Earlier this summer, I bought an old Motobecane that had been converted to single speed. I wasn't sure what it was--I bought it mostly for the Brooks leather saddle.

Those yellow wheels, BTW, got used on another project back in August. A classic ketchup & mustard build.

For the saddle, I'm using a lovely leather BIM saddle, made in France by Ideale. I have an Ideale on my Pug and it's very comfortable. I gave this one a fresh treatment of Proofhide. Ideale has a long history and I believe their saddles predate Brooks.

Another issue was the fork, which had lost most of its red paint because it didn't adhere to the chrome. So I stripped the bits of red off and repainted the fork gold. I've been thinking lately about the ideas of Wabi-sabi & highlighting imperfections instead of hiding them. I think this works.

Huret set its notch at 4 o'clock, incompatible with the Suntour derailleur I want to use. So I had to modify a tabbed washer from a wheel hub to make a stop at 7 o'clock. A bit of grinding & filing & install the washer under the mounting bolt & hey presto the derailleur works great.

Then I ran into the problem of the derailleur hanger on the Huret dropouts. Back then, derailleurs weren't standardized & Simplex, Huret, & Campy each used different designs. Campy's standard is the one that won out, with a "stop" or notch at 7 o'clock for the derailleur to pivot against.

The bottom bracket was kind of a challenge. It's either Swiss or French threaded, but I couldn't get the fixed cup off either way. Which is ok, I could clean & rebuild it in place. But I had to try 5 different spindles & 4 different cranks until I found a working combination.

The Nervex lugs and Huret dropouts make this a circa 1974 Grand Jubilee, which is a fine bike indeed with Reynolds 531 main tubes. So I'm giving this a full restoration.