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overfedlonghairedgnome

I managed to peel off the whole foil mylar headtube wrapping in three pieces. The upper half includes the top lug cutout that I should be able to use as a template. The foil "wrapper" seems to have been divided into a top, center, and bottom part. The lower third of the wrapper was not intact when I got the frame but I peeled it off as a separate piece. The standard "Cycles Gitane Nantes 44" globe head decal was overlaid across the seam of the upper two "wrapper" segments, covers most of the center third of the wrapper with the bottom of the globe just touching the bottom third of the wrapper. The bottom third of the wrapper clearly shows the overlap with the center wrapper segment. I suppose all this was to use a single upper and lower cutout wrapper template and the center third used to "make up" the center for different size frames.

I am going to contact Greg Softely at Cyclomondo about obtaining a piece large enough to replicate the wrapper.

One thing I have noticed looking at the SC frame is that there don't seem to be stains or fragments on the seat tube for a Reynolds sticker. The fork clearly has most of the Reynolds sticker on the left side with the SC wreath on the RH fork. I guess my frame was built on a Monday morning, Friday afternoon or any day after lunch... Wink

verktyg · Last edited by verktyg on Fri Sep 11, 2009 10:22 pm; edited 1 time in total

Jim,

The Reynolds decals used up through about 1974 were "water slide" style transfers. They had a water soluble adhesive that held the transfer to a paper backing.

Soaking the paper mounted decal in water for a few minutes would soften the adhesive enough to slide it onto a pre-moistened surface and then it could be gently moved around to properly position it.

These water slide decals are very fragile. Many have been damaged by bike stands that clamp on the seat tube. That's most likely why many bike makers started putting the tubing decals on the down tube.

Contrary to the opinions of others, from the late 60s until about 1973 the 531 characters on French Reynolds decals were a pale grayish green rather than the darker green found on many replicas.

The real old ones tended to look like this one which is fairly faded. I always thought these had a classic look even though they were not as pretty:

Here's some that I Photoshopped to show a decal maker the difference in colors. I compromised on the color to reach an average:

Back in the day I was told by several knowledgeable people that Reynolds had at least 6 sources for their decals/transfers.

Chas.

overfedlonghairedgnome

Chas

I looked at the Reynolds sticker on the fork and it indeed uses a light green/grey 531 like in your pictures. My decal set from Cyclomondo arrived today. I am very pleased with their quality.

Jim

overfedlonghairedgnome

One thing I noticed while prepping the frame for paint was an oval with what may be "RGF" on the BB shell, drive side. It's very faint but I found a similar looking logo pictured on the internet. I don't see much about RGF or "Raccord Gargette Freres" here on the forum. So was the usual maker of BB shells for Gitane? Or maybe the logo is something else?

Jim

verktyg

Jim,

In the 70s RGF made BB shells for most of the major biker makers. I've even seen them on top of the line British built Raleighs with British threads.

They were light weight and made as well as any of the non cast BB shells from that time.

Chas.