Brand

Used vintage Motobecane road bikes

Motobécane started in Pantin, outside Paris, in 1923 and 1924 as a motorcycle maker, and later built millions of Mobylette mopeds alongside its bicycles. Luis Ocaña won the 1973 Tour de France on a Motobecane, and the US catalogs of the 1970s ran from the Nomade and Grand Touring up to the Reynolds 531 Le Champion and the orange Team Champion. Motobecane fitted Japanese gears early, which Sheldon Brown credits to its US importer, Ben Lawee, and it used Swiss-thread bottom brackets on most models, with a left-hand fixed cup. The company failed in the early 1980s and was reorganized as MBK in 1984, with Yamaha taking control in 1986. Today's Motobecane USA bikes are made in Taiwan and have no link to the French company. Model names stayed while tubing and parts changed, sometimes downward, so match a Motobecane to the catalog for its year.

3 models we cover.