francophile 

It is! Popped up on CL in a pleasant two-digit price range. Some guy bought it new, had it in the basement for years on a trainer after it lived a few years on the road. Said his wife laughed at him for putting it on CL, "nobody wants your old piece of crap bike...", but I obliged

I gotta say, initial inclination was buy-for-the-group-sell-the-rest, thinking that was rust spots under the paint and this bike is at the lower end of what I can usually fit, but after generally feeling out the bike, I'm actually really, really interested to take it for a spin. It's lighter than any other mid-range bike I've ever owned and seems like it would be really snappy and nimble. I used to scoff at all the Tenax love, now I feel like an ass...

Senrab62 

Two-digit price?! Lucky you. That is a great price for almost any rideable bike IMHO! Especially for this bike.

The SS was, in some years, was upper range also. Do you know what year it is? What groupset is it?

I too did not understand the Tenax models, until I rode one. I have several now and love them all. Last and noble effort by schwinn to catch up towards the end. Responsive and depending on the year/geometry very quick.

Progress looks great! Keep us posted!

tiredhands 

I've got one of those pearlescent Super Sports, I believe those were from '85. Shimano 600EX groupset with real fancy gold anodized Araya rims. An excellent ride. I hope to get my start riding centuries on it.

francophile 

@tiredhands is correct, it's an '85. I'm still not sure what the orange rusty dots are, but they wiped out with some fervent rubbing.

I'll probably post one pic here when done, then another in the before/after. This one will be striking. I've got 4 other "winter" projects I couldn't get to due to personal/work load lacking a part here or there and 1 project that's ready to go after a generous member helped me with some yellow Benotto tape. I wasn't expecting to get or work on the Moto before those, I honestly thought it was a lost cause after running through every cleaner known to man looking for one that would work and coming up short.

RiddleOfSteel

Firstly, impressive work on the Motobecane! It's a wonderful discover to see gloss paint underneath all of that dirt. I'd be doing loops because of it!

Secondly, Super Sport! Being that I have a 1984 model (and now a Tenax-tubed '87...), and that the '85 shared the same color and nearly same graphics (Peloton was that way over the same two years), I guessed it was probably an '85, but you all beat me to it. The '84s had Tange Champion #2 tubing and it's not the lightest. Or maybe I just got spoiled with my SL/SP Peloton.

The SS in these years was #3 behind the Paramount and Peloton, and later #3 behind the Paramount and Circuit--maybe #4 including the Prologue in 1987. Upper end for sure. And for under 100 bones, an absolute steal (to me, and others obviously) as the geometry is race tight and very responsive with being hyperactive.

Anyway, back to the Motobecane. It is and will be a beautiful bike when you're done with it!

francophile 

Ok kids, the Grand Touring is done and went on a maiden voyage with its new owner today. Here's a lower-res pic of what a $25 bike, an $8 cable kit and $18 in new tires with a ton of elbow grease looks like.

More pics, very high res: 1975 Motobecane Grand Record - Album on Imgur

francophile 

And for quick ref, the 'before' shot:

sdn40

1. That feeling you get while cooking meat over fire .... with beer in hand.

2. That feeling you get tearing down a bike hoping you can salvage it, and the end result is a pearl .... with beer in hand

francophile 

That's a beery accurate assessment of how this went.

3speedslow

Quite impressive! Are you two doing gravel rides together?

francophile 

Yeah, gravel rides aka Atlanta streets It's rough in the ATL intown, man!

Seriously though, these K161s are awesome w/27s on ATL in-town streets. I picked up 3pr at $8/ea thru a price match with BikeTiresDirect. Run them around 75psi and it's the perfect mix of ride quality, comfortable grip and bump tolerance for our beat-ass streets. Better than 27x1s

I wish this bike wasn't too damn large to fit me @62cm. But my friend saw it in my shop while I was helping him fully restore his 60cm '80-'81ish TX500-something Trek in baby blue and he wouldn't shut up about it. He has a '73/'74 red/black Le Champion that was butchered and part-stripped over the years by previous owners (we need to teardown and restore).

We finished the Trek and the GT at the same time. I couldn't fit the GT, but his Trek fit well, so we swapped, rode for a mile or so, and afterwards, I ended up a handful of cash and his Trek, he ended up with the GT and a time-capsule Peugeot Tourmalet I had on the wall in the basement (his wife has commented on it every time she's in the shop, he needed to justify his new bike ).

It was a break-even at the end of the day, but I don't push for profits with friends. Besides, as you know, I'm not in this for the money.

Bikerider007

Great cleanups!

Unfortunately even with great products I find elbow grease is almost always a requirement and many times the difference. I put my reading glasses on once it's time to fine tune.