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verktyg

I've seen a number of references about Trek importing or distributing Gitanes during the early 1980s but no solid information. Does anyone have any details about this?

The address for Gitane in the US was;

Cycles de France Inc.
Waterloo, Wisconsin 53594

Trek is located in the same area

Waterloo, Wisconsin 53594

Chas.

verktyg

Trek and Gitane Revisited...

My first post has had 64 viewings so far and no comments??? Confused

In the Classic Rendezvous group someone suggested that Trek changed the frame geometry on some of their models after the Gitane connection:

"Interesting, this would coincide with Trek decreasing the rake of its forks and seemingly dedicating itself to high-trail designs."

It appears that Cycles de France Inc. (which was located at Trek's address in Waterloo, WI, USA) started selling Gitane bikes wholesale in the US in 1983:

In October, 1986 there is a new name and addresses on the price list and catalog: Cycles Gitane

The 1988 US catalog has both Gitane Of America and Cycles Gitane on the front cover and Gitane Of America on the last page. The address is Hastings, MN, USA.

There's a gap in the US Gitane catalogs after 1988.

So it looks like Gitane importing and distribution in the US went from Mel Pinto Imports to Gitane Pacific to Gitane Corporation to Cycles de France Inc. to Cycles Gitane then Gitane Of America and finally obscurity! Sad

sandranian · Site Admin

I wonder if Mel Pinto would know about this stuff? I wish I knew the information, but it appears you have stumped everyone, which explains the views without replies!

flybywire99

I use to be one of the largest Gitane dealers in the US during that time and I was also a big Trek dealer. Our local race team was sponsored by Gitane. I don't recall the direct connection between the two companies but I know the Gitanes were not warehoused or shipped from Waterloo. I visited and toured the Trek factory a number of times and I never saw any indication of any Gitane's.

As for Trek changing their geometry of some of their bikes, it probably was more as a result of their desire to moving their models into the racing world. Myself and two other racers convinced Trek to sponsor a our men's ProAm team in 1983. The next year they dropped our team and sponsored the Women's Olympic team. Trek has stayed very involved in racing since.

Gtane

flybywire99,

Thank you for sharing your stories.

The Gitane sponsorship of your team sounds most interesting, as does your dealership. I would be keen to hear about the machines that you ran on the team and the differences they had to consumer machines - tubing, equipment, changes, updates, etc. Were they specified directly from France and the frame builders there? Do you still have any of those machines that you ran on the team that you could post a photo of to the gallery?

Tim

logarto

I guess I started this?

Look at my previous posts, every Gitane that I have described or pictured here came from Trek.

My understanding was that they were distributed parallel to Mel Pinto, we got the purple $450 Tandems, the olive green Vitus 971 one, the Vitus 980 tuning TDFs and SuperCorsas (1983) then the Vitus 983 TDF and SuperCorsas (1984) followed by the Reynolds 531P Professionnels with the Vitus dropouts (1985) but never a Columbus Tubing nor Campagnolo SR-equipped Gitane frame or bike. The SuperCorsas were full Spidel, the TDFs were Ofmaga with Modolo Speedy brakes and the plastic Ofmega derraileurs. Both came with Phillippe bars and Atax stems, English thread and 22.2 stems. We bought the Professionnells as bare frames and I've posted pictures here of the blue bikes at least so far. The Professionnels were identical to the one on eBay right now.

I'll have a picture of the Chevron Decal Vitus 980 tubing TDF tonight but right now I've got an interesting story.

In 1985 I spent most of October in France and Spain on a nearly new Trek 720. They had a huge bike show in Paris when I was there and I paid a visit with no higher personal agenda than making part of the trip deductable. Unlike North American bike shows they admitted consumers and the attendees were probably 90 percent general public, fathers and sons, whole amateur teams walking around together, etc.

So I stop by the Gitane booth, didn't even have a business card on me, living out of a set of panniers no less and barely speaking enough proper Parisian French to successfully order breakfast. Once they understood who I worked for (which I would gladly disclose here but they are still very much in business and a whole lot more prominent now,) I got whisked behind the cape and drape and just like that they were trying to close me on a down and dirty 100-300 bike deal for the previous year's high-end models.

