gitaneusa.com :: View topic - Intro and Paris-Brest GS/4 tandem from 1974

Jeremy

Hi,
I´m new to the site so here´s a short intro. I live in Denmark about 70km. from Copenhagen. Denmark is a great cycling country. Mostly flat with some hillly areas and lots of cycle paths both in towns and in the country. My interests are old bikes, mainly tandems, 60´s soul music and 60´s mod music. The music makes for some great workshop hours.

I recently bought a Gitane tandem and found out later that it was the Paris-Brest GS/4 model from 1974. The seller had only used it for a couple of holiday trips in Sweden. After that it had been dry stored for 34 years.
It had been used with "kiddy cranks" on the rear saddle and had therefore been altered to have the front chain also running on the right hand side instead of the more common crossover system. It works fine and looks good.
The transmission is also upgraded with Sun Tour GT rear changer, Sun Tour Compe V front changer and Sun Tour bar end shifters.
Of course after 34 years storage it was caked in dust and cobwebs. After a complete disassembly, cleaning, washing, regreasing etc. and reassembly it looks like new. Fantastic paint and chrome. The new bits are tyres, tubes, saddle pins, saddles, cables and brake cable hangers.
Because it had been used with "kiddy cranks" it needed a set of pedals but these are on the way from England.
Now I just need the finishing touch, which is a double bottle cage and bottles for handlebar mounting. It´s proving a bit difficult to find so if anybody has one for sale, or knows where I can buy one, let me know.
I´ll post some pictures when I´ve fitted the pedals next week.

Cheers Jeremy.

sandranian · Site Admin

Jeremy:

Welcome to the site! We are always excited to have new Gitane fans from all over the world, and eager to see the pictures of your various Gitane projects.

scozim

Sounds like a great bike. I would definitely love to see photos of it and will wait impatiently for them. Smile