bikemig 

I had a pimp once walk into the bike shop I worked in to buy a tricked out pink pinarello with all super record components. He paid I think it was $1500 for the bike (those were the days) in 20s with one girl on each arm. I actually tried to talk him out of buying such an expensive racing bike but he knew exactly what he wanted. He wanted the best bike we sold as long as it was in pink.

I initially thought the Motobecane mixte was worth between $200 and $300. But given the location, the backstory of the bike, and its condition, I think north of $300 may well be reasonable. This is a classic vintage bike and it looks pretty darn new.

alicestrong

Hey I have this bike! Upright bars and all. Yes it's a 1977 it will say so right on the wheel hubs. I'll admit that I'm a bit jealous, yours is in better condition than mine. Does it still have the Vitus tubing sticker on it?

It's a wonderful riding bike that gets lots of compliments...

Trakhak

alicestrong is the first poster to mention the Vitus tubing. Apparently none of the other posters noticed the pale blue Vitus sticker on the seat tube. (In fairness, I noticed it only because I looked for it, having sold Motobecanes in the mid-'70s and knowing that that model had the upgraded tubing.) A mixte with butted Vitus tubing---arguably equal in quality to the Reynolds 531 Raleigh used on a few of their mixtes---is rare and easily worth the highest estimate posted so far.

alicestrong

Now that I enlarged the pix I see the tattered sticker...

Not sure that the wheelset is original. Mine came with recessed rims. Care to chime in?

alicestrong

Also this bike came in two sizes. Mine is 21 inch, the larger.

Trakhak

Right. I'd forgotten that that model came with Weinmann concave rims. Just another way that Motobecane was a counterexample to all the other brands of the day that gave French bikes a bad reputation.

[QUOTE=alicestrong;16934329]Also this bike came in two sizes. Mine is 21 inch, the larger.

Remembered about the two sizes, though. That design, with the considerably longer head tube in the larger frame size, worked well for fitting taller women who might otherwise have needed a horizontally short and vertically tall replacement handlebar stem for proper fit on a diamond frame (i.e., non-mixte) bike.

Bianchigirll 

That is a great looking bike.

TugaDude

"Motobecane went outta business in 1981"

Not true, i ride an '83 Grand Record and have seen 1985 models referenced.

big chainring 

[QUOTE=Trakhak;16934396]

Right. I'd forgotten that that model came with Weinmann concave rims. Just another way that Motobecane was a counterexample to all the other brands of the day that gave French bikes a bad reputation.
[/tQUOTE]
I don't know about that. What I do know is to stay away from 1980's Japanese bikes. Give me a French bike anyday. And make it with French components. French bike with Japanese components, no thanks.

Chicago Al 

Good point on the Vitus tubing; the downtube shifters are another sign of an above-entry-level bike.

Mixte with larger than 49cm seat tube = rare.

Mixte with 'better' tubing = rare.

Mixte with both = buy it!

likebike23

[/tQUOTE]I don't know about that. What I do know is to stay away from 1980's Japanese bikes.[/QUOTE]

@big chainring

Why? I think that Japanese bikes, particularly from the mid eighties on, were good quality.

big chainring 

^Just my C&V crankiness coming out.^

French bikes seem to get dumped on because of unique threads and component sizes. Peugeot, Gitane and others put out a nice line of bikes.

My gripe with Japanese bikes is they lack character. They are perfect robot built bikes. The 70's French, English, italian bikes were made by hand. I like their quirky, sometimes sloppy handiwork. The bike I am riding now is French. Its obvious that someone in the paint department at Follis dropped a paint brush or tin of gold paint on the down tube. There is a gold haze that sort of drips down and around the tube for a couple inches. I like it. Tells me there was a lot of handwork in the production of the bike.

likebike23

I recently completed a frame up rebuild of my 1972 Peugeot U-08 and it really wasn't that difficult. With all of the info and parts available out there, I really can't see how that's a legitimate argument against them. I like the bike and agree that there's a certain quirkiness about it that is part of it's appeal to me.