Bicycle technology is a marvelous study of evolution. In many respects, the bikes we ride today are not a lot different than they were 100 years ago. Sure, modern bikes have all sorts of improvements to make them lighter, shift quicker, or brake better. But for the most part, they'd still be recognizable to a rider from the 1920s.

All those technological improvements didn't happen overnight. Along the way, a lot of funky ideas came and went, consigned to the backwaters of bicycling history. My Kabuki has a few great quirks, but I've never seen as many oddities on one bike as I've found on my new Motobecane Jubilee Sport.

The French manufacturer Motobecane evidently came unto hard times in the early 80s as the 70s bike boom waned. They'd always been know for quality bikes and were second in France only to Peugeot. Unlike Peugeot, Motobecane was an early adopter of Japanese componentry, which at the time offered higher quality at a lower cost compared to European derailleurs. They also used Swiss threaded bottom brackets like my Juvela, which is great if you don't want your bottom bracket to unthread while you're riding, but not so great if you ever want to replace it.

With the Jubilee Sport, Motobecane got even quirkier. The frame uses Columbus Cro-Mo steel and "inexternal" lugs, meaning the lugs are brazed on the inside of the tubes. I'm not sure what the advantages to this method were, but it gives the frame a nice clean look. Instead of calling this frame lugless, which is common today but in the 80s was associated with cheaper department store frames, Motobecane coined the odd word inexternal. To confuse the issue further, they stuck a decal on the headtube to make it look like the frame had lugs after all.

While they were at it, Motobecane gave this frame internal brake cable routing through the top tube, a feature I haven't seen before on an 80s bike.

Mounted to the downtube are Suntour Symmetric Shifters. Like Motobecane, Suntour met rising competition and decreased sales in the mid 80s with innovation. Symmetric shifters automatically adjust the front derailleur when you change gears in the rear. This keeps the front derailleur cage from rubbing the chain when the front is in high gear and the rear is in low (or vice versa). The result is extremely smooth and easy shifting. I'm not sure why symmetric shifting didn't catch on, but it may be because the system was so difficult to reassemble if it was ever taken apart. These may be the most complex vintage shifter ever.

The Motobecane's drivetrain is just as quirky. French-made Nervar cranks have a standard JIS taper that fits most modern spindles, a bit of an irregularity compared to Campy or Stronglight cranks of that era.

On the other end of the chain is a Maillard Helicomatic hub, another short-lived innovation designed to make gear cluster removal easier than a threaded freewheel. Shimano's cartridge system, which also debuted in the early 80s, quickly eclipsed the Helicomatic and is still the standard today. As a result, it's difficult to find tools or parts to service Helicomatics. If I ever need to replace a spoke on the rear wheel, I'll need to find myself the proper lockring removal tool or get a new wheel. 

The wheels themselves have 27" double-walled Wolber Gentleman alloy rims. What a great name for a wheel, right? Because they're 27" wheels, there isn't a great selection of tires available, but I picked up a set of Kenda skinwall 1 1/8' road tires that ride just fine.

Finally, the bike came with weird one piece rubber handlebar grips with integrated brake hood covers that were molded to look like stitched leather. I'm not sure how these were ever installed--I imagine it took about a quart of olive oil or something. The rubber was dry and cracking and wouldn't allow any adjustment of the brake hoods. Risking the ire of the bike restoration gods, I replaced these with new cork tape. 

My first ride was a 38 mile loop across the Coon Rapids Dam. This was the first time it had been ridden after decades of garage storage. The bike was quick and responsive and I sorta got used to riding on drop bars again. I'm not sure if I'll end up keeping to selling this bike, but its quirkiness certainly argues for keeping.  Even after picking up a used Brooks B17 saddle for it, I still don't have a lot of cash invested in it. Time, yes. But not too much money.  

When I bought it off of Craigslist, I was confused about the Kabuki's age because it had high-end components from the mid 1980s, including a Specialized "Flag" triple crankset, Phil touring hubs, and a Shimano Deore rear derailleur. The Gran Compe center-pull brakes seem to be the only original equipment. Obviously, someone had really enjoyed this bike and had invested a lot of time and money into it.

It also came to me with swept back handlebars, thumb shifters, and a funky touring seat. Right away, I swapped these out for a wide set of touring bullhorns, an 80's Brooks Professional saddle, and some Suntour stem mounted power shifters. I resisted the urge to convert to fixed gear, thinking that it'd be nice to have a bike better suited for longer rides.

At first, I thought its 25" frame was too big for me, but I quickly learned that the other bikes I had been riding were actually too small. ​ Large vintage bikes are a lot larger than today's large sized bikes and the seatpost is usually shorter, too. Call me a large frame convert.

I rode the bike all through the summer and fall of 2018, including during the second half of the Powderhorn 24, when I was glad to stop riding fixed gear after 70 miles. When the snows came, I hung the Kabuki up in my garage, taking the pedals off so I wouldn't be tempted to ride in the snow.

When I rode it again for the first time this spring, tho, it felt kinda sluggish, especially compared to my spry Juvela. I blamed the tires, but with 27" wheels, my tire selection was extremely limited. I had tried last year running some Panaracer Paselas, but I kept getting flats, including a sidewall blowout on my first ride. I ended up replacing them with some $12 cheapies.

The 80's Araya single-wall rims were also showing their age. They're pretty heavy and not very strong. More than that, tho, I wanted a bike built more for comfort that I could take on the occasional longer ride--maybe ride my first century or more. A bike that could handle gravel roads and potholes with a minimum of bone jarring.

So, I rebuilt the wheels with new Alex double-walled rims. The Phil hubs are still buttery smooth, so all I had to do was polish them and set to work lacing my new wheels. 

Lacing wheels is kinda fun. Very putsy, but fun. The hardest part is measuring everything and ordering the right length spokes. I used two different online spoke calculators to make sure I got the right results. Then, building the wheel is mostly just following a pattern and slowly working around the wheel to make the rim true and the spokes tight.

I chose 35mm Clement Ush tires, which can handle both pavement and gravel and run at 40-60psi. They still need tubes, which is fine with me--I'm not really sold on the whole tubeless thing.

I also cut down some old alloy drops bars to make some new bullhorns which are narrower than what I rode with last year. I really want the same bar and braking setup on all my road bikes so I won't have to think twice about how to stop. I thought briefly about using actual drop bars, but I really don't like them. No one ever rides in the drops and braking power is a lot less when riding on the hoods. 

On my first ride, I was surprised at how much faster the bike felt. I rode the Gateway Trail all the way out to the North Saint Paul snowman. Even at 60psi, I feel like I'm going as fast as I do with 120psi Gatorskins on my fixed gear bikes except I don't feel every single bump.

I will say, though, that I still kind of prefer riding fixed for most things. Thinking about gears and shifting seems to interrupt my mind, making the ride a little bit less relaxing. I seem to prefer less thinking and more pedaling. Nonetheless, I think I'll be riding my Kabuki quite a lot this year, especially for longer rides. At 45 years old, it's good for many many more years.