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verktyg

There is a 1987 Gitane Team Pro on eBay.

http://tinyurl.com/2dqzrx7

Looks to be in great condition and I started drooling and got ready to throw money at it except...

The seller mentioned this in his listing:

"I built it up only to discover that there is something wrong with the bottom bracket shell. When the bottom bracket is installed, there is some fore-aft movement of the cups in the shell. I have chased the threads and faced the shell, but nothing changed. I went so far as to installing three different brand new Campagnolo C-Record bottom brackets but the movement was still there. I even tried a Phil Wood cartridge unit, but it still moved."

The BB shell may be damaged or at least the threads are hosed. Crying or Very sad

The threads could possibly be reamed oversize and re-threaded with 36mm Italian sized threads but that could weaken an already damaged BB shell.

The other thing short of replacing the BB shell is a competent frame builder could build up the threaded area of the BB with braze material and re-thread it. This could be done with minimal damage to the surrounding paint and the burn area repainted.

A good painter could make it look pretty much original but a total repaint would be best ($300-$600)

Seller claims the threads are all French but by 1987 French bikes were all British or ISO threads???

The other interesting thing is that the seller has pointed out the the frame is made of Columbus SLX tubing with riffled ribs inside the tubes.

The Team Pro in the 1987 catalog is listed as having been made with Reynolds 531P tubing so this could have been a real Gitane team bike instead of a replica??

Second bike is a 1984 Gitane Criterium. It would fill out my 4 Flush of 1984 Gitanes: Team Pro, Super Corsa and Tour de France.

The there's some rust on the components and the paint is a little too rough to throw a lot at it and the reserve is too high for a bike in this condition.

The auction will probably have ended by the time you read this but I suspect that it will be relisted with a lower reserve. Wink

Holger

My Team Pro is also made of Columbus SLX and french threads,
and i`ve seen two others like this.
Sometimes i think the people in the
fabric of Gitane and those who made the catalogues never had
talked to each other! Very Happy

Holger

Gtane · Last edited by Gtane on Sun Nov 21, 2010 2:52 am; edited 2 times in total

Interesting find Chas.

The bottom bracket story is unusual particularly as the frame was purchased new by the seller. When the threads were chased they could have been found to have been loose at the time without installing the cups.

If this was a team frame, then it might be that the threads were designed to be oversized for a specific reason, a testing of new hardware perhaps, it could of course be any number of reasons. It might even be a prototype frame. A non standard fit for a specific purpose but unusual though. It would have be good to know the condition of the threads before the work started.

The other thing is that C Record cups are alloy and they should glide in and out of the shell with ease. There's no description regards how easy or how difficult they were to install or if the threads of the cups were destroyed or remained intact after fitting.

Sadly there's no close up of the threads as they are now. However, it is a lovely frame.

Tim

Gtane

Holger,

Out of interest, what's the threading on your bottom bracket?

Is yours a 1987 too?

Thanks

Tim

Holger

yes it has french threads, and it was not that easy to find the parts,
(it was a NOS Frame but without even a headset)

First i thought it is a 84 cause of that Columbus tubes, and so i
build it up with 1984 Campa S.R. components.

could be a 1987, but at the end who knows.

Does somebody know when Columbus SLX came on the market?
Maybe there was a demand from the market for the `dernier cri` tubes and french threads, and Gitane changed production?

Holger

verktyg

Columbus SLX tubing came out around 1983 or 84 but was used more in the late 80s and mostly on Italian bikes.

The bottoms of the seat tubes, down tubes and the large ends of the chain stays have raised rifling inside them. The purpose was to increase lateral rigidity across the bottom bracket without increasing overall frame weight by much.

I have 4 French bikes made of Columbus SL tubing including a 1984 Gitane Team Pro and a 1986 Bertin. They all have French threads and metric sized tubes.

My 1974 TdF has metric sized 531 tubes with British threads. My 1984 Super Corsa and TdFs have metric SV tubes with British threads too.

By the late 80s metric threaded BB shells became pretty hard to find. I suspect that maybe Gitane had some left over metric threaded BB shells so maybe they used those on these lower production Team bike frames?

Last spring I measured 20 BB cups with French, English and ISO threads. They were Campy, Stronglight, TA, Shimano plus some cheap ones too.

French = 35mm = 1.378"
ISO = 1.375"
British = 1.370"

All 20 cups were undersized, some by up to .005" under (0.13mm).

Phil Wood rings are very precisely made and I've never seen them undersized.

What the seller seemed to say was that the BB shell was out of round, front to back and the BB wouldn't tighten up properly. This could result from a cracked BB shell or just threads that were machined badly oversize and out of round.

greyhundguy

lofter

holger ,yours is not a 84 , yours has the rear brake cable on the underside of the top tube. the 84 is on the top Wink

scozim

verktyg

Jay,

Great suggestion. I never considered a threadless BB.

Something else that I noticed on this frame, look at the close up picture of the top and down tubes at the head tube. See all of those spiderweb lines in the clear coat? They are usually indicative of a front end collision, maybe just a little one but just the same...

http://tinyurl.com/2dqzrx7

Scott,

The Criterium seller already lowered the Reserve but it must still be at least $200. Add $90 to that and it brings the cost close to $300! It's way too much for a bike in that condition.

lofter

trois tubes

Here's a pic of Mr. Fignon riding a Columbus frame during the 1985 'Semaine Sicilienne' (a week long pre-season warm-up race in Sicily) with rear brake cable ports underneath the top tube. Just another example of what is in supply that's good enough for the pros to ride is used. Consumer specs were/are much more uniform. Like in the case of Trek requiring any Gitane bikes sold in the US to have ISO/British threading for ease of service and compatibility.

The 'Team Replica' frames/bikes for retailers in France and abroad were built by the same staff that serviced the Renault and later Systeme U teams. So specs for those bikes were based more on what was in supply at the time of build and not what was advertised.

verktyg

Gtane

Gtane

Regards Gitanes on Ebay, here's a Columbus tubed/badged (top brake cable exit) Team Pro Gitane on Ebay UK. Could it be a 1984?

Has anyone seen the transfer styles/layouts as shown in this way on the frame? The layout of the one on the downtube seems unusual. Could they be original?

http://tinyurl.com/2bq8xjy

Tim