Monday, October 23, 2006

1975 Motobecane Grand Touring for Sale

I had good reasons to think it would be an Antique Road Show moment. (1) In this country, an antique is anything older than twenty five years. (2) It’s in perfect condition. (3) It’s very classy looking. But the guy at Sellwood Bikes said it wasn’t that special; not a particularly sought after item in the collector’s world.

I took it there Saturday, because Hugh at Northwest Bicycles told me that two of the guys there, named Steve and Erik, know all about old bikes and are all connected up with people looking for them.

I explained to him that it never quite fit me right. He said “This frame was made for men.”
Well of course I knew it was a men’s bike, but no bike merchant ever thought that was a problem in 1975. In those days men’s bikes were all they made for serious biking. The only alternative was a girly bike without the bar across the top of the triangle, which anybody could see wasn’t as stable. “Men are longer in the torso,” continued Steve. Which explains why I always felt like I was leaning over too far. Darn thing was too long for me.

But things are different now. I plan to follow up with a woman in Portland who custom designs road bikes for girls. I’m going to go see her shop and I’ll report back.

Meanwhile, I'll be selling this bike If anybody out there's interested, you can email me. I'm putting my email address here in code so that the spam scanners can't recognize it. It's just my first name, Kate, the AT sign, then my last name, Gawf, then dot, and then net.

4 Comments:

At 10:46 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ah, the Grand Touring. Did it come in the color "Champagne"?
I had one of these, maybe even the same year's model, in high school, college, and on into my early days as a parent.
When I got serious about being a car-free dad I decided to try one of those new-fangled "mountain bikes". Worked well for loading the laundry in two panniers with a big old navy satchel in between (lots of wheelies if you weren't careful). But the Motobecane was parked for good. *sigh*
I just bought an '84 Trek 720, so I'm going back to my drop-bar roots.

 
At 11:43 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

Did you ever sell the Motobecane bike? I might be interested in Forest Grove.
Alan

 
At 5:11 PM, Blogger kate gawf said...

Alan: Thanks for asking, I was hoping someone would. In the meantime, however, YES, I did sell it. I took it over to Sellwood Cyclery and they sold it for me for a good price. Easy Squeezy - I left it with them and 2 weeks later I got a nice check. They said they'd only sell it to a good home, i.e. someone who'd really appreciate it, a collector type as opposed to someone wanting any old thing. They're all connected in to that market. You might call them. Maybe they could locate one for you.

 
At 8:59 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

My beloved Motobecane met the same fate. It was my transportation for many years in college and beyond. I now have a Trek. I have known what to do with the old bike, but I would love to sell it to someone who would appreciate it. I bought it in 1974. It is a 19" silverish light blue Nomad Sprint.

 

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