gitaneusa.com :: View topic - 1976 Gitane Project

sandranian · Site Admin

The 1976 project is almost complete. I have to thank Paul Wiseman in Australia for the bike. We made a trade, which was great. Personally, I owe him big time for this one....

Anyhow, the bike is coming along and should be complete within the week and off for its "first" ride. There are a few things that I will add to it (or replace on it) in the coming years, like a new Regina Oro freewheel (this one is used and isn't as "gold" as I would like). I have a NOS Regina Oro chain to put on it, but it wasn't installed as of the date of this picture...which was today! I also have some light blue benotto bar tape which will be put on it. The hoods are reproduction campagnolo nuovo record gum hoods, and are a massive pain in the arse to work with. However, considering NOS hoods go for over $100, they will work for now! Someday, they too will be replaced by the real thing, which include the Campy logo on the side. The best part about this bike is the "patina", which is great. It is just beaten up enough to look its age, but still has some shine to it. I just love the look of this bike.

The headset will require a new Nuovo Record lock ring and top race, as it was found after I was sent the bike, that it was actually English, and not French threaded. I had a nuovo record BB and headset, but they were both French, and I figured they would work. So for now, it has a C-Record BB and Super Record headset lockring and top race.

Also, I have "rat trap" nuovo record pedals, but am not going to install them, because I want to ride this bike from time to time, and will put on some looks for ease and safety. Sorry to all of the purists out there.

The saddle is absolutely the best. Cinelli Unicanitor, new in the packaging. I have a "thing" about riding on used saddles, and try to avoid it if at all possible. Anyhow, I feel bad using this one because it is prestine, but that's what they were made for, right????

Anyhow, MANY THANKS to PAUL WISEMAN for this $40AU find at a garage sale down under!!! Now, it is going to see the roads of Southern California!

Paul Wiseman

Sandman! You should be ashamed! Get that girl an "I love gitane" t-shirt. Wink

Great job on the bike. That's what a real bike looks like! With the light blue bar tape it's going to look like the cover shot of the super corsa on the '74 catalogue. SWEEEEEET!!!!

There's just nothing like having your own international free trade agreement. For those who are interested, Sandman swapped me an '85 Professionell in mint condition. I built it with 9 speed veloce, but I'm not happy with that so I'll rebuild it either with the original campy victory, or upgrade it to super record. Anyone have some old 'victory' laying around??? Wink

verktyg

Looks nice.

I wouldn't trust that Belleri stem. They're cast aluminum rather than being forged.

The Belleri stems like yours were probably the first French stems with recessed expander bolt heads back in the day - 1974-5.

Cinelli and 3TTT were the only commonly available forged stems at the time and metric sizes (22mm vs. 22.2mm) were very rare.

I had several Belleri stems in my 1973 Super Corsa. Both of them broke on me and saw I saw others fail on customer’s bikes. I eventually replaced mine with a 3TTT stem.

One of mine broke off at the splits for the wedge expander inside the steerer while I was riding. Fortunately I was going slow enough to maintain control and stop while holding the bars in my hands.

The other Belleri stem failed when the head of the expander bolt came off as I was tightening it because it kept coming loose. The head was brazed on rather than machined from solid. I still have both stems in my junk box.

I would suggest that you try to find one of the forged Phillipe stems like the ones used on Peugeot PX-10s. They were good stems and came with Phillipe, Peugeot or Motobecane logos on the sides. You could also try to find on old Cinelli 1a or an old 3TTT stem.

Your bike should have a metric fork and headset. I don't recall French bikes switching to British threads until the 1980s.

If you do have an inch size fork then you shouldn’t have any problem finding a stem to fit. If it is metric then you can sand a little off of the stem so that it will fit. The metric stems were actually 21.9mm to fit into a 22mm steering tube.

Good luck.

Chas.

sandranian · Site Admin

Thanks for the note and the stem advice. Interestingly enough, I have heard horror stories about Belleri bars...but not about the stems. Now I guess I have heard both. If I replace them, I will replace them with the old Cinelli stuff, which I plan to do at some point. However, considering that this bike isn't going to be ridden often, it can wait.

Regarding the threading, I was shocked to find that it was English threaded. Like I said, I had all the French threaded parts, but when I received the frameset, none of it worked...and (for example), the fixed cup was reverse threaded.

The bike came from Australia, so perhaps there were some shipped there with English threads? Who knows: just one more example of "Gitane Standardization" which means no standardization at all!

Paul Wiseman

Nah Sandman. It's all about which hemisphere you're in. If you want to understand how this works, just follow these simple instructions... Firstly, dring a standard pint of Guinness. Now, this is just like how water goes down the plug hole in a different direction down here in Oz. Now dring another pint of Guinness. So, if a bike from "down-under" has french threading, when you take it to the northern hemisphere, the threading will be reversed. So, the right hand thread becomes a left hand thread, you see? Drink two pints of Guinness. Now this all gets a bit confusing if the frame was built somewhere else an then imoprted to Australia. Theoretically, if a frame was built in Italy with Italian threading and exported to Australia, it would then have english thread. If that frame was then sent back to the northern hemisphere, would the thread revert to italian? Dring one hemisphere of Guinness. One would thinks so, but here is a conundrum. I have an '85 gitane profesionnell. It was made in france, sold in germany, shipped to the USA, and then sent to Australia. It's now threadless. drik another gitane. As with all aspects of gitane production, there are many aspects which seem to defy reason alltogether, however, if you have followed the instructions above, this should all make perfect sense. If you have any further questions, please direct them to my dear cousin Howard Wiseman, professor of quantum physics at Griffith University, Queensland. Wink

verktyg

We sold Gitanes from 1973 up through 1976. Gitane changed distributors from Mel Pinto on the east coast to Gitane Pacific in California. By the end of 1974 they were becoming hard to get. We only brought in a few 1975 and 1976 Gitanes.

The later bikes were not competitively priced compared to Peugeot and Motobecane. I don't recall ever doing anything other than assembly on the 1975 and 76 models so I wouldn't have seen a change in the threads from metric to British.

In 1975 we started importing Andre Bertin bikes from France. We had them built to our specs and they were all metric threads up through the end of the 1970s.

If it was just the threads on the fork, I would suspect that someone replaced it with one with a longer steering tube and didn't have access to a metric threading die so they used one with British threads. I've seen that before.

Are the tubes metric or inch size? 26mm-28mm-28mm or 1" x 1 1/8" x 1 1/8"

Until recently I hadn't seen any Gitane bikes in quite a few years. One of our local collectors recently "rescued" a pair of 1975 or 1976 Gitane frames from the fate of becoming "fixies". That's when I started looking for a nice Gitane to add to my collection.

One of his frames is an Interclub and the other a Tour de France. They both have Huret honeycomb rear dropouts. The paint is good on both of them but someone removed all of the decals.

Chas.

verktyg

Paul Wiseman

Funny Chas.

I've seen that before, but it had a different title. Instead of being called "Beer Troubleshooting" it was called "Australian Institute of Sport, Road Cycling Carbo Loading Program".

Wink

We aussies really aren't that bad...... just ask Jens Voight! Rolling Eyes

sandranian · Site Admin

Rode the 1976 today. Aside from the derailleur hanger needing a slight adjustment, it ran VERY well. I also have to watch that I don't take myself out when I go to pick my nose by getting my hand stuck in the cables. I never ride with standard routed cables (haven't since I was in high school), as I always hated having that stuff in the way. Hilarious though....

But the bike was very good and I got more than a good chuckle out of the group that I ride with - all surprised that a bike which weighs 25lbs can still keep up.

Anyhow, I will post some pics of the finished product soon....