(I was out of the bike biz and into technology by the end of the decade, I've been involved in all sorts of multi million dollar deals since then and the kind of tactics and posturing that always goes with them; that said to this day I still have to wonder what on earth these Gitane guys were thinking? They shouldn't have even known who Trek was blowing out all the excess Gitane inventory to, but clearly they did and just as clearly they didn't seem to have a problem trying to circumvent Trek as well. Or maybe they didn't really intend to circumvent anyone, just make some dead inventory disappear? Moreover what were these two characters doing at what was clearly a consumer-end user oriented trade show?)

So this American shows up at their booth and just like that they are doing the good-cop/bad cop, "what do we have to do to get you to buy these bikes today" schtick. A much harder more agressive close than anything anybody tried in business to consumer back then and I had next to zero experience in business to business. There wasn't even a single syllable spoken about the practical aspects of the export process either, which maybe means in retrospect that they did think that they would channel the deal through Trek?

The only think I'm sure of today is that I was the highlight of their weekend. And the epilogue is that we ended up getting most of the bikes that they were trying to cram down my throat that Saturday in Paris from Trek the following year anyway.

For a bit less money per unit of course.

My best guess is that Mel Pinto either didn't know this was all going on at the time or else Gitane didn't care whether Mel Pinto knew it was going on. I've previously suggested here that some of the 1983-1986 full Gitane bikes you guys describe appear to have been Mel Pinto-specific. We actually bought some Alan "screwed and glued" frames from Mel at the time as well, I think?

logarto

So here's the second 1983 Gitane Product in Vitus 980 tubing that I have posted images of here. Like my Sante-equipped SuperCorsa it was for certain imported by Trek as were the checkerboard decal Professionnels just like the small one currently on eBay. (And the busted dropout one I was trying to sell here two years ago.)

The tubing decals on this one are identical to my SuperCorsa and I'll try to get a decent image up when my camera isn't such a P.O.S.

This was pretty much as light as you could get at the time and in this size requires an exceptionally smooth rider. The next size smaller than 62 was a 57 so that was a problem if you were too big for a 57. I did own the subsequent year's version in a 61x59 with Vitus 983 and it's still seeing spot dirt road and winter duty locally under another clydesdale today.

Now am I to understand that Mel Pinto got NONE of these bikes ever?

Did he get these cut out lugs and internal fork crown and atelier dropouts and a heaver Vitus tubeset? Having owned a whole bunch of them myself I wouldn't mind riding such a beast? But I've never seen nor heard of it. When you guys talk about 82-84 SuperCorsas/TDFs in Vitus 971 do they have this internal brake cable routing thang going on?

FWIW I've seen SuperCorsas on here that look a lot like mine and I'm given to understand that they came through the traditional channels. Not sure if they were in Vitus 980 or 983 too and now that I've had an hour or so to think about it, I don't think I ever saw the "muddy blue" Chevron Decal SuperCorsa in Vitus 983 myself but we could have just as easily been working our way through 1982 frames through the end of 1984. They came full Spidel with Mavic Argent 10 tubular rims and I've managed to hang onto a few of those. The seatpost was exquisite and a lot lighter than Super Record which was really saying something back then.

My biased recollection is that it was never possible to buy Hinault, Fignon or LeMond's current ride from a Trek dealer, but you could buy the same frame as the muddy blue supercorsas that Renault/ELF/Gitane was using in 1982. (Bicycling Magazine's description.)

For a pretty decent price too given what they were selling you. You could tell that they assembled the things with air wrenches too, it was very difficult to loosen up a crankset fixing bolt. You just about had to stand on the wrench to get a fixed cup out.

Down the road a few years at the same time they were selling the 531C checkerboard decal Professionnels over here, (and I guess they might have come as a Full Campy Victory Bike like the current auction,) the real Team bike is Columbus SL with a painted fork and Campy-style dropouts, bulbous decals, definitely a lighter blue even close to aqua. C-Record with Delta brakes pretty much as soon as it was available. (But when Fignon breaks the BB spindle that was titanium Super Record.)

