gitaneusa.com Forum Index » Vintage Gitane » Finally, a Super Corsa for Me Goto page 1, 2, 3  Next    View previous topic :: View next topic  Finally, a Super Corsa for Me   Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 7:03 pm overfedlonghairedgnome Joined: 18 Aug 2007 Posts: 64 Location: Antelope Valley, CA Hello All It's been a while but I can finally start the Super Corsa build that i have waited for. The bare frame from ebay arrived in good shape so I can get it in for paint. Which leads me to a question. I recall a non-flamboyant color of metallic green for 70-73 SCs. Something close to a medium lime green. The 70 catalog does not list a color like that but can anyone recall a color like that? Here's a few pictures of the frame right out of the box. _________________ Jim The overfed long haired leaping gnome Late 60's Super Corsa   Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 1:33 am verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area Jim, Congratulations, you got a great one. Probably late 60s. There were some pictures of a mid 60's high end Gitane in a lime green color posted a while back. About the same color as Legnano used. I don't know whether it was flamboyant (transparent "candy apple" lacquer in US parlance) or metallic. I kind of think that it was flamboyant as candy apple colors and Mylar foil stickers caught on big in France during that period. As far as I know, Gitane didn't offer anything close to that color from the late 60's on. What you may have seen is a gold flamboyant bike. They are more on the yellow side but maybe could fade to a little green tinge. Also the picture could be "off color". Here's my gold flamboyant SC frame: Gitane didn't start using metallic paints until probably the late 70's. Chas. Color   Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 5:25 am greyhundguy Joined: 09 Apr 2008 Posts: 678 Location: South-Central VIRGINIA Jim, This is the Gitane 'Club Green' form early 1970's. More of a Candy Color than Metallic. Jay _________________ Dance like nobody is watching.   Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 7:25 am overfedlonghairedgnome Joined: 18 Aug 2007 Posts: 64 Location: Antelope Valley, CA Chas and Jay Thanks for the input. I have got to admit that the Club Green is a little to "green" for me, although I would happily own another BRG sports car like my old Triumph Spitfire. If there is no definite Gitane color then I will just have to strike out on my own. I just recall one of my high school friends with a Gitane SC or TdF that was light green. Maybe I can get in touch with him. So the SC frame could be late 60's? Were there any years where the all-silver head tube foil was used consistently? The frame looks identical to the one in the 1970 catalog. I presume that since my frame has the rear brake bridge that MAFAC brakes were fitted. Chas, your gold SC looks great. Did you have it painted locally? My gold TdF is up in Monterey with my son at school and I would like to get it repainted someday when he is done using it. Thanks again guys! Anyone have a NR headset and BB available? _________________ Jim The overfed long haired leaping gnome   Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 7:36 am greyhundguy Joined: 09 Apr 2008 Posts: 678 Location: South-Central VIRGINIA overfedlonghairedgnome wrote: Chas and Jay So the SC frame could be late 60's? Were there any years where the all-silver head tube foil was used consistently? The frame looks identical to the one in the 1970 catalog. I presume that since my frame has the rear brake bridge that MAFAC brakes were fitted. Jim, Chas., likely knows if the 'Luxepolymer....' Decal was on the right rear chain stay back in the late 60's. I thought it was a 70's decal but am not sure. Jay _________________ Dance like nobody is watching.   Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 7:42 am greyhundguy Joined: 09 Apr 2008 Posts: 678 Location: South-Central VIRGINIA Jim, The Gitane "Club Green" is a nice bright color in person, unlike the BRG which was pretty dark in my memory. BRG was opaque, "CG" was a bright CANDY. Jay _________________ Dance like nobody is watching.   Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 10:02 am greyhundguy Joined: 09 Apr 2008 Posts: 678 Location: South-Central VIRGINIA Jim, Chrome Mylar adhesive film is available for the Head Tube if you repaint. You can then apply the Gitane 'World' decal over it for correctness. Jay _________________ Dance like nobody is watching. Original Super Corsa Paint   Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 10:22 am verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area overfedlonghairedgnome wrote: Chas, your gold SC looks great. Did you have it painted locally? It's the original paint job. Unfortunately there are 2 areas with missing paint. One is near the BB on the right chainstay. There is another one the same size on the left side of the top tube. At this point I'll probably figure out how to do a touch up job rater than have it repainted because the rest of the paint is pretty nice. There's 2 local places I know that repaint paint frames for ~$400-$600 then there's a frame builder in Tuscon who charges much less. Old Gitanes don't look right with really nice paint jobs. I think that a super paint job with patinaed chrome and components really stands out like a sore thumb. If someone is careful, does a thorough job of stripping the old paint and takes their time they can get a decent looking "rattle can" paint job. Here's an example of what was probably a very expensive CycleArt restoration. They made up their own decals and the chrome looks matte: FYI Most frame builders are "craftsmen" or artists and work on projects when the spirit moves them so be prepared to wait. Chas.   Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 10:37 am greyhundguy Joined: 09 Apr 2008 Posts: 678 Location: South-Central VIRGINIA Jim, On a positive note. If your plan is to build this up as original, the braze on Brake bridge on the rear stays would indicate that it was fitted with Mafac 'Competition' CP Brakes. Campy 'Record' of the period are had to find and EXPENSIVE!!! Totally Campy SC's did not have the bridge because the Campy Brakes were Side Pull. Jay _________________ Dance like nobody is watching.   Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 11:20 am verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area greyhundguy wrote: Chas., likely knows if the 'Luxepolymer....' Decal was on the right rear chain stay back in the late 60's. I thought it was a 70's decal but am not sure. Jay is talking about the "emailuxepolymerize" decal which means "Luxury" enamel paint (surely they jest). Prior to the decal changes in 1974 these appeared on the right, the left, both or neither chainstays ( I guess that it depended on how many bottles of wine got consumed at lunch). They tended to tear or peel easily, especially on the right side from chain slap. They looked bad when they were damaged so we usually peeled them off on both new and repair bikes. Preventive surgery! Chas. Last edited by verktyg on Sat Aug 15, 2009 2:22 pm; edited 1 time in total   Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 11:45 am verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area greyhundguy wrote: The Gitane "Club Green" is a nice bright color in person, unlike the BRG which was pretty dark in my memory. BRG was opaque, "CG" was a bright CANDY. Gitane sandblasted their frames prior to painting to remover the brazing flux and excess braze material. They used small rocks to sandblast the Gran Sport frames which left a surface somewhat like that of the moon! Next they applied a layer of white primer/filler. The thicker this layer was, the more likely the top coat would flake off in those areas. This was common on most French bikes from the Bike Boom era. Pujoe and Motobecane did a little better job but... That's one reason why by the mid 70s French bikes had such a bad reputation (that and Simplex and Huret Alvit derailleurs). Green and purple were my least favorite colors. For me, green ranked up there with Bianchi's "sick room green' celeste. Around the end of 1973 Gitane introduced a very dark burgundy color and a disgusting dark brown. The varying thicknesses of the candy apple lacquer resulted in lighter or darker colored frames. Chas.   Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 12:00 pm greyhundguy Joined: 09 Apr 2008 Posts: 678 Location: South-Central VIRGINIA Jim, It's Really SAD that numerous Super Corsa's were stripped of their Campy parts. The early 70's parts that were on them were even more desireable for use on other Marques. Years ago SC's were DONOR Bikes for said parts. The French, for the most part, stayed with French Parts. An ALL Campy SC was one an exception. You NEVER saw Italian parts on a Peugeot that I can think of... I expect some of it was French Pride, along with Import costs from Italy which drove up selling prices. Jay _________________ Dance like nobody is watching.   Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 1:01 pm overfedlonghairedgnome Joined: 18 Aug 2007 Posts: 64 Location: Antelope Valley, CA Thanks guys. I am not decided on a color and i absolutely agree that an "overdone" paint job is not right. I am more interested in a durable paint job, which usually means Imron. I had my old racing bike (1975 Eisentraut Limited) repainted by Joe's Paint in Watsonville and I liked the job very much. I had them do some custom lettering to match the hand-lettered paint job that my bike wore since college. What gives away the likely age of the frame? In the case of the SC I just want something simple, single color and repo decals, but the original paint is pretty well shot. And I am not too excited about white. My Peugeot PR10E was white... I do feel lucky that I don't need Campy brakes since I have a decent set of MAFAC Competition brakes in the shed. I'm going to use the Philippe bars and Pivo stem I already have at least initially. Thanks for all your moral support. I was really unsure about making any kind of deal about an ebay-bought frame but I am excited to get going with it! Jim _________________ Jim The overfed long haired leaping gnome   Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 1:25 pm greyhundguy Joined: 09 Apr 2008 Posts: 678 Location: South-Central VIRGINIA overfedlonghairedgnome wrote: Thanks guys. What gives away the likely age of the