Matilda

Posted on February 24th 2009

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(160 votes, average: 6.18 )

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Here’s my fixed gear. She’s my dad’s 71(ish) Motobecane Le Champion. It used to be a blue frame but he was hit by a car and the seat and chain stays were smashed. He had new stays put on and while it was apart he had the frame and forked dipped in chrome. It had been sitting in his basement for years so this passed summer I pulled it out and converted it to a fixed gear. Here are some pictures of her. The detailed pictures I took just as I was finishing piecing her together and the full shot is after I had taken her on a couple of races and rides.

Submitted by Chris Schmitz

14 Comments Received

joe
March 12th, 2009 @1:11 pm

Your bike is beautiful. Its history makes it even better. Enjoy.

b b b
March 24th, 2009 @2:57 pm

I agree. Beautiful.

Scozzy
March 25th, 2009 @4:58 pm

Simple=Great

CS
May 4th, 2009 @3:36 pm

Thanks!

Jack781
February 17th, 2010 @8:09 pm

i like it alot. and im glad after getting hit she got back on the road! awesome!

Wooden Shoe Biker
February 17th, 2010 @9:43 pm

Slick Chrome Job. Handsome frame lines.

Luftmensh
February 18th, 2010 @9:56 am

Calm and understated.

ng
February 18th, 2010 @10:18 am

This is CS’ bike? What happened to that guy? Don’t see him around these days. Haha, Wooden said “chrome job”.

DeepV
April 15th, 2010 @4:19 am

Looks awesome!!!

sloman
April 15th, 2010 @5:41 am

a VERY nice ride,classic,practical.all that a fixie should be.enjoy

ng
August 27th, 2010 @1:52 pm

Don’t know how I missed the close-ups before… This frameset is gorgeous!!! Great repair! So the seat stays are like fastback style now….I’m guessing that’s not how they were originally? Looks really really cool. Very unique.

CS
August 27th, 2010 @3:59 pm

Thanks NG. From what I can tell by looking at the top seat tube lug and also looking at pics of original le champs the seat stays must have gone on either side of the lug. I’m not sure why my dad’s friend changed it, but I imagine it had to do with the length of the stays he put on. I love her.

Sadly I had to sell the wheel set recently. They were not original parts (the original wheel set is hanging up in the closet. They’re campy record hubs but they’re on tubular rims so I don’t ride them). I want to put together a touring bike and needed the cash for parts. I wasn’t riding fixed much b/c it was tearing up my knee so I figured I’d sell the wheel set and whenever I want to go back to single speed I’ll get a new set. We have a couple of single speed hubs in the shop so I may lace one up to a rim sometime in the future ad put them back on.