gitaneusa.com Forum Index » Vintage Gitane » Leave it to the French...    View previous topic :: View next topic  Leave it to the French...   Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 9:04 am greyhundguy Joined: 09 Apr 2008 Posts: 678 Location: South-Central VIRGINIA ...to stir up confusion. While researching rims for a restore I ran upon this...MontHLery, MontLery, and MontLHery, France(all the same place) for which some Mavic rims were designated. Mavic has MontLery (early?) and MontHLery (later?) rims. See links: http://www.velobase.com/ViewSingleComponent.aspx?ID=3b6e1f2c-4a34-4b4e-b60b-da050f9de18a http://www.velobase.com/ViewSingleComponent.aspx?ID=0225ab8b-1733-4e35-9fa1-adc0a9f330e9 Now, the MontLery may have a date code which is what I have on my (thought by me) '72-73 TdF. Turns out I may have a '71-72 TdF because my rims have the code "0771". Hard to see 07 in photo, but you can see the 71. This may be another way to narrow dating on early, upper tier, Gitanes with their original Mavic rims. Jay _________________ Dance like nobody is watching.   Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 9:42 am Gtane Joined: 14 Sep 2007 Posts: 681 Location: UK Thanks Jay, that's most interesting. I had no idea. Great find. The 71 that you have indicated is certainly very small and could easily be missed. Tim _________________ Everything has a cycle Dating Rims   Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 2:13 pm verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area I'd never try to date anything but rims and hubs by the dates on them. We switched wheels on maybe a third of the bikes we sold. People wanted clinchers on bikes that came with sewups and vice versa. We sold a lot of bikes with 2 sets of wheels - clinchers for around town and commuting plus a set of sewups for weekend rides. It was rare for us to change the rims on a new set of wheels because we kept racks of built up wheels ready to switch. Another thing, rims, especially sewup rims were frequently damaged and replaced so there is no telling when these events occurred or how old the replacement rims were. Another point, European bike makers never used "FIFO" (first in-first out) inventory control on anything. It was not uncommon to get in a new bike with 2-3 year old components. Pro model bikes represented less than 5% of all of the bikes sold during the US Bike Boom of the early 1970s. It was not uncommon for these bikes to sit in warehouses or bike shops for several years before someone bought them. My guess is that Gitane could have kept painted partially assembled frames for their top model bikes. They installed components and model decals appropriate for the different markets where the bikes were shipping to. This is based on seeing pictures of various bike makers plants where they had racks of semi finished bikes ready to assemble. Chas.   Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 2:33 pm greyhundguy Joined: 09 Apr 2008 Posts: 678 Location: South-Central VIRGINIA Thanks Chas. You make a very good point. I didn't think about how easy it would be to use the QR to change wheel sets. Jay _________________ Dance like nobody is watching. Mavic Montlhery Rims   Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 10:18 pm verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area Jay, Mavic must have made well over a dozen styles of rims with Montlhery in the model name. BTW, I've always pronounced it Mont-La-Ray... Here are a few examples: Chas. Re: Leave it to the French...   Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 1:14 am Paul Wiseman Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 584 Location: Brisbane, Australia greyhundguy wrote: ...to stir up confusion. While researching rims for a restore I ran upon this...MontHLery, MontLery, and MontLHery, France(all the same place) for which some Mavic rims were designated. Mavic has MontLery (early?) and MontHLery (later?) rims. See links: http://www.velobase.com/ViewSingleComponent.aspx?ID=3b6e1f2c-4a34-4b4e-b60b-da050f9de18a http://www.velobase.com/ViewSingleComponent.aspx?ID=0225ab8b-1733-4e35-9fa1-adc0a9f330e9 Now, the MontLery may have a date code which is what I have on my (thought by me) '72-73 TdF. Turns out I may have a '71-72 TdF because my rims have the code "0771". Hard to see 07 in photo, but you can see the 71. This may be another way to narrow dating on early, upper tier, Gitanes with their original Mavic rims. Jay Crikey! I think I'll go drink another glass of Bordaeux and see if this makes any more sense then......... or was that Bordeaux? no, wait..... Bordeuax? ......... You see Nicolas? This is why Australian reds are better than French reds. No-one will ever misspell Coonawarra! Or is that Coonnawwarra.......................................................? [/b] _________________ Wisey Brisbane, Australia 1974 Paris - Nice 1985 Defi 1985 Victoire 1985 Victoire (yes, another one!) 1985 Professionnel Wine, Whine, Wyne. Plunk, Plonk!   Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 7:49 pm verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area Wisey, What's with all the plunk? What about Faastas? Chas. Leave it to the French...     gitaneusa.com Forum Index » Vintage Gitane You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum All times are GMT - 8 Hours   Page 1 of 1   All Posts1 Day7 Days2 Weeks1 Month3 Months6 Months1 Year Oldest FirstNewest First  Select a forum Gitane USA----------------Vintage GitaneGitane RacingModern GitanePro Racing - Classics/Giro/Tour....Owner Gallery   Powered by phpBB © 2001-2004 phpBB Group Designed for Trushkin.net | Themes Database.