Below is the headbadge of my 1971 Motobecane
Le Champion. In every other way it is a truly beautiful bike... but they just
had to put this nasty huge plastic piece on the bike.
From around 1973 into the late 70s they had wonderful oval headbadges. Gold, with black, red & white enamel and stamped from real brass - Wow!. I thought these were among the nicest looking badges ever to adorn a French bicycle.
But then, just when everything began to look classy and lovely in the Motobecane bike world... they just couldn't stay away from that accursed cheap looking plastic.
Perhaps that was why the company went bankrupt in the mid 1980s...
How sad.