Company History:
There is not really a lot of company history easily available on the internet and I have done no great research.
The company was founded in 1923 and filed for bankruptcy in 1981 when it was purchased by Yamaha. Of interest to readers of this website will be the fact that they co-sponsored top level racing teams – Bic-Motobecane from 1969 to 1973 and Motobecane-La Redoute from 1979 to 1984. All dates inclusive.
In 1984 the company was reconstituted as MBK. I have been unable to determine when production of bicycles ceased in France and unable to determine where MBK bicycles were made.
The fact that La Redoute team and team replica bicycles (variously known as Equipe Pro and Team Champion) seem to have been made through 1984, I assume that French production continued at least that long. I have also noticed that the Team Champion and Equipe Pro model names have been attached to bikes which were very good but not as good as the team replica bicycles. I cannot believe that they were produced concurrently with the same model names as the team replica bicycles, so I am assuming that they were made after 1984, although they appear on the internet with pre-1984 dates. I will shortly be analysing these bikes and will then replace this sentence and include a link to that page.
Our Content:
- 1973 Team Bic Motobecane
- 1971 Motobecane Tour de France
- 1978 Motobecane Tour de France Model bike
- 1979 Motobecane Special Pro
- 1982-84 Motobecane Team Champion
- 198x Motobecane Team Champion
- Brochures & Catalogues
- 1979 Top Tier Motobecane Racing Bikes
- 1980 Onwards – Racing Bike Analysis
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