Trek got bulbous decal 1984 Orange TDFs and a green bike that was Vitus 971 and I thought a little longer geometry. All the way down to a $270 retail bike with the bulbous decal Gitane motif.
The Team was for sure using Cinelli Bar and Stem when the Company was still selling only Philippe and Atax as well.

My best recollection is that Trek never got the exact Team frame after the Chevron decal SuperCorsas. And my perception at the time was that wasn't an accident. But maybe it did exist in a Trek-generated brochure somewhere along the line?

http://bestoflemond.blogspot.com/2007/08/tour-de-lavenir-1982.html

Even that 1982 Team Bike looks like a little more icy metallic blue than a stock SuperCorsa. As you can tell I paid attention to this stuff back in the day and at some point all three of them were riding the Vitus tubing frames with some mix of french components like Stronglite 107 cranks. Then the next year it was something else, Campy made sure the strongest team out there wasn't going to use someone else's componentry for very long and that generally included the dropouts.

The Reynolds Professionnel with Atelier dropouts is a fine bike though and from first hand experience I can assure you that it came in a 60 OR a 62 and they came from Trek as well. Having two lines available to their dealer base certainly didn't start with the Klein & LeMond brands. I never much liked the goofy-ass graphics but they were certainly finished a little better than SuperCorsas and TDFs and 531C worked pretty well in a 60 frame size.

verktyg

logarto,

Interesting stories... Thanks much. (sometime I tell my 3Rensho story) Wink

As far as I know, Mel Pinto and Gitane parted ways in 1974 after about a 15 year relationship.

My original experience with Gitanes was from the 1972-77 era when we sold them and I owned a number of Gitanes. Until the last few years I hadn't seen a Gitane bike of any kind since the early 80s.

About 3 years ago I was looking on eBay for a beater frame that I could use to build a wet weather bike. I came across this mystery Gitane frame that. It cost me $122.50 plus shipping. I also bought some Campy cranks from the same seller for $16! Very Happy

The frame was as you described "a muddy blue" with very pale yellow "bubble", "bulbous", "balloon" decals.

Reproduction "bubble", "bulbous", "balloon" decals from Cyclomondo:

Searching online I discovered the GitaneUSA.com Forum and figured out what I had. After much research I (we) decided that it was a 1984 Super Corsa. The 1983 SC had chevron decals and used Super Vitus 971 tubing.

The frame was made of Super Vitus 983 tubing and had all of the features of an 84 SC except for no chrome on the right rear triangle.

Perhaps the non standard decals may have been applied by Trek??? Or this could have been a replacement frame or a very early 1984 model? The Super Corsa was discontinued after 1984. Confused

I saw this picture on the web site and used it as a model to equip my new "beater".

This is how it turned out. I put on a set of Cyclomondo decals (I left the Super Corsa decal on the chainstay instead of the top tube). This started out as a sub $200 project... It ended up about $400-$450. Shocked

Instead of a beater, this bike has become my all time favorite riding and handling bike. The color is still a muddy blue but out in bright sunlight it looks pretty nice! Cool

French Racing Blue (as opposed to BRG - British Racing Green)!

In the interim, I've added two 1984 Gitane Tour de France Bikes to my stable. These used the same frame as the 1984 SC but are a metallic orange/red color instead of muddy blue.

The first one had been upgraded to Campy NR derailleurs and Mavic sealed bearing hubs. It only had ~50 miles on it! Very Happy

I changed the bars, stem, seat, seatpost, shift levers and Campy rear derailleur I put on an Ofmega Mistral rear derailleur which is a Shimano Crane knockoff and works with a bigger freewheel.

The second 1984 TdF appears to have come from Europe, maybe Belgium and has more miles on it. It's all original except for the derailleurs which someone switched from the Ofmega plastic "break-a-matics" to metal Ofmega Mistral models.

Original Ofmega plastic derailluer.

