MBK began its operation when Charles Benoit and Abel Bardin manufactured their first cheap motorcycle called Motobécane. In fact the prototype was 2730 mm long and 1180 mm wide, which was enough to accommodate two people side by side in a fashionably boxy little body: from the side, at first glance, it was hard to tell which end was which: however, the cut-out sections on each side covered with a dark coloured fabric 'door' was angled towards the front of the car.Founded in 1923 in Rouvroy, Picardy, France, MBK is a well-known French manufacturer of the scooter. One of the pictures showed the Motobécane prototype on a boulevard near the company’s plant and the Porte de Valette being overtaken by a Renault 4CV: the little Renault looked uncharacteristically large and the Motobecane, positioned between the Renault and a Paris bus, looked barely larger than a child’s pedal car. Long lens photographs appearing in L’Auto-Journal in December 1961 showed the results of a serious Motobécane project to fight back by developing a small “quadricycle” format automobile. Motobécane bicycles included the Nomade, Mirage, Super Mirage, Super Touring, Grand Touring, Sprint, Super Sprint, Jubilee Sport, Grand Record, Le Champion, and Team Champion.ĭuring the 1950s and 1960s automobile use and ownership in France grew consistently, and much of this growth came at the expense of motorcycle producers. Considered the second most prestigious French bicycle (after Peugeot, whose more durable design they emulated, but ahead of Gitane), Motobécane's mid-range bikes were good value the company kept prices reasonable by matching high-quality frames with lower-priced, but higher-quality components from Japan, at a time when competitors were putting higher-priced, lower quality French components on mid-range bikes. Motobécane finished their frames in beautiful and high-quality paint, a practice not often followed in the French industry. Unlike most French makers of the era, Motobecane used Swiss thread bottom brackets for most models. The frames on Motobécane's mid-to-upper bikes were typically double-buttedlugged steel made from Vitus or Reynolds 531 molybdenum/manganese steel tubing with Nervex lugs. The change was largely due to the influence of their U.S.

This was a very good move on their part, because at that time Japanese derailleurs and crank sets were much better than the older French designs common on mid-priced 10-speeds.

Motobecane was the first French maker to start using Japanese parts, in the late 1970s. Motobecane is known for designing very light weight mountain bicycles. Motobécane was a major manufacturer in the French bicycle industry.

Motobecane moped serial number