gitaneusa.com Forum Index » Vintage Gitane » Found: Basket Case 1982-82 61cm Gitane Super Corsa    View previous topic :: View next topic  Found: Basket Case 1982-82 61cm Gitane Super Corsa   Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 7:36 pm verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area This afternoon I found a basket case 61cm 1982 or 83 Gitane Super Corsa. It's missing the wheels, pedals and saddle but has all of the rest of the components as listed in the 1983 catalog. The frame is made of Super Vitus 980 tubing rather than the SV 971 listed in the spec sheet. SV 980 is lighter than Reynolds 753 tubing so a bike this size (61cm 24") would be limited to a light weight rider. The good news is that I can get the frame, Stronglight/Spidel 106 cranks, Mafac/Spidel sidepull brakes, Stronglight/Spidel alloy headset, Simplex/Spidel SLJ derailleurs with retrofriction shifters and a Simplex alloy seatpost for $150 (maybe less). The bad news is the chrome on the forks is badly rusted and there's some rust on the frame. It's a candidate for a paint job. If it were my size and/or in good condition, I would have whipped out my check book this afternoon. If anyone is interested please send me a private message. I have no monetary interests in this bike. It would make someone a nice rider and I'd save another classic from the fixie abattoir. Chas.   Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 11:57 pm Gtane Joined: 14 Sep 2007 Posts: 681 Location: UK Nice find Chas, too large for me but I didn't know that 980 was lighter than 753. I'm not that well versed with Vitus tubing. Thanks for that detail, much appreciated. Tim _________________ Everything has a cycle Tubing weights   Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:40 am verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area Gtane wrote: ...I didn't know that 980 was lighter than 753 Let me qualify that. Reynolds 753 was specially heat treated 531 tubing which gave it about 50% more strength. There were at least 3 different versions of Reynolds 753 tubing: The original version introduced in the mid 70's for some unknown reason only available in metric diameters. 753T a special light weight tube set released in 1983, designed for track use and available in Imperial sizes. 753R a tube set designed for road use also released in 1983, available in Imperial sizes. The "advertised" weight for a set of Reynolds 753R tubes was 1800g while a set of Super Vitus 980 tubes was "listed" at 1805g. Suffice it to say that 980 was just as strong and light as 753 and perhaps a little easier to work with. I was talking with a LFB (local frame builder) the other day about this and he said that he built over a 100 frames with 980. He told me that he really liked working with the stuff. So less than 1/8 of a croissant difference... BTW, One builder in the UK talked Reynolds into making him 753 Tandem and Touring tube sets by heat treating the appropriate 531 tubing! Chas.   Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 12:18 pm Gtane Joined: 14 Sep 2007 Posts: 681 Location: UK Thanks Chas, indeed qualified! Much appreciated. The 753 fact about it being a special version of 531 is very interesting - a sometimes misunderstood detail. When I first came across 753 in the late 70s I too had no idea what it was and thought it was a new wonder tubing invented from scratch, but I read up about it to learn more and to then be corrected. I like croissant. Tim _________________ Everything has a cycle   Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 8:06 am logarto Joined: 18 Feb 2008 Posts: 56 This is most likely one of the Gitanes that were imported by Trek that I've mentioned with pictures in previous posts here. My understanding is that Vitus 980 was .8-.5-.8. and Vitus 983 was .9-.6-.9. Also said to be the bike that Greg Lemond rode to second behind Guisseppe Saronni in the 1982 World Championship road race. (Something that Bicycling Magazine mentioned in the same paragraph ad the "muddy blue paint job" on the Super Corsa.) From reading this forum it's become apparent that the ones coming in through the other importers were Vitus 971 those years. I now have that 62 cm Vitus 980 Tour de France fire engine red with the chevron decals that I mentioned in previous posts and it's clearly a 62. So I'm somewhat suprised to hear that your correspding Super Corsa is a 61? I owned the 1984 Tour de France and it was a 61 with Vitus 983 and bulbous decals. These frames handle 27 inch wheels just fine in a pinch, and with the atelier dropouts you can space the rear axle extremely tight to the smallest cog for what it's worth.   Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 1:17 pm verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area logarto wrote: My understanding is that Vitus 980 was .8-.5-.8. and Vitus 983 was .9-.6-.9 Could be but... I think that 983 had a little thinner wall thickness than that. I can't find my specs for 983. 980 was definitely the lighter of the two. Also 980 had a .9-.5-.8 down tube for rigidity across the BB. Super Vitus 983 1624gms, Course Professionel set Super Vitus 980 1507gms, Course Professionel Serie Extra Legere set Ateliers de la Rive never included steerers or head tubes in these weight specs. Super Vitus 971 which had pretty much the same dimensions as Columbus SL tubing had main tubes .9-.6-.9 and was made of XC-38 High Strength Low Alloy Steel. Later they switched to XC-35 which had 0.03% less carbon content. The original SV 980 was probably made of XC-35 steel then later changed to 16MCDV6 which is a chrome-molybdenum-vanadium alloy steel similar to Columbus Nivachrom steel. Super Vitus 983 was also made with 16MCDV6 steel which would seem to indicate that it was designed to be a lighter tubing set. My 1980 Bertin C37bis has Super Vitus 971 stickers but you can see S.V. 980 stamped into the three main tubes. The forks are stamped S.V. 971 so I guess that the rear triangle is the same too. It weighed 19 Lbs. with sewups and a light saddle when I first got it. My 1984 Super Corsa with 983 tubing has steeper angles and a shorter wheel base but is a much smoother riding bike. It feels light, I stopped weighing bikes a long time ago and just ride them now. Until the late 1970s most tubing manufactures didn't change the alloy compositions of their steels very much. Reynolds 531 (and 753) were the same alloy for over 60 years. Same thing with Columbus "Cyclex" Steel (4130 chrome-moly). I had or have somewhere a Reynolds 531 Stock List that showed all of the various diameter and wall thickness tubes that they made for bikes. They would make any combo for 100 tube set order. By the early 1980s the tubing manufacturers changed specs faster than models changing clothes at a fashion show! Find the real specs becomes more difficult after the late 70's because the marketers stepped in. Here's a link to a previous novel I wrote back in 2007. I think that it's all still correct: http://tinyurl.com/psjkej BTW, for those of you that aren't aware of this, in a "Double Butted" tubing set only the top tube and down tube are double butted. The seat tube and steerer are single butted while the forks and stays can be taper or straight gage and the head tube is straight gage. Chas.   Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:13 pm logarto Joined: 18 Feb 2008 Posts: 56 My source was an exhaustive listing of tubesets in the inaugural Bicycle Guide Magazine from 1985-1986, committed to memory. So I always thought that the thicknesses of Vitus 983 were by and large identical to Columbus SL. Here is an internet source that mentions 980 thicknesses (but not 983) and pretty much agrees with what I thought I knew about everything in the marketplace, circa 1986 or so. http://www.desperadocycles.com/Tubing_Properties_For_Non_True_Temper_Tubing.htm (Except for where they list Columbus SL twice that is, and I very much doubt that all Tange Prestige was 0.4 in the middle too?)   Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:58 pm logarto Joined: 18 Feb 2008 Posts: 56 FWIW in a perfect world I would use a 26.6 seatpost in one of these Vitus 980 frames, even though I have 26.4s in both of mine and that's also what they came with new. But they are about a half turn of the allen wrench away from the seat lugs touching before they start to bind up. Conversely my Vitus 983 Tour de France was perfect with a 26.4 and was mated to no less that five distinct marques because the guy I sold it too was quite a bit taller than me and we went with longer and longer MTB seatposts before we got him set up correctly. Ditto for my 60cm Reynolds 531P Gitane Professionel that I traded for a piano that never gets played any longer......that represents the first time they exported a frame to North America that didn't even cosmetically resemble what the Renault-Elf team was riding in Europe. Found: Basket Case 1982-82 61cm Gitane Super Corsa     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.