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SLYSAM

Hi all! Well no sense in beating around the bush about this....I'm confused! Ok, I'm getting back into riding after years of being outta the saddle. I've had this bike since 86', which was given to my be a friend at the time. I would love to put it back on the road but I'm lost on what my options are.
After spending several hours going through the posts and trying to take in as much as I can on this I'm still a bit confused. I have come to the conclusion that (captain obvious here) I do have an "interclub" still lost on the year though. Not sure where it came from because the stickers have thrown me for a loop. The majority are in or do have a lot of french on them, is this common for the early 70's? The set up on the bike is very mixed but I do remember my friend telling me he hadn't done anything to it at all. I have Shimano brake levers, Suntour shifters, Pivo stem, Brooks "professional" seat, the wheels I found a made in Belgium tag on them, Shimano rear derailer "Skylark", Mavic "Racer" in the front, Dia something or nother in the rear... Is this just what the shop threw on there that might have sold it? And for the serial number the best I can find is a 3 digit number on the rear drop out...
I have finally found my camera cord so I will attept to attach some pics I've been taking and will attempt to attach them to go with this hopefully I can find some info to help me out.

I can add more pics if that would help. I've taken Pics of every thing i can tink of on it.

Thanks up front to anyone that has the time to help me in my plight.
Shocked

"Slysam"

SLYSAM

Wow no pics.... just my luck.
http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV22swZi

http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV22vb5S

http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV22sOri

http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV22vWuA

http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV22w5t9

WOOOT! pics worked now!

vanhelmont

Looks like basically a functional mid-level bike, with a hodge podge of parts. With friction shifting that's no problem. What you need to do is clean, lubricate, adjust, pump up the tires, and go!

Sheldon Brown's website is a treasure trove of info on bike repair and maintenance, but parts that need cleaning, lubing, adjusting, etc, are the bottom bracket, hubs, headset, chain, derailers, and brakes. When I need info on some aspect of a bike, my first thought is to google "sheldon brown bottom bracket," or whatever other part I'm interested in.

If you don't like to get greasy, or don't have the time, find a good bike shop. I'd look for an older mechanic, who will know what friction shifting and French threads are.

The one area that might need more concern is the stem and handlebars. Aluminum suffers from fatigue, and any old alloy parts that are stressed can break. Stems, bars, and cranks have all failed and spilled riders onto the road. Some older French bars and stems are particularly suspect.
Common stems are 22.2 mm, but yours are probably 22 mm. It's apparently not too hard to grind off the extra 0.2 mm by wrapping emery paper around it and twisting. If I remember rightly I got this from Sheldon Brown's website.

Good Luck!

verktyg

My friend, you have a Frankenbike. Shocked

It looks like a very early 1970s Interclub that someone has thrown on a bunch of mismatched parts to get it running.

There's a picture of an Interclub on this flyer from 1973:

The pictures and info probably go back to the late 1960s as there were only minor changes in Gitane's US line until 1974.

I've never seen an Interclub without a 1/2 chrome fork or 14mm seat stays. They were marketed as club racers with a reasonably light weight frame and racing geometry plus sewup wheels. They probably weighed in the 24-25 Lb. range. Notice the graceful curve of the forks and 1/2 step chainrings on the steel crankset.

The Campy Nuovo Tipo wheels with clinchers are not original. With the rims trued, bearings repacked and new tires they'll make for nice riding. They are probably 27" wheels. Good quality 27" tires are getting hard to find. Panracer Pasela or Pasela Tour Guard 27" x 1 1/8" tires ride very nice. They are ~$20-$25 each.

This could be a reasonable riding bike as is with a major tuneup and safety check.

Have fun,

Chas.

SLYSAM

Well gentlemen I appreciate you taking a look at my "Frankenbike" LOL. I have enjoyed restoring things all my life so it seems that I maybe have found a new project to turn my attention to.

Slysam

"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today.
It's already tomorrow in Australia"
(Charles Schultz)

verktyg

Interclubs from that era came with Simplex Prestige derailleurs, Mafac racer brakes and Normandy high flange hubs with entry level sewup rims. By 1972-73 a few Interclubs came in with Suntour derailleurs. About the same time they started arriving with Sugino Maxi cotterless cranks.

For a restoration project you could get by with a cleanup/tuneup, matched Mafac brakes and levers plus some period correct derailleurs and shif levers. The "aero" shift levers date from 1982-83 and the "suicide" brake levers have got to go.

The wheels are period correct and you could get by with them. The Campy Nuovo Tipo hubs are better quality than the standard Normandy hubs that the Interclubs came with.

I upgraded the cranks on both my Interclubs to Sugino Mighty (Campy knockoffs) cranks. I used them for beater/training bikes back in the day.