Super Vitus 980 was some pretty light, thin walled tubing. I would think a 60+cm size frame would be pretty "whipy"! Rolling Eyes

I have a 56cm 1980 Bertin C37bis that has Super Vitus 971 decals but the paint is thin enough to see the S.V. 980 stamps. It's 3 main tubes SV 980 with 971 forks and stays. Super Vitus 971 had the same wall thickness dimensions as Columbus SL tubing. It's a nice riding bike but no where near as smooth as my 1984 SC with SV 983 tubing. Very Happy

scozim

Hey, I recognize that plastic Ofmega derailleur. Smile

I love the feel of the Super Vitus 980 and 983 frames and would love more of them. I also changed out the Ofmega derailleurs (to keep them original) and due to "economic" issues went with period correct Suntour Blue Line derailleurs. They have functioned flawlessly and are very smooth.

logarto

I guess great minds DO run in the same channels?

I've had two of the first generation 3Rensho Aeros and still own one of them. I would have a very hard time resisting that frame anywhere north of 56 in purple (the one I still have is a 54,) last one on eBay was a full bike being sold by a non-bike person and they didn't even show the magnificent seatstays. The aqua one in 61 was as nice a lugged frame as anything I ever threw a leg over. Had to sell it when I broke the Campy 1010B dropout and even took a few very careful and melancholy rides with the dropout broken before I tore it down. This was maybe a year or so before they started getting so "collectable."

The standard 3Rensho Road from that era is something that I almost never see. And as heavy as I am nowadays I probably shouldn't be turning my nose up at the Katanas either but my understanding is that they were back up to SL thicknesses with those. Basically that design existed in the first place because Americans were breaking dropouts on the earlier bikes. And it occurs to me that the Kierin riders weren't using suspect Campy road dropouts too-as many of those frames as go through eBay for the big money these days nobody ever owns up to a replaced dropout over there?

People who had handled raw tubesets from all over the world always said that Ishiwata that 3Rensho used was the cleanest unpainted steel they ever saw. (Usually they equated Columbus with "sewer pipe" or something equally derogatory in the same conversation and Vitus was quite highly regarded by those who had seen it.)

Back to the matter at hand, do you have a scan of that brochure showing an 83 SuperCorsa (presumably Chevron decal) in Vitus 971 or 973? Did it look like yours does now? Was the sizing offered 57 straight up to 62 cm? That sizing plot plus the tubeset and the decals are what changed between 83 and 84 in the Gitane world that I was in. 52 was as small as they came, it wasn't until the checkerboard Professionnels that you could get a 50.

My Vitus 980 SuperCorsa came into my hands as a new frame in early 1985, that much I am sure of. This is reinforcing my suspicion that I never saw bulbous 983 SuperCorsas like yours but I certainly saw lots of the same year bulbous Vitus 983 TDFs just like yours. I still use that plastic Stronglite headset today but I do try to keep it out of the sun. At one point we bought those suckers in bulk from Trek for $4 each: they came with the same removeable races and tapered roller bearings as the A9 and Delta headsets.

There's a very good chance that I sold at least one of your TDFs. I even used a 983 TDF as a fixed year in the early 90s before fixed gears became so cool.

Now I have seen a Gitane from this era that I'm pretty certain didn't come from Trek. It was Reynolds 501 with the Atelier dropouts and I would have parted it out just to get the one dropout if we could have come to terms. I was pretty sure it was a 1985 when I was trying to buy it around 1996-1997. And I think there was something in the decal package that indicated it was built for the European market, it had the lighter greenish paint scheme of the real Team Replicas too.

Back then you saw a lot of prosperous middle class Europeans out riding second level, i.e. Reynolds 501, seamed Columbus tubing road bikes, Ofmega, Stronglite, Miche parts etc. but not nearly the same proportion going "top of the line," which was still Campy Record-compared to North Americans that is.

Another bike I keep an eye out for is the first generation Oversized Paramount and I'm hoping that the BB on those isn't as high as on my Reynolds 853 tigged Peleton. In 853 bikes I would keep an out for Jamis Eclipse, red in good condition, 853 is not a bad way to go if you are looking for a "modern" bike to last you the rest of your riding life. Especially if you prefer one inch steering tubes just for looks like me and you might as well get it tigged because that's what the tubing was meant for.

