Motobécane
Encyclopedia
Motobécane was a French
manufacturer of bicycle
s, moped
s, motorcycle
s, and other small vehicles, established in 1923. "Motobécane" is a compound of "moto", slang for motorcycle; "bécane" is slang for "bike."
In 1981, Motobécane filed for bankruptcy and was purchased by Yamaha and reformed in 1984 as MBK ; the French company continues to make motorscooters.
It has no relation to Motobecane USA, which imports bicycles from Taiwan
manufactured to their specification by Kinesis Industry Co. Ltd. under the Motobécane trademark
.
shaft-drive inline-four engine motorcycle in 500 cc. During this period, the firm entered road racing
competitions and won the Bol d'or
endurance race.
After the Second World War they produced the single-cylinder D45 motorbike that filled a need for cheap transportation. The successor was the Z46, equipped with modern suspension. Like many European motorcycle manufacturers, the 1960s proved difficult for Motobécane as cars became affordable. As a result, sales decreased. The arrival of cheap, efficient Japan
ese motorcycles also hurt sales. They continued to produce two-cylinder 125cc motorcycles throughout the 1970s. They also manufactured a small number of two-stroke, three-cylinder 350cc and 500cc bikes.
For a time in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the company competed in Grand Prix motorcycle racing
claiming several victories in the 125cc class and finishing second in the 1980
125cc road racing world championship.
. Motobecane is known for designing very light weight mountain bicycles. Motobecane was the first French maker to start using Japanese parts, in the late '70s. This was a very good move on their part, because at that time Japanese derailers and crank sets were much better than the older French designs common on mid-priced 10-speeds. The change was largely due to the influence of their U.S. importer, Ben Lawee. The frames on Motobécane's mid-to-upper bikes were typically double-butted lugged steel made from Vitus
or Reynolds 531
molybdenum/manganese steel tubing with Nervex lugs. Unlike most French makers of the era, Motobecane used Swiss thread bottom brackets for most models. Motobécane finished their frames in beautiful and high-quality paint, a practice not often followed in the French industry. Considered the second most prestigious French bicycle (after Peugeot
, whose more durable design they emulated, but ahead of Gitane
), Motobécane's mid-range bikes were good value; the company kept prices reasonable by matching high-quality frames with lower-priced, but higher-quality components from Japan, at a time when competitors were putting higher-priced, lower quality French components on mid-range bikes. Motobécane bicycles included the Nomade, Mirage, Super Mirage, Super Touring, Grand Touring, Sprint, Super Sprint, Jubilee, Grand Record, Le Champion, and Team Champion.
In addition to the standard diamond frame bicycles, Motobécane produced mixte frame versions; the mixte frame Grand Touring had twin lateral stays in place of a top tube, extending from the head tube
to the seat tube, while the Super Touring and Grand Jubilé had a single top tube sloping down towards the seat tube, but diverging into twin lateral stays just before the seat tube. Later mixte Grand Touring models also used this design. Motobécane also produced a tandem bicycle
.
French bicycles before 1980 often used French-threaded bottom brackets (now difficult to find replacement parts for). French bottom brackets, like Italian ones, used right-hand threading on the fixed cups, making them subject to loosening by precession. Motobécane broke ranks with most other French manufacturers in the mid-70s, using Swiss-threaded bottom brackets (also difficult to find replacement parts for now). Swiss bottom brackets were identical to French, save that the fixed cups were reverse-threaded (like English ones), making them immune to loosening by precession. For more information on bottom bracket specifications, see Bottom brackets.
French headsets are sized and threaded slightly differently than the more common English headset.
The name Motobécane is also used for bikes of Taiwanese manufacture distributed through bikesdirect.com. These vehicles bear no relation to the older French made bicycles, other than the name.
During the immediate post-war years the company diversified into moped production.
Motobécane introduced a moped
, the Mobylette
, in 1949; over the next 48 years, Motobécane manufactured 14 million Mobylettes. In India
the same model was manufactured under licence by Mopeds India Ltd under the name Suvega. Motobecane mopeds were discontinued in 1985.
. The result was a three wheel pedal car. Pedal power reached the single rear wheel via a chain and an 8-speed cycle-style gear
system. The emphasis was on weight reduction, and the vehicle weighed just over 30 Kg, of which approximately 28 Kg was accounted for by mechanical components and just 4 Kg by the light metal lozenge style body. A single central fin on the tail-piece of the body was featured not for aerodynamic reasons but in order to accommodate the rear wheel.
