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mleasca

I am ready to part with my old Gitane 10-speed. Something clicks when riding, you cannot feel it but you can hear it. My local bike shop does not have the French parts and tools to make the repair they guess is needed.

I live in Baltimore now, bought the bike used 1991 in Strasbourg from a small bike shop. Owner said it was a training bike for a TDF rider. It gave me many many year of great miles in Europe and here. Hate to part with it but do not like to see it just collect dust either.

Any interest let me know.

sandranian · Site Admin

The clicking is, likely, a loose spoke.

Please post pictures of the bike. The folks on this site would love to see it and some may make an offer if it is the "right" bike!

xtsquintx

Hey, I live in Baltimore and am always on the lookout for Gitanes, still looking to get rid of the bike?

mleasca

Baltimore xtsquintx and evreyone else,
See photos and let me know if you are interested. Thanks!

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sandranian · Site Admin

Actually quite a nice bicycle. What type of tubing does it have? It should be on the sticker on the down tube, right over the shift levers. Perhaps Reynolds 531 (3 tubes)? A picture would be best.

greyhundguy

Looks like it might be a 1978 "Super Sprint" or "Sprint" if it's 3 tubes 531.

Jay

mleasca

Looks like it is Reynolds 3 tube 531. Here are more pictures.

mleasca · Last edited by mleasca on Mon Oct 12, 2009 3:47 am; edited 1 time in total

Can you active Forum folks help: How much money is this bike worth? Thanks!

verktyg

How much is it worth?

$250 at the low end and $350 at the high. With the current economy, It might only bring $175-$200.

Good luck,

chas.

e39540is

I like the drilled chainrings on that bike. Very cool.

So if this frame is Reynolds 531 on the front triangle, then what tubes are the stays made out of?

Sean

verktyg

What kind of tubing did Gitane use on the forks and rear triangle on their 3 main tube Reynolds frames? That's anybody's guess. Some of the better quality brands had their name or logo lightly stamped into some of the tubes.

I remember seeing the Durifort name stamped into fork blades on some Interclubs. I have a 1974 Tour de France with 3 tubes Reynolds 531. Looking inside the bottom bracket I can clearly see the seams in the chainstay tubes. They're fairly thin wall tubes. I realigned the frame and I can tell you that they are just as tough as Reynolds 531!

Up through the late 60s, frames made of 3 main tubes Reynolds 531 with Durifort forks and stays were pretty common on better quality French bikes (Spanish Zeus bikes too). This was mostly an advertising ploy a the wall thickness of the Reynolds 531 tubing that was used on most of these frames was about the same as Durifort main tubes - 1.0mm x 0.70mm.

Durifort and Vitus 172 were made with seamed tubing. The 3 main tubes were drawn over a mandrel and butted after they were welded. The seams got cold worked which removed any possible shortcomings of seamed tubing. BTW, most True Temper tubing used on high end bikes was seamed tubing.

There are several ways of making tubing. The easy (cheap) way is to roll a flat sheet of steel into a round shape then arc weld the seam. The seam is them ground off the outside of the "tube". This is done in 1 operation on automatic machinery.

The more expensive way is to make DOM (drawn of mandrel) seamless tubing. A round steel bar is heated to red hot. One end is held in a die while a smaller bar made of heat resistant steel is pushed through it to create a hole in the original bar.

The original size can be reduced at the same time by pushing the bar through a smaller die. This is done repeatedly until the proper diameter and tubing wall thickness is achieved.

Once the tubes a sufficiently thin the final sizing and any butting operations can be done when the tubes are cold - thus cold working.

Butting means that the wall thickness at oner or both ends of the tube are thicker than in the middle.

To answer your first question, Gitane probably used a good quality generic brand of seamed tubing in the forks and stays. It was probably strong enough steel to be made into fairly thin tubes. I've never seen a tubing failure in these tubes on a Gitane.

Chas.