Believe it or not the bike that sees the least use and the most monetary attention here of late is about as whippy as the big 980 TDF. It's a Centurion Ironman Carbon, somebody somewhere said it was the most flexible frame they ever tested yet with Octalink Dura Ace cranks I still don't have any kind of chain rub issues. This ride kind of falls in the realm of Andy Hampsten's famous remark about the TVT Carbons, "the only thing scarier than descending on one of these things is climbing without one." I'm using sidepulls because I prefer the modulation and showing off the last Superbe Pros with the internal springs just might have something to do with it. This is not a bike that wants a very powerful front brake caliper.

Even before I started tweaking it for lightness it was a more dramatic weight reduction vs 853 steel than what 853 was to Columbus SL and Reynolds. Since it's glued Carbon I don't dare sell it so I might as well ride it every now and then.

One of these days it's getting a pimpy new seatpost and maybe a Carbon compact crankset.

verktyg

logarto

Notice the non-recessed brake centerbolts in the SuperCorsa brochure pages? I'm thinking that the frames themselves were drilled out for recessed holes and the full bikes shipped with little brass washers that filled that in.

I stashed a bunch of those away since we were mostly tearing these bikes down and parting them out. Except of course for the tubeset-the Vitus 980 decal has "Extralegere" written along the outside border- that's the stock SuperCorsa build as I remember it, adjusting barrells on the spoon-like brake levers & black handlebar tape and conventional ball bearing headset. The seatpost had two 11-13mm fixing nuts on a horizontal axis licated inside of the seat rails.

Any idea of the BB height (otherwise known as "drop") on your oversized Paramount? Those puppies sure don't grow on trees?

logarto

Notice that on your spec sheet that there were just three sizes offered for the SuperCorsas and TDFs. Also we must have gotten 83 TDFs (like the one I posted piss-poor pictures of here,) as bare frames because I would have remembered 5 speed freewheels and Mavic E-2 clinchers after all these years. I'm pretty sure that the Orange 1984 TDF came with Wolber Aspin tubulars.

Whoever was getting the real Professionnels and Team Replicas had access to at least five sizes in the early 80s and then 50, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60 and 62 when the checkerboard decal Reynolds 531C Professionnel came along.

My biggest bitch about Gitane back then was that everything came with 170mm crankarms, in fairness this was just about when the Japanese first started using different crankarm lengths across the range of frame sizes.

I barely remembered the 7 speed straight block on the SuperCorsas too, we must have swapped those out on half the bikes we shipped and I'm baffled as to how I never ended up with one or two except for my affinity to SunTour Winners. My personal stockpile of 36 hole Argent 10 Rims (not Montherly's per the spec sheet,) for certain came from people paying us to relace the same wheels up as clinchers, which you could still do with the same spokes using a shallow clincher rim like a G-40 or Wolber Alpine.

Pretty sure that the spokes on the SuperCorsa were the venerable Robergel Trois Etoile which was widely regarded as the best thing out there until DT knocked them off the pedestal.

(Unlike DT it's been my experience that the Robergels do get a little brittle after 25 years under tension....)

logarto

The one that lists the Chevron Decal SuperCorsa as coming from Waterloo WI and curiously with Vitus 971 tubing. In the latter case I think they are just plain wrong but if we could see the Vitus Decal with the "Extra-Legere" script around the border in their photography then we would know for sure.

Just to reiterate I saw a lot of these bikes and they were all Vitus 980. I'm not sure that I saw any of the '84 SuperCorsas that were 983 but I did see a lot of the metallic orange Tour De Frances.

This is where the "dull muddy blue paint" remark comes from. Even at [url] http://velosniper.blogspot.com/2008/09/wednesday-price-porn-vintage-jul-82.html [/url} this kind of a price I'm not looking to part with this volume.

Equally curious is the author arbitrarily redesigning the front end geometry, inasmuch as someone on this thread has suggested that Trek modified their own to behave more like Gitanes. FWIW these bikes already have the most supple front of any post-1980 racing frame that I ever rode. So apparently there was some merit in steep head angle plus mucho fork rake?

And I think that the author was influenced by the American, Japanese and of course Italian bikes heading in the opposite direction?

If anybody wants the whole article scanned and uploaded and if Stephan thinks it's cool on the copyright front, then I'm game.