During the 1950s and 1960s automobile use and ownership in France grew consistently, and much of this growth came at the expense of motorcycle producers. Long lens photographs appearing in L’Auto-Journal
in December 1961 showed the results of a serious Motobécane project to fight back by developing a small “quadricycle” format automobile. One of the pictures showed the Motobécane prototype on a boulevard near the company’s plant and the Porte de Valette being overtaken by a Renault 4CV
: the little Renault looked uncharacteristically large and the Motobecane, positioned between the Renault and a Paris bus, looked barely larger than a child’s pedal car. In fact the prototype was 2730 mm long and 1180 mm wide, which was enough to accommodate two people side by side in a fashionably boxy little body: from the side, at first glance, it was hard to tell which end was which: however, the cut-out sections on each side covered with a dark coloured fabric "door" was angled towards the front of the car.
Although the manufacturer was unfamiliar with automobile technology, they were happy to incorporate into the design a form of the innovative infinitely variable transmission which a few years later became a defining feature of DAF cars. Power came from a 125 cc two stroke engine installed at an angle of 7 degrees from the vertical in order to keep the flat front hood/bonnet low enough for the windscreen to be foldable forwards over it in the manner of a traditional Jeep
. The prototype's motor-cycle connections were apparent from the large spoked wheels which might not have survived on a production version of the car.
Both a two seater “KM2” microcar and a “KM2U” microvan were foreseen. In the event, however, neither passed beyond the prototype stage.
an market.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
manufacturer of bicycle
Bicycle
A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....
s, moped
Moped
Mopeds are a type of low-powered motorcycle designed to provide economical and relatively safe transport with minimal licensing requirements.Mopeds were once all equipped with bicycle-like pedals , but moped has been increasingly applied by governments to vehicles without pedals, based on their...
s, motorcycle
Motorcycle
A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...
s, and other small vehicles, established in 1923. "Motobécane" is a compound of "moto", slang for motorcycle; "bécane" is slang for "bike."
In 1981, Motobécane filed for bankruptcy and was purchased by Yamaha and reformed in 1984 as MBK ; the French company continues to make motorscooters.
It has no relation to Motobecane USA, which imports bicycles from Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
manufactured to their specification by Kinesis Industry Co. Ltd. under the Motobécane trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
.
Motorcycles
For many years Motobecane was France's largest manufacturer of motorcycles. Charles Benoit and Abel Bardin joined in 1922 and designed their first motorcycle in 1923, a 175 cc single cylinder two-stroke-engined bike. By the 1930s Motobecane was producing a best-selling range of motorcycles. In 1933, they produced their first four-stroke machine with 250 cc capacity. During the 1930s, they manufactured a longitudinalLongitudinal engine
In automotive engineering, a longitudinal engine is an internal combustion engine in which the crankshaft is oriented along the long axis of the vehicle, front to back....
shaft-drive inline-four engine motorcycle in 500 cc. During this period, the firm entered road racing
Road racing
Road racing is a general term for most forms of motor racing held on paved, purpose-built race tracks , as opposed to oval tracks and off-road racing...
competitions and won the Bol d'or
Bol d'or
The Bol d'or is a motorcycle endurance race, held annually in France. Originally, it was an automobile as well as motorcycle race. The automobiles were limited to 1100cc engine capacity until the 1950s when the limit was raised to 1500cc, and later to 2000cc...
endurance race.
After the Second World War they produced the single-cylinder D45 motorbike that filled a need for cheap transportation. The successor was the Z46, equipped with modern suspension. Like many European motorcycle manufacturers, the 1960s proved difficult for Motobécane as cars became affordable. As a result, sales decreased. The arrival of cheap, efficient Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese motorcycles also hurt sales. They continued to produce two-cylinder 125cc motorcycles throughout the 1970s. They also manufactured a small number of two-stroke, three-cylinder 350cc and 500cc bikes.