frame? I would call it a '69-'70. Yours matches the 1970 Catalog. I'm pretty sure I bought my TdF in 1972 but some parts have 1971 date codes (see "Jay's 71-72 TdF Finished" in Owner Gallery) so therefore chose that dateline. Jay _________________ Dance like nobody is watching. Campy "breaks"   Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 1:34 pm verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area greyhundguy wrote: Jim, On a positive note. If your plan is to build this up as original, the braze on Brake bridge on the rear stays would indicate that it was fitted with Mafac 'Competition' CP Brakes. Campy 'Record' of the period are had to find and EXPENSIVE!!! Totally Campy SC's did not have the bridge because the Campy Brakes were Side Pull. A bike this old may very well have had Mafac Dural Forge brakes. Here's a partial shot of the green Gitane that I mentioned earlier, probably a model 106 from the mid 60's. It has Dural Forge brakes. I don't remember where I got this picture, maybe Wool Jerseys which is temporarily down. In 1969 Mafac renamed Dural Forge to Racer but there were probably still a lot of sets of DFs in the pipeline because I've seen them on bikes from the early 70's (Also catalog specs for bikes with Racers before 1969!). I'm not positive of the time line but Mafac Competition brakes didn't come out until maybe 1970. My 1971 SC came new with Competitions. Competitions had a shorter reach and may not have had enough clearance for fenders on a lot of "racing" bikes. Fender eyelets were common on top quality bikes until the mid 70's when the "clean" Italian look took over. (It rains a lot in much of Europe and I once saw a picture of Eddy Merckx racing on a bike with fenders! I have a 1984 Holdsworth Reynolds 753 road racing frame with fender eyelets.) My late 60s TdF has Dural Forge brakes and my all original 1971 TdF has Racers while my early 1974 foil decal TdF has Competitions. Between 1970 and 74 the brakes used on these bikes could have been a matter of whatever was available. Now to the issue of Campy brakes... Gitane Super Corsas where never big sellers in the US. The model was around from probably the late 60's until 1973. The model was dropped from the Gitane catalog in 1974 (that's not to say that none exist). Tour de France bikes were much cheaper and far more popular. A couple of things contributed to the scarcity of Super Corsas in most parts of the US (notice how I use a lot of weasel words). They were probably a good buy at the beginning of the bike boom but there weren't many people who could afford to spend ~$400 for a bike. The fellow I worked for used to buy SCs cheap and stripped them for their Campy gruppos. Campy components were hard to come by until at least the mid 70s. Gitane Super Corsas had cobby paint and lugwork plus the Mylar foil decals looked cheap. You could get an nicely finished Legnano, Frejus or other Italian brand all Campy bike for the same money. In those days, "all Campy" usually meant everything but the brakes which were generally Mafac, or Universal centerpulls. Campagnolo first showed their sidepull brakes in 1968 but didn't release them for sale until 1969. A bike shop owner in Berkeley, CA who imported the first Colnagos plus Cinelli and Campy stuff, bought 100 sets of these brakes. They were unmarked and now they bring a fortune on eBay. Holdsworth was the UK importer for Campagnolo and sponsored the Holdsworth/Campagnolo pro team. Campy brakes were in such high demand and short supply that Holdsworth couldn't get them for their team bikes until the end of the 1970 racing season! I've heard quite a few Gitane Super Corsa owner comment that their bikes came "from the factory" with Campy brakes - I don't think so! There are one or two people that can document their bikes being thus. I think that all of the other SCs with Campy brakes had them installed here in the US either by a bike shop or special ordered from Mel Pinto, the Gitane importer during the early 70s. We were never able to order a Super Corsa with Campy brakes from Mel Pinto because he could never get the brakes. He indicated that they changed the brakes in his warehouse (just like clincher wheels on TdFs). The cost would have been $100 to $125 extra if available. This was at a time when you could buy a complete Gitane Gran Sport for under $80! Hell! You could buy a good used car for that kind of money! One last point, factory installed Campy brakes would have cost a whole lot less because the import duty for a complete bike would have been less than for individual components. Getting back to brake bridges on TdF and SC frames, I think that their discontinuance had every thing to do with manufacturing costs and little or nothing to do with side pull brakes. Same thing with the willow leaf seat stay caps. One picture that saw of a SC with factory installed Campy brakes still had the brake bridge "standing proud"! So perhaps this little missive will put an end to the urban myth of factory installed Campy brakes on Super Corsas. "George Washington slept here!" Chas. Finally, a Super Corsa for Me     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 3   Goto page 1, 2, 3  Next 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.