Centenary of Motobécane: a survivor of the brand maintains the passion near Rouen in his private museum

2023-11-21 17:50:40

The tricolor M, M for Motobécane, remains a symbol of French industry. A symbol that is a hundred years old this year. It was in 1923 that Alphonse Tallet, Charles Benoît and Abel Bardin designed the first Motobécane motorcycle and, the following year, opened the Pantin factory (now Seine-Saint-Denis), then that of Saint-Denis. Quentin, in Aisne).

Quickly, the brand became a reference for its motorcycles, bicycles, mopeds and many other products such as motors for automatic doors or even chainsaws. Motobécane even bought Solex and imported Moto Guzzi into France. However, after the golden age of the 1960s and 1970s, with its 125cm3 and 350cm3 produced in only 785 units, it was a descent into hell during the oil crisis and then bankruptcy in 1984. After its takeover by Yamaha, the company became MBK.

But like all legendary brands that have disappeared, Motobécane retains aficionados. Jean-Pierre Ono-dit-Bio from Saint-Pierre-lès-Elbeuf, near Rouen (Seine-Maritime), is one: this year he is celebrating the 100th anniversary of his favorite brand in the basement of his pavilion where he collects around twenty rare or even unpublished pieces.

At 67 years old, Jean-Pierre-dit-Bio is nevertheless a survivor. While his parents gave him Motobécane bikes as a child, “because they were friends with a dealer in Elbeuf”, at the age of 17, with his first paycheck, he bought himself a 125cc: “The story has started there, he says. I didn’t last long, because four months later, I was mowed down by an unlicensed driver. I lost a leg and with a life between hospitals and rehabilitation centers, I was never able to get back in the saddle. So the Motobécanes, I restore them and collect them. »

This is how he accumulated, as in a Prévert inventory, the original model of the Pantin factory, more than two thousand documents and photographs offered by the French company but also advertising items and, “above all, a twenty mopeds and motorcycles.” “There are exceptional machines like the only survivor of the ten examples offered during a call for tender in 1976 to the National Police and the National Gendarmerie who ultimately preferred BMW. I also have two motorcycles from the French PTT and the French Army as well as two special examples, made in 500 copies, which raced on the Rouen-Les Essarts circuit, notably in 2016 during a vintage rally, with the “former professional driver Thierry Noblesse on the handlebars,” explains the collector.

Plans, tutorials and rubber parts

In 2007, Jean-Pierre Ono-dit-Bio founded the Motobécane Passion club “to share my passion and help get mopeds and motorcycles running again.” “I opened a royalty-free and free site with plans and tutorials. In 2009, I also joined forces with a friend, the boss of a molding company. Since then, we have been manufacturing and offering rubber parts that are no longer manufactured in the factory. So, over time, the group grew with a lot of exchanges. »And the collection of the private museum continues to be supplemented. “I am always looking for the exceptional model. I am also often given coins. » The Motobécane museum in Saint-Pierre-lès-Elbeuf is open by appointment. Families, collectors and nostalgic bikers parade there.