For a time in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the company competed in Grand Prix motorcycle racing
Grand Prix motorcycle racing
Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix is the premier championship of motorcycle road racing currently divided into three distinct classes: 125cc, Moto2 and MotoGP. The 125cc class uses a two-stroke engine while Moto2 and MotoGP use four-stroke engines. In 2010 the 250cc two-stroke was replaced...
claiming several victories in the 125cc class and finishing second in the 1980
1980 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season
The 1980 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season was the 32nd F.I.M. Road Racing World Championship season.-Season summary:Yamaha's Kenny Roberts claimed his third successive 500cc world championship in a season shortened by the cancellations of the Venezuelan and Austrian rounds. Randy Mamola took...
125cc road racing world championship.
Bicycles
Motobécane was a major manufacturer in the French bicycle industryFrench bicycle industry
The french bicycle industry and the history of the bicycle are intertwined. Spanning the last century and a half, the industry has seen two booms, and continues into the 21st century, albeit less dominant today.-Invention:...
. Motobecane is known for designing very light weight mountain bicycles. Motobecane was the first French maker to start using Japanese parts, in the late '70s. This was a very good move on their part, because at that time Japanese derailers and crank sets were much better than the older French designs common on mid-priced 10-speeds. The change was largely due to the influence of their U.S. importer, Ben Lawee. The frames on Motobécane's mid-to-upper bikes were typically double-butted lugged steel made from Vitus
Vitus (bicycles)
Vitus is a French bicycle manufacturer best known for its steel cycle frame tubing, and its frames built with aluminium tubes joined to aluminium lugs by bonding - a construction method the company pioneered in the late 1970s . Compared to modern aluminium bicycle frames, early Vitus aluminium...
or Reynolds 531
Reynolds 531
Reynolds 531 is a brand name, registered to Reynolds Cycle Technology of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, for a manganese-molybdenum, medium carbon steel bicycle tubing....
molybdenum/manganese steel tubing with Nervex lugs. Unlike most French makers of the era, Motobecane used Swiss thread bottom brackets for most models. Motobécane finished their frames in beautiful and high-quality paint, a practice not often followed in the French industry. Considered the second most prestigious French bicycle (after Peugeot
Cycles Peugeot
Peugeot was a manufacturer in the French bicycle industry through the 20th century.-History:Peugeot was a French manufacturer of bicycles founded by Jean Pequignot Peugeot who, in the 19th century, made water mills...
, whose more durable design they emulated, but ahead of Gitane
Gitane
Gitane is a French manufacturer of bicycles based in Machecoul, France; the name "Gitane" means gypsy woman. The brand was synonymous with French bicycle racing from the 1960s through the mid-1980s, sponsoring riders such as Jacques Anquetil , Lucien Van Impe , Bernard Hinault , Laurent Fignon ,...
), Motobécane's mid-range bikes were good value; the company kept prices reasonable by matching high-quality frames with lower-priced, but higher-quality components from Japan, at a time when competitors were putting higher-priced, lower quality French components on mid-range bikes. Motobécane bicycles included the Nomade, Mirage, Super Mirage, Super Touring, Grand Touring, Sprint, Super Sprint, Jubilee, Grand Record, Le Champion, and Team Champion.
In addition to the standard diamond frame bicycles, Motobécane produced mixte frame versions; the mixte frame Grand Touring had twin lateral stays in place of a top tube, extending from the head tube
Head tube
Most bicycles, tricycles and motorcycles have a tubular frame. The front fork pivots within the head tube . On a motorcycle, the "head tube" is normally called the steering head...
to the seat tube, while the Super Touring and Grand Jubilé had a single top tube sloping down towards the seat tube, but diverging into twin lateral stays just before the seat tube. Later mixte Grand Touring models also used this design. Motobécane also produced a tandem bicycle
Tandem bicycle
The tandem bicycle or twin is a form of bicycle designed to be ridden by more than one person. The term tandem refers to the seating arrangement , not the number of riders. A bike with two riders side-by-side is called a sociable.-History:Patents related to tandem bicycles date from the late 19th...
.
French bicycles before 1980 often used French-threaded bottom brackets (now difficult to find replacement parts for). French bottom brackets, like Italian ones, used right-hand threading on the fixed cups, making them subject to loosening by precession. Motobécane broke ranks with most other French manufacturers in the mid-70s, using Swiss-threaded bottom brackets (also difficult to find replacement parts for now). Swiss bottom brackets were identical to French, save that the fixed cups were reverse-threaded (like English ones), making them immune to loosening by precession. For more information on bottom bracket specifications, see Bottom brackets.
