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TheNightowl

Hello! New Gitane owner, here. I picked up a vintage early 70s (?) Grand Sport Deluxe a couple of weeks ago for a song.

It is pretty rough, but apparently has almost all original parts on it. (Including a plastic wingnut with the wings broken off on one of the shifter levers and a bent seat-post clamp bolt! Sad

) I guess that at least one of the tires has been replaced, though, and there was no seat on it.

It has a Suntour Seven rear derailleur, a Simplex piston-type front derailleur, Dia-Compe center-pull brakes and M M Atom (?) quick-release hubs.

Basically, I bought the bike because I wanted a Gitane back in the 70s, when I settled for a Schwinn because it was available and cheaper! I know the GSD was the lowest entry-level Gitane for the mass market, and I'm not looking to make a racing bike out of it. I just want to restore it as a rideable street touring bike.

Daniel Tabor
Austin, TX

lofter

Hello, welcome . That's a great story . I hope the restore is as fun too.

TheNightowl

When I got the bike, one side of the lower bracket was loose, but the crank was still attached. I got that apart, cleaned, greased and reseated. Cleaned up the cranks and crankset while I had it off. I did open up the front axle, inspected and greased the bearings. Have yet to tear down and clean the derailleurs or rear axle/cassette.

Would like to find an exploded view of the Simplex front derailleur, because I've never disassembled one before. I'm usually .. "pretty fair" with mechanical stuff, but I have gotten stuff apart before that I couldn't get back together!

Unfortunately, I'm short funds, and short of just disassembling, cleaning and reassembling (and new cables, obviously), there's not a lot I can do in the near term.

TheNightowl

Achh... The bad news is that the Simplex front derailleur is actually broken. The black plastic part that actually houses the piston for the derailleur is broken where the buried/molded in nuts are.

Guess I find another one.

Daniel Tabor
Austin, TX

gman309905

Hi,
Welcome, If your looking for replacement components I would suggest ebay,
lots and lots of vintage parts and some are new old stock. you might think about Suntour or Campy. I never did care for plastic. nowhere near as durable as alloy components. A wide variety of decals is also available. I built my "ressurection" Gitane entirely off of ebay.

TheNightowl

Thanks, Gman.

Yeah, I wasn't really looking for parts on here. I just mentioned that I discovered that the front derailleur was actually broken. First thing I did after that was look to see if an all-metal one was available on eBay, and if so, for how much. Like I said, my budget is nil at the moment, so it's just something to keep an eye out for.

Like you, I'm not impressed with the plastic parts.

Nice lookin' rebuild! Think I'm going to paint mine white when it's all done, which happened to be the original color.

Daniel Tabor
Austin, TX

gman309905

I'll be anxious to see what it looks like when your finished.
You also might try your LBS , sometimes they have some old stock hanging around that they will sell cheap.

vanhelmont

Nightowl,

It's pretty amazing that the original plastic derailleur is still there. When I bought my first bike in the 70s my uncle warned me to avoid French derailleurs. (not to offend any Francophiles, some of the best derailleurs made have been French,but not the ones that came with your bike!) If you got Suntour or Shimano derailleurs (or at least the front derailleur) from the period your bike would still be authentic in my view.

Unless you are lucky enough to find a French-size derailleur, the clamp will be just a little big for your seat tube. I once shimmed one with aluminum foil, and it worked fine.

Good Luck with the bike!