gitaneusa.com :: View topic

gmany

It's too big for me, but if someone else is interested, let me know and we can work something out.

http://stlouis.craigslist.org/bik/2535002332.html

verktyg

The bike is a 1974 or 75 Gitane Gran Sport entry level model.

Looks to be about a 62cm frame (24.5" nominal) measured from the center of the BB to the top of the seat tube.

It's certainly not made with any Reynolds tubing!

A more realistic price would be around $100-$125.

It's a 35+ year old bike that looks to be in good condition, but...

It need work, maybe tires, an overhaul, brake blocks new cables and so on.

Another issue, the tires are probably 27" and are hard to find in a decent quality.

A bike shop would probably charge at least $100 just to get it ridable.

scozim

I don't normally shy away from the 27" tires. My local shop carries a couple different models of Bontrager and I just ordered some Panaracer Paselas (great tire, by the way) from Bike Nashbar for $15 - 105 psi max. Kenda still makes 27" tires as well. Will they become even harder to get - probably, but I'm still not having any trouble locating them.

verktyg

27" Tires...

But they're not something that you can find at a lot of LBSs.

That makes them hard to find for those folks who are not among the cognoscenti. Confused

gmany

I figured that 3 tubes reynolds on an interclub was about as high as it could be.

I feel the pain on the size though.

It's tough to get a good small frame, whereas it seems the large frames are always around.

Everybody knows when a bike is too big, but it is easier to ride a bike that is too small, than too big.

verktyg

Greetings,

The bike in question is not an Interclub, it's a Grand Sport.

There were a few Interclubs that came with Reynolds 531 main tubes but I've never seen them listed in any catalog.

Here is what I suspect, in 1974Gitane Pacific in southern California took over as the US importer/distributor. I'd heard and have some evidence that Gitane Pacific was bringing in painted Gitane frames without decals and assembling bikes here in the US.

When Gitane Pacific closed up shop around 1977 we bought all of their left over frames; I'm thinking about 39 of them. They also sent us a more than ample supply of decals to go along with them. Most of the frames were Gran Sport models but there may have been an Interclub or TdF too.

I think that we paid something like $25 each and they arrived unpacked on a freight truck. Gitane pacific was clearing out all of their components too. Since we imported French stuff we had most of the components to build up the bikes in our stock.

Back to Interclubs...

In 1974 and 75 the Gitane Tour de France bikes only had the 3 main tubes made of Reynolds 531 tubing. Also only the forks had chrome plating.

All of the previous TdF bikes that were made for the US market between 1968 and early 1974 had frames that were all Reynolds tubing and both the forks and rear triangle had chrome plating.

In 1976 Gitane changed the Tour de France back to all Reynolds tubing plus chrome plating on the forks and rear triangle, at least for the US market.

I think that some left over 3 tube Reynolds TdF frames were used for a few Interclubs, maybe only in 1976 and only for the US market. They may have been assembled by Gitane Pacific???

Interclubs were made with everything from the standard carbon steel tubes used on the entry level Gitane models to various types of Durifort tubing plus a few that I've seen that had 3 tubes Reynolds.

One other thing, all of the Interclubs and TdFs from 1974 through 1976 came with the Huret honey comb rear dropouts.

Here's a 197? Interclub with Reynolds tubing. It still has the display hang tag.

The 2 things that differentiated the mid 70s Interclubs from the TdFs were the Stronglight P3 headsets of the TdFs and sometimes the fork crowns. Interclubs used the same Gitane headsets as the Gran Sport models.