because I swerve all over the place when I try to do it. It's a shame. With this system, you no longer try to optimise your cadence, but only change gears when it's really necessary.
Even though it has no suspension, you can clearly feel that the frame absorbs some of the vibrations, and the small gravel paths are very smooth.
The 5 gears are ultimately sufficient 99% of the time, but for the steep climb, the 28-tooth sprocket would have been nice.
The set of flat wrenches is heavier than the Allen keys in the bag, hahahaha!
It's much faster than my mountain bike, probably because of the aerodynamics, lower bike + curved handlebars. I had fun riding on a 560m flat Strava segment and was able to reach an average speed of 44 km/h, which was pretty much my top speed on my mountain bike. The dynamo is handy when you don't have a bell, as pedestrians can hear you coming from a long way off, hahahaha!
The wheels are very flexible, and you can hear them touching the brake pads when you're out of the saddle.
In any case, I really enjoyed riding it, and it reassured me quite a bit about using it in the road races I'm aiming for Lille-Hardelot, IOMCC and Anjoux vintage bike.
Don't worry, I wasn't doing 25 on the gravel paths. This tour was mainly on the road.
I did it again last weekend, pushing myself further. This time it was all tarmac. I started off more slowly and took more food with me. As a result, it went much better, and I still had energy left at the end, even though I wasn't exactly fresh either. For Lille Hardelot, it should be fine, but for the IOMCC, I'm supposed to keep up this pace for another 60 km to make the time barrier, which seems much more complicated to me.
With two punctures in quick succession. Damn glass. With the first puncture, I removed the piece of glass, but I didn't see the second one right next to it, which punctured the tube more slowly and caused a puncture 2 km further on. What bad luck!
As promised in my introduction, I am opening a thread here about my project to renovate a Motobécabe T10.
Some features:
It is largely original, with only the seat and tyres having been changed. The seat is extremely comfortable, which makes it a little anachronistic.
The 650*44 rear tyre fits very snugly into the rear mudguard and the bottom of the rear triangle. Don't expect to fit anything bigger.
One extra detail: this bike was bought by my father, so the plate engraved on it is in my name, which I'm happy about, and I have the original user manual. The manual even shows that hydraulic brakes were already available at the time.
It is worth noting that this 1979 T10 model has the famous Swiss thread with a left-hand pitch and no markings to indicate this. Fortunately, the last threads are visible.
Actually, it's a little too small. With the saddle at its maximum height, I'm 3 cm short of the right saddle height. So I managed to find a Decathlon seat tube in 23.4mm with an adapter up to 27.2mm that seems to fit. The original seat tube is 23.6mm. It's a shame to lose the original seat tube, but that's how it is. Or I'll have to find a saddle that's 3 cm thicker.
It's a ‘family’ bike, so I didn't have much choice in terms of size, but I tried it out quickly and apart from the saddle height being a bit low, it seemed pretty good. It's definitely not as comfortable as it was originally intended to be, but it shouldn't be any worse than what you see on modern racing bikes. It should be fine for Sunday rides, even if the ultimate goal is to ride from Lille to Hardelot 150 km.
I took apart everything I could to clean and re-grease it. Especially the bearings, crankset, steering, wheels, pedals, hubs. I noticed a bit of play in some of them, especially the pedals. Unfortunately, I couldn't do the freewheel because I couldn't dismantle the first sprocket to access the dismantling mechanism. I'll do that later when I have access to a vice. The last jobs were cleaning the bearings and reassembling them.
It's ready for Lille-Hardelot. Its had new tyres, inner tubes, rim tape, new cables, housing, new chain, new brake pads, new seat post and saddle too, but that's less exciting. I can't wait to try it out, I've never had a road bike before. Just the touring equipment to restore.
This weekend, I finally got to take the Motobécane out for a spin. Before that, I made a few minor modifications. I installed a new 14-24 freewheel (previously 14-2
, as the old one was making a nasty noise and I couldn't find a used 14-28 anywhere.New pedals and toe clips. It's silly, but I've gotten so used to riding with clips that it annoys me not to have them.
I'm ready for my first ride in the Vexin region, particularly on the 25 km greenway that runs from Gasny to Gisors.
Result: this bike works very well.
This route is mainly asphalt the greenway is easily doable on a road bike, with a few small paths because we mustn't forget that it's a 650B. Not much elevation gain, but a small 9% climb that makes me think that the Alpine pass with 38 front and 24 rear won't be the same as with my mountain bike with 24 front and 42 rear.
There was also a lot of headwind, so I wasn't feeling great when I arrived, which doesn't bode well for Lille-Hardelot. This is my first time on a vintage road bike, so there are a few things I'll have to adjust to.
My goodness, those brakes!!! Being used to hydraulic disc brakes on a mountain bike, it was really terrifying at first! You really have to squeeze the levers hard to get a response. The brake pads are new, so I'll have to see if it's because they're poor quality, if they're not suitable for steel rims or if it's normal and it's just me who's biased because I'm used to discs.
Changing gears on the frame is quite a pain when you're not used to it! I don't dare change gears when I hear a car coming up behind me, because I swerve all over the place when I try to do it. It's a shame. With this system, you no longer try to optimise your cadence, but only change gears when it's really necessary.
Even though it has no suspension, you can clearly feel that the frame absorbs some of the vibrations, and the small gravel paths are very smooth.
The 5 gears are ultimately sufficient 99% of the time, but for the steep climb, the 28-tooth sprocket would have been nice.
The set of flat wrenches is heavier than the Allen keys in the bag, hahahaha!
It's much faster than my mountain bike, probably because of the aerodynamics, lower bike + curved handlebars. I had fun riding on a 560m flat Strava segment and was able to reach an average speed of 44 km/h, which was pretty much my top speed on my mountain bike. The dynamo is handy when you don't have a bell, as pedestrians can hear you coming from a long way off, hahahaha!
The wheels are very flexible, and you can hear them touching the brake pads when you're out of the saddle.
In any case, I really enjoyed riding it, and it reassured me quite a bit about using it in the road races I'm aiming for Lille-Hardelot, IOMCC and Anjoux vintage bike.
Don't worry, I wasn't doing 25 on the gravel paths. This tour was mainly on the road.
I did it again last weekend, pushing myself further. This time it was all tarmac. I started off more slowly and took more food with me. As a result, it went much better, and I still had energy left at the end, even though I wasn't exactly fresh either. For Lille Hardelot, it should be fine, but for the IOMCC, I'm supposed to keep up this pace for another 60 km to make the time barrier, which seems much more complicated to me.
With two punctures in quick succession. Damn glass. With the first puncture, I removed the piece of glass, but I didn't see the second one right next to it, which punctured the tube more slowly and caused a puncture 2 km further on. What bad luck!
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Guinessisgoodforyou
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Guinessisgoodforyou
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