French headsets are sized and threaded slightly differently than the more common English headset.
The name Motobécane is also used for bikes of Taiwanese manufacture distributed through bikesdirect.com. These vehicles bear no relation to the older French made bicycles, other than the name.
Mopeds
Motobécane introduced a moped
Moped
Mopeds are a type of low-powered motorcycle designed to provide economical and relatively safe transport with minimal licensing requirements.Mopeds were once all equipped with bicycle-like pedals , but moped has been increasingly applied by governments to vehicles without pedals, based on their...
, the Mobylette
Mobylette
The Mobylette, sometimes shortened as Moby, is a model of moped manufactured by French manufacturer Motobecane during the second half of the 20th century. The Mobylette was launched in 1949 and was manufactured until 1997 with production number exceeding over 14 million with the 1970s being its...
, in 1949; over the next 48 years, Motobécane manufactured 14 million Mobylettes. In India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
the same model was manufactured under licence by Mopeds India Ltd under the name Suvega. Motobecane mopeds were discontinued in 1985.
Cars?
In 1942, responding to the disappearance of civilian fuel supplies, the directors instructed an engineer called Éric Jaulmes to look into the possibility of producing a two seater pedal car to compete with the VélocarVelocar
Velocar was the name given to velomobiles made in the 1930s and 40s by Mochet et Cie of Puteaux, France....
. The result was a three wheel pedal car. Pedal power reached the single rear wheel via a chain and an 8-speed cycle-style gear
Derailleur gears
Derailleur gears are a variable-ratio transmission system commonly used on bicycles, consisting of a chain, multiple sprockets of different sizes, and a mechanism to move the chain from one sprocket to another...
system. The emphasis was on weight reduction, and the vehicle weighed just over 30 Kg, of which approximately 28 Kg was accounted for by mechanical components and just 4 Kg by the light metal lozenge style body. A single central fin on the tail-piece of the body was featured not for aerodynamic reasons but in order to accommodate the rear wheel.
During the 1950s and 1960s automobile use and ownership in France grew consistently, and much of this growth came at the expense of motorcycle producers. Long lens photographs appearing in L’Auto-Journal
L'Auto-Journal
L'Auto-Journal is a bimonthly magazine created in 1950 by Robert Hersant and editor-in-chief Gilles Guérithault, devoted to automobiles. Notable journalists working for l'Auto-Journal were Roland Gaucher and Jean-Marie Balestre....
in December 1961 showed the results of a serious Motobécane project to fight back by developing a small “quadricycle” format automobile. One of the pictures showed the Motobécane prototype on a boulevard near the company’s plant and the Porte de Valette being overtaken by a Renault 4CV
Renault 4CV
The Renault 4CV was an economy car produced by the French manufacturer Renault from August 1947-July 1961. The first French car to sell over a million units, the 4CV was ultimately superseded by the Renault Dauphine....
: the little Renault looked uncharacteristically large and the Motobecane, positioned between the Renault and a Paris bus, looked barely larger than a child’s pedal car. In fact the prototype was 2730 mm long and 1180 mm wide, which was enough to accommodate two people side by side in a fashionably boxy little body: from the side, at first glance, it was hard to tell which end was which: however, the cut-out sections on each side covered with a dark coloured fabric "door" was angled towards the front of the car.
Although the manufacturer was unfamiliar with automobile technology, they were happy to incorporate into the design a form of the innovative infinitely variable transmission which a few years later became a defining feature of DAF cars. Power came from a 125 cc two stroke engine installed at an angle of 7 degrees from the vertical in order to keep the flat front hood/bonnet low enough for the windscreen to be foldable forwards over it in the manner of a traditional Jeep
Jeep
Jeep is an automobile marque of Chrysler . The first Willys Jeeps were produced in 1941 with the first civilian models in 1945, making it the oldest off-road vehicle and sport utility vehicle brand. It inspired a number of other light utility vehicles, such as the Land Rover which is the second...
. The prototype's motor-cycle connections were apparent from the large spoked wheels which might not have survived on a production version of the car.
Both a two seater “KM2” microcar and a “KM2U” microvan were foreseen. In the event, however, neither passed beyond the prototype stage.
Scooters
Under the name MBK, the company continues to manufacture scooters for the EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an market.