gitaneusa.com :: View topic

ikersey

Have attached photos of my freshly painted (Bruce at the Color Factory in NJ) and reassembled TdF. As I indicated in my post from 6 Sept, I built this up as a club racer, so it's not catalog spec'd, but is pretty much period correct, save for the saddle and bar tape.

Starting at the front:

Original Guid bars with Campy NR brake levers, repro hoods, Brooks racing green bar tape, and Campy-logo'ed barend plugs

NOS Campy brake cable clips and green brake cable housing accenting the decals from Cyclomondo in Oz. BTW, the world champion stripes foil decals that I placed on the fork blades are leftovers from a Mercier restoration that I did lsat year and also came from Cyclomondo. Perhaps I took a little liberty in putting them on, but I was inspired by the cover of the '74 catalog on this site.

Campy NR brake calipers

Pivo stem (130mm!)

Campy NR headset

First generation Shimano Dura Ace high flange hubs (black) laced to Ambosio Elite rims

Campy NR DT shifters cabled to Campy NR front and rear derailleurs (the latter dated '7 Cool

via NOS Campy cable guide and chainstay cablestop

NOS Sugino BB mated with NOS Sugino Mighty Competition cranks (173mm rather than the typical 171mm) with 52/42 drillium black chainwheels.

Painful lesson learned here: the bike originally came with a Sugino Maxy crankset mated to an aftermarket english thread Shimano sealed cartidge BB. I figured I could salvage the BB for use with the Mighty Comp. After all, square tapered spindles that fit one crank from Sugino should also fit another Sugino crank from the same era, right? Wrong! The Maxy turned out to be J.I.S. while the Mighty Comp required an ISO (Campy) square taper. Was able to get a correct Sugino ISO BB installed courtesey of Gordon Freeman, Cycle Classics, in Portsmouth, VA.

NOS Sediscolor chain

Lyotard M23 'Marcel Berthet' pedals with NOS Christophe Special clips and straps

Campy NR seatpost with english racing green Brooks B17 Champion Special saddle and Gitane tool pouch

SunTour 5 speed freewheel (15, 16, 17, 18, 19)

Silca Imperio frame pump with Campy pumphead

Bike rides great and was a lot of fun to put together.

Ian Kersey
Williamsburg, VA

ikersey

Ian again -- sorry about that. Not sure why it's doing this, but whenever I type a submission that includes "'78" when refering to the date of my Campy NR rear der's date, I get an emoticon popping?!

Did the same thing when I first posted last month.

Most curious.

Ian

scozim

Nicely done Ian. What was your total timeline for the restoration?

sandranian · Site Admin

Wow. That is a stunning bike. Great job on the restoration! I like the attention to detail, specially the bag under the saddle!

Gtane

Ian,

That's a great job on restoration and I really like the nice touch of the Gitane bag under the saddle. Lovely looking machine. Do post a shot to the Owner Gallery.

I'm guessing this is definitely not a bike for rainy days.

Thanks for posting.

Tim

verktyg · Last edited by verktyg on Sun Oct 12, 2008 9:09 pm; edited 1 time in total

Nice job!

I'd like to suggest that you lower your stem height at least 1/2" (12mm). These Pivo stems were made of cast aluminum rather than forged. While casting quality is much better than some of the stems made between 1971 and 1973, a casting is not going to be as strong as a forging.

As a rule of thumb, you should probably have about 1/2 of the quill length inserted into the steering tube. Most later stems have a minimum insertion mark on the quill itself.

Chas.

citternmaker

Beautiful work! I think the black 1st gen Dura Ace hubs sure look a lot nicer on your TdF than the ones I have on my pre-73.

grumpyphil

Beautiful restoration job! Stunning!
Grumpyphil

Kinst VonSterga

Great looking bicycle and I'm sure it just as nice to ride! I love the silver/black accents of the sugino crank and durace hubs, very handsome color combination. You have the quad pounding 15-19 gearing combo, something my knees can no longer sustain, but it does make this machine look very, very fast. Congrats!

verktyg

You wimpy Oregonians, here's a link to a real man's freewheel: Laughing

http://www.classicrendezvous.com/Rarest/straight_block.htm

Kinst, I spent a lot of time working around western Oregon in the 1990s. Unfortunately I never had a chance to do any riding there. Sad

Hillsboro as the name implies is quite hilly! Wink

Chas.

citternmaker

Chas,

LOL! The 12-18 5spd freewheel I just took off my TdF this summer pretty much felt the same as that "straight block" to my 46yr old legs. Smile

I wonder if lurking in the shadows out there, we'll learn of some brave rider in that mastered the cambio corsa shifter and the straight block freewheel.... Wink

cooltech

Great work. A pleasure to look at this restoration.
cooltech Cool

ikersey

I acquired a Campy blue and yellow "PRODOTTI SPECIALI" decal from eBay with the intent of mounting it on my Campy NR-equipped '76 / '77 Gitane TdF.

I've seen Raleighs that have the decal mounted on the down tube, just above the shifters (see: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/retroraleighs/1972Pro-1-full.jpg).

Unfortunately, that's where my Gitane's Reynolds 531 decal is mounted.

I thought I had seen a link on this site's forum to a European classic web site that shows a blue Gitane with chrome forks and stays with a similar decal mounted, but now I can't find the link....

Does anyone 1) have the link to said website showing this bicycle, and 2) have any idea where said decal could be placed on my TdF?

Cheers,

Ian Kersey
Williamsburg, VA

ikersey

Campy decal is mounted on down tube below the shifters, with Reynolds decal above.

http://www.speedbicycles.ch/pic.php?enr=213&pic=009