Quote Originally Posted by DebW View Post
I sold and worked on French bikes (Motobecanes) in the 70s. You shouldn't need special French tools - just standard metric fittings. Of course, bottom brackets were different in the 70s, but French and British were similar. Freewheel and crank tools were specific to the manufacturer - no standardization at all. If you need tools for a specific part, maybe I can help if you describe it or post a picture

As far as finding French parts, the only thing I can suggest is eBay. Most of that stuff isn't manufactured any more. If you had money to put into this thing, you could probably replace the crank with something modern and use standard pedals. You could replace the handlebars and stem and brake levers together, as the external stem diameter you need probably matches modern specs. To get off-white cable housing, I suggest rubbing dirty hands on white housing. Always worked for me.

Good tip on the housing, I was actually thinking that, but it's sort of counter productive It's probably what I'll end up doing though. The reason I need off white is because it has the original (now off-white) brake levers that are awesome because they are very rare to find un-broken (they're light plastic!). I assume they once were white, but they're still in great shape

I have found some things on E-bay I could use, but now that I'm ready to buy everything's over-priced. Guess I'll just have to wait it out!

Thanx for the tips!