Shit mopeds from France

[Lankytim]

No, not the name of a new blockbuster film.

 

A mate of mine is into bikes, restoring, drag racing, that sort of stuff. He's had the idea of driving over to France in his Sprinter van and picking up a couple of old French scooters or mopeds to restore and has asked me to go along for the craic. He's said we can even put a trailer on the back and bring back a Renault 12 or something if I fancy it (which I do)

 

The problem is he doesn't know where on the web to find old Froggy scooters and I can't navigate LebonCoin or make any sense of it whatsoever. Does anyone have any pointers on what we should be doing?

[Dan_ZTT]

Timely

[Junkman]

Are you sure you can navigate France if you can't even navigate Leboncoin?

[Lankytim]

Are you sure you can navigate France if you can't even navigate Leboncoin?

Good point. Maybe we should forget the whole thing?

[Eddie Honda]

Bof!

[somewhatfoolish]

What is it about Lebon you're having trouble with?

[panhard65]

Yeap Leboncoin is the place to try, but I had a lot of trouble getting replies this time with my google translations. If you have someone who can speak French you will stand a better chance. My strike rate was down from about 3 in ten replying to 1 in ten. There is a dealer in Clermont who always has a lot of 40's and 50's bikes but finding bargains is getting harder. Expect to pay at least 100 euro each for anything complete and not seized. The 100 and 125cc's are dearer. A decent 125 Monet will start around 500 but will still be a project. Leboncoin is easy to navigate. Start on the home page click an area until you get the search box up. Play around until you have found the options. Click all of France then Moto's and put a max age in. you should get a lot of ads come up. Now just scroll until you find something click on the ad and you can get a map of the location that you can zoom out. I suspect you have to create an account now to send messages but it was a while ago I did it so I can't remember how it's done.

[panhard65]

Hold on why am I telling you this as the more people doing it the less chance I have of making enough to cover my costs when collecting cars. You won't be getting rich from it but it is a bit of fun. Anything over 48cc needs a Nova as well so acarte gris with year on it is a help.

[egg]

There is an LBC app, but bizarrely you can't install it in the UK!

[Lankytim]

What is it about Lebon you're having trouble with?

 

 

I'm just getting a very broad search result back, say if I try to look up Ford Taunus i'll get everything associated with the Ford Taunus rather than individual cars as i'm probably looking under the automotive category rather than classic cars or whatever.

[Lankytim]

Yeap Leboncoin is the place to try, but I had a lot of trouble getting replies this time with my google translations. If you have someone who can speak French you will stand a better chance. My strike rate was down from about 3 in ten replying to 1 in ten. There is a dealer in Clermont who always has a lot of 40's and 50's bikes but finding bargains is getting harder. Expect to pay at least 100 euro each for anything complete and not seized. The 100 and 125cc's are dearer. A decent 125 Monet will start around 500 but will still be a project. Leboncoin is easy to navigate. Start on the home page click an area until you get the search box up. Play around until you have found the options. Click all of France then Moto's and put a max age in. you should get a lot of ads come up. Now just scroll until you find something click on the ad and you can get a map of the location that you can zoom out. I suspect you have to create an account now to send messages but it was a while ago I did it so I can't remember how it's done.

 

 

I think I've got my head around it a bit now, thanks!

[johngarty]

Back in the 70's as a smol boy I decided that mum and dads shiny new red phone was too much of a temptation. So the logical thing was to start messing about with international calling codes and random numbers. I got a few replies in French and decided to impress with my schoolboy Francais, not one of which understood a fucking word I said. But all spoke good English, embarrassing but not as shameful as when the GPO dropped the bill on the doormat.

[SierraMikeHotel]

I stand ready to assist with French translation.

 

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

[Lankytim]

Back in the 70's as a smol boy I decided that mum and dads shiny new red phone was too much of a temptation. So the logical thing was to start messing about with international calling codes and random numbers. I got a few replies in French and decided to impress with my schoolboy Francais, not one of which understood a fucking word I said. But all spoke good English, embarrassing but not as shameful as when the GPO dropped the bill on the doormat.

 

I did something similar with sex chat lines. Somehow I managed to blame my 8 yr old brother and he's had the label of "sex offender in waiting" ever since. He's 35 now

[busmansholiday]

It wasn't me I assure you but each area of the works had a phone that didn't go through the switchboard for emergencies etc. Popular sport on nights was to randomly dial international numbers....

[Lankytim]

Is a French MOT up to UK standards? I see Controle Technique  mentioned a lot but I'm sure I remember pop riveted plates being an acceptable structural repair. 

[panhard65]

Is a French MOT up to UK standards? I see Controle Technique  mentioned a lot but I'm sure I remember pop riveted plates being an acceptable structural repair. 

No where near at the moment, also look out for catre gris collection as they had no test. Fibreglass is acceptable for floor and sill repairs

[martc]

I understand that some French mopeds have weird tyre sizes not readily available in the UK - may be something to consider.

 

Panhard65 may be able to confirm, or deny, this so called fact.

[forddeliveryboy]

I understand that some French mopeds have weird tyre sizes not readily available in the UK - may be something to consider.

 

The Dagworth and District Gentlemen's Cycling Society has a neat table for our reference, http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pattle/ddgcs/tyres.htm

[wuvvum]

My French moped has 18" wheels for some reason (most Mobylettes were 17") and it was an absolute twat to find tyres for, even 20 years ago and even in France.

 

Here's a gratuitous picture of the old crate, taken earlier today when I dragged it out of the garage to get to something behind it.

 

[Junkman]

The Dagworth and District Gentlemen's Cycling Society has a neat table for our reference, http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pattle/ddgcs/tyres.htm

 

This is for bicycle tyres. Moped tyres are completely different.

[stephen01]

Yeap Leboncoin is the place to try, but I had a lot of trouble getting replies this time with my google translations. 

 

100% this. When I was looking for a twingo I fired off several emails, ok from google translate, NOTHING back at all! perhaps I should have asked Claude our helpful French friend for some assistance.

[sierraman]

No moped was as shite as those Tomos mopeds you used to be able to get on the weekly from the catalogues or Argos.

[forddeliveryboy]

http://moto.michelin.co.uk/GB/en/tyres/sizes.html

This is for bicycle tyres. Moped tyres are completely different.

Yes, not many moped tyre sizes are listed. Is this more complete, http://moto.michelin.co.uk/GB/en/tyres/sizes.html?

[barrett]

90 per cent of vendors on LBC clearly state 'no emails!' I have never bothered emailing a vendor first off, you really need to ring them up and talk it through and then follow u  with an email if necessary. Rope in a fluent French speaker and you'll be fine, but otherwise don't expect things to go smoothly if you don't speak at least a little of the lingo

[bezzabsa]

did Le frogs get any of the CZ/Jawa range???

 

just wondering if a tidy ish Jawa 250 or 350 might be viable from there as they are stoopid prices over hhere now, even basket cases!!