 |  | | | |  | |  |  | Name this Gitane??? on eBay |  | |  |  | |
 Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2009 5:39 pm |
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| greyhundguy |
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| Joined: 09 Apr 2008 |
| Posts: 678 |
| Location: South-Central VIRGINIA |
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This one has me puzzled??? Look at the lower head tube lug and the Loooooooong point where the down tube joins. It can also be found on the bottom bracket lug where the seat tube joins it.
eBay item: 180429327026
OK Chas., what's the story?
Jay |
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Dance like nobody is watching. |
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| Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2009 8:39 pm |
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| sandranian |
| Site Admin |
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| Joined: 27 Feb 2006 |
| Posts: 2701 |
| Location: Southern California |
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| Bizarre. I didn't even notice that long point. That is one oddball frameset. |
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| | | | | | | | | Shes had work done.... | | | | | |
| Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2009 11:19 pm |
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| verktyg |
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| Joined: 14 Jan 2007 |
| Posts: 2814 |
| Location: SF Bay Area |
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OK, drumroll, YOU ASKED FOR IT!
In catty vernacular, "Shes had work done"!
This is a French frame from the late 60s maybe 1970, probably a Gitane Tour de France.
Can't tell for sure because I can't even Photoshop the pictures to get a good look at the seat stay caps.
Someone has brazed fork blade reinforcements onto the down tube and maybe the underside of the top tube at the head tube. They've done the same thing on the seat tube, maybe both front and back. Why???
To take the high road, maybe someone customized the frame to look like this high end custom built Mercian Professional.
Cynic and skeptic that I am, my first thought was that someone did a hack repair on a damaged or rusted out frame. 
Cracks in the down tube at the head tube lug are quite common, especially if the frame has been straightened after a front end collision.
Seat tube cracks at the bottom bracket are also quite common.
If these are repairs, the proper way to fix them would have been to replace the whole tube, not kludge a patch over top! 
I don't ever recall seeing these kinds of tubing failures in Gitanes (or French production bikes in general - mostly Italian made frames  ).
The dropouts are older Simplex models without a derailleur hanger. I've seen these occasionally show up on early 70s TdFs. Perhaps Gitane ran out of the correct dropouts - Bike Boom supply problems.
The decals are post 1974 and whoever painted the bike and applied them didn't have a clue....
The problem that I see with the listing is that I didn't see the word "Fixie" anywhere in the copy! 
Chas. 29 days and counting down  |
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