gitaneusa.com Forum Index » Vintage Gitane » Gitane CLONE on eBay    View previous topic :: View next topic  Gitane CLONE on eBay   Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2009 5:55 am greyhundguy Joined: 09 Apr 2008 Posts: 678 Location: South-Central VIRGINIA Have y'all noticed this eBay Auction? A respectable bike from the other maker of some Gitanes. Long point lugs, part 531, Simplex Criterium... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300323441596&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&salenotsupported Jay _________________ Dance like nobody is watching. St. Etienne   Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2009 11:32 am verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area The city of St. Etienne is located in Southeast France. It's long been the capitol of the French cycling industry and was the home of Moto and many other makes of bikes. Mavic is also located there. St. Etienne bikes were decent quality French Bike Boom era bikes although not many were imported into the US. During the Boom there were rumors that St. Etienne private labeled a lot of entry level bikes for a number of French bike makers. It was never clarified whether it was the company "St. Etienne" or different bike builders in the town of St. Etienne that were making these bikes. Chas.   Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2009 12:05 pm greyhundguy Joined: 09 Apr 2008 Posts: 678 Location: South-Central VIRGINIA Chas., I was told that Manufrance or another Large Builder of frames MIGHT??? have had a hand in these bikes along with making some of the LOW end Gitanes during the Bike Boom. Thus, leaving Gitane to concentrate on the higher end production which was in such demand at the time. This bike is interesting to me because of the Foil Decal likeness to 70's Gitanes along with respectable components and construction. Jay _________________ Dance like nobody is watching.   Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2009 3:06 pm Wisey Joined: 19 May 2009 Posts: 631 Location: Brisbane, Australia That's a gem anyway. Hope someone is going to buy it at that price!   Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2009 3:17 pm greyhundguy Joined: 09 Apr 2008 Posts: 678 Location: South-Central VIRGINIA Wisey wrote: Hope someone is going to buy it at that price! Wisey, From Sellers past record of Bike sales, I expect it will bring a good price well above the current bid. Jay _________________ Dance like nobody is watching.   Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2009 2:38 am verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area greyhundguy wrote: Chas., I was told that Manufrance or another Large Builder of frames MIGHT??? have had a hand in these bikes along with making some of the LOW end Gitanes during the Bike Boom. Thus, leaving Gitane to concentrate on the higher end production which was in such demand at the time. Jay I forgot about Manufrance. Could be but all of the Gitanes that I assembled during the Bike Boom days between 1971 and 1974 looked like they came from the same factory. The Grand Sports and Grand Sports Deluxe bikes looked like they had been sandblasted with 60 grit rocks. The pits showed through the candy apple transparent lacquer. They all had Micmo tags and came in Gitane/Micmo boxes. Mel Pinto the Gitane importer during the Bike Boom was pretty savvy. He probably wouldn't have wanted to have the reputation of his primary bike line tarnished by lower quality bikes with the Gitane name on them. He may not have imported any lesser quality models that were made by some other company. There were some Gitanes with the Royal Asport name but they seemed identical to regular Gitanes. In 1974 the cosmetics on Gitane bikes improved considerably. We started importing Andre Bertin bikes in 1975. We'd seen some low end Bike Boom Bertins that were definitely made by someone else. When questioned about it, Bertin said that they had bought out a some entry level frames at one point to keep up with demand. They may have come from the St. Etienne area. I recall seeing a few Uragos that came through our shop for service during the 70s. They were about the worst built French bikes that I can remember. I was surprised because Urago had a reputation for being a great French bike builder. Recently I recently read that Urago had been buying their bikes out to concentrate on their motorcycle business. Chas. Some info found   Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 3:51 pm greyhundguy Joined: 09 Apr 2008 Posts: 678 Location: South-Central VIRGINIA I was able to locate this information on St. Etienne...1974 Jay _________________ Dance like nobody is watching.   Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2009 8:58 am Gtane Joined: 14 Sep 2007 Posts: 681 Location: UK Jay, Good find and a great collection addition. I really like the look of it - very classic in style and colour. Thanks for posting. Tim _________________ Everything has a cycle Gitane CLONE on eBay     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.