Interclubs were not that popular in the US because they were competing against Peugeot PR10 models that had similar equipment except Stronglight 49 alloy cranks and the 3 main tubes were made of Reynolds 531. Raleigh, Dawes and some other brands had similar models that were same style bike.

In our marketplace buyers were looking for cheaper transportation bikes or better racing bikes.

Chas.

the70sbike

I worked in a bike shop in 1974 that primarily sold Gitanes. All the Interclubs had Sugino Maxy cranks on them by that time. These were all Gitanes that had the pre-74 foil decals on them, not the newer style.

verktyg

the 70sbike,

The early Interclubs came with steel cranks with 1/2 step "racing" gears - 52T/47T chainrings or something like that. Some even had crank arms that would take alloy TA Cyclotouriste chain rings.

By the middle of the US Bike Boom in 1972-73 bikes were shipping with any kind of components the manufacturers could get. At the 2 shops that I worked at, we were getting Gitane Gran Sport bikes with Huret Allvit or Simplex Prestige derailleurs and even a few came in with Suntour derailleurs. They had either Mafac or Weinmann brakes and every kind of hubs imaginable from HF Normandy QR to bolt on 3 piece steel hubs.

My guess is that Gitane tried to dress up the Interclubs with Sugino Maxi cranks. Competitive models like the Peugeot PR10 and similar club racer bikes from Motobecane, Dawes, Raleigh and others started coming with Stronglight 49 alloy cranks.

The Sugino Maxi cranks were probably the first cheap alloy cranks to hit the market. Unlike most other alloy cranks of that time the arms were cast (melt forged????! - still cast whatever you want to call it) rather than forged aluminum. The stamped out chainrings were swaged onto the crank arm. We saw a few of them fail at the swage point and the chainrings came loose.

The shop that managed focused on higher quality performance bikes. We sold far more Tour de France and similar bikes than Interclubs. The 2 Interclubs that I had, I built up from bare frames. An old friend still has one of them which she occasionally rides.

Chas.

the70sbike

I wasn't particularly fond of the Sugino Maxy, although I had one on a Nishiki International and rode it for 3500 difficult miles. That would be because I bought the thing when I was 15! Nothing broke and no problem with the swaged joint, although I didn't exactly trust it.

I do recall that you could not count on specific components for a given model. Opening the box was a surprise, to be sure.

I had a Gran Sport DeLuxe that was SunTour equipped. It shifted better than the ones equipped with Huret or Simplex derailleurs. I bought it years after leaving the bike shop and rode it off and on for several years. Definitely a nicer and better bike than the equivalent Peugeot of the time.

verktyg

I agree completely, Gitane Gran Sport bikes were much better than the Peugeot UO-8 models.

The forks on the early 70s UO-8s weren't even made of tubing. They took sheet metal and rolled it into the shape of a fork and brazed it together. Peugeot used forks made that way for a number of years on all of their models except the PX-10s which were all Reynolds 531.

The way I discovered this was when I tried to straighten a fork on a UO-8. It split down the brazed seams on the rear of the fork blades. Shocked

You can see or feel the seams on the forks made that way.

I have to laugh when fools advertise Peugeot UO-8s as "RARE" on eBay. These were the most popular 10 speeds imported during the Bike Boom.

I have to confess, I have 2 Peugeots. Embarassed

One is a 1988 Peugeot Chorus made with Reynolds 753 tubing and a Campy Chorus gruppo. They only made these for 1 year and they are pretty rare. The other one is a 1967 PX-10 "barn bike" that I picked up last month. It's been stored somewhere dry for probably at least 20 years and looked it. It was covered with dirt and dust but it's all original except for the chain and freewheel.

I have an identically equipped Gitane Tour de France from about the same vintage. I bought it last December and it was another "barn bike" in about the same condition.

Both bikes have 54cm frames but the Gitane rides so much better than the PX-10 which confirms my 35+ year prejudice towards Peugeots. Twisted Evil

I just finished repacking the headset and BB on the Gitane TdF. I hate repacking loose bearings. Mad

Chas.

smilingroadrunner

Thanks fellows to all that post to these forums. GitaneUSA.com continues to be one the the most informative and fun websites in my browsing.

I plan to replace the Maxy crankset on my '71 Interclub with the Sugino Mighty Competition crankset that I salvaged off the damaged '73 TdeF frame. I don't hammer quite like I did back in my college days of racing---but I still occassionally STOMP on it pretty hard to avoid an incident with auto traffic. I guess I probably will try to replace it this spring before it breaks. Testimony to the 35+ years (conservatively in excess of 85-90,000miles) probably quite a bit more if I'd actually go back and tally up my logs. Guess I've been Lucky!!!

I like Steel!!!
___________________
C.A.
Salina, Ks.