gitaneusa.com Forum Index » Vintage Gitane » Wooden Plug Goto page 1, 2  Next    View previous topic :: View next topic  Wooden Plug   Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 1:35 pm Kinst VonSterga Joined: 26 May 2008 Posts: 153 Location: Hillsboro, Oregon USA I noticed a wooden plug that was lodged toward the bottom of the steerer tube, with the brake bolt anchoring it in place. A number of my other French bicycles have this too. What is it for and should I remove it, unless its some type of catastrophic-failure-protection mechanism? cork   Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 9:51 pm Frenchbuilt Joined: 18 Apr 2007 Posts: 443 Lunch Wine bottle cork. Wooden Plugs   Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 11:47 pm verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area I've never seen one of the wooden plugs in a Gitane steerer. Someone may have inserted it. Some said they were to prevent corrosion but... The idea for the plugs were if the bottom of the steerer broke off there was still something to hold the fork together. Peugeots and Motobecanes used them. They had steerers made of straight gage pipe with a split sleeve brazed into the bottom. Most Gitanes had butted steering tubes made by Nervor. _________________ Chas. SF Bay Area, CA USA ============== 1984 Criterium 1969 TdF 1971 TdF 1974 TdF 1984 TdF x 2 Bikes 1970 SC 1971 SC 1972 SC 1984 SC 1984 Team Pro 1985 Professional 1990s Team Replica Re: Wooden Plugs   Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 11:17 am Kinst VonSterga Joined: 26 May 2008 Posts: 153 Location: Hillsboro, Oregon USA I'll take them out. verktyg wrote: I've never seen one of the wooden plugs in a Gitane steerer. Someone may have inserted it. Some said they were to prevent corrosion but... The idea for the plugs were if the bottom of the steerer broke off there was still something to hold the fork together. Peugeots and Motobecanes used them. They had steerers made of straight gage pipe with a split sleeve brazed into the bottom. Most Gitanes had butted steering tubes made by Nervor. Re: Wooden Plugs   Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 9:17 pm verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area Kinst VonSterga wrote: I'll take them out. verktyg wrote: I've never seen one of the wooden plugs in a Gitane steerer. Someone may have inserted it. Some said they were to prevent corrosion but... The idea for the plugs were if the bottom of the steerer broke off there was still something to hold the fork together. Peugeots and Motobecanes used them. They had steerers made of straight gage pipe with a split sleeve brazed into the bottom. Most Gitanes had butted steering tubes made by Nervor. Them? are there more than one? People used to used wood dowel pins of broom handles just in the the bottom 2" to 3". _________________ Chas. SF Bay Area, CA USA ============== 1984 Criterium 1969 TdF 1971 TdF 1974 TdF 1984 TdF x 2 Bikes 1970 SC 1971 SC 1972 SC 1984 SC 1984 Team Pro 1985 Professional 1990s Team Replica Re: Wooden Plugs   Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 9:47 pm Kinst VonSterga Joined: 26 May 2008 Posts: 153 Location: Hillsboro, Oregon USA Yep ... I have a lot of French frames so "thems they be". Most of the forks I have are Reynolds 531 w/nervor, so why the wooden thingy-me-jiggies are in there, I don't know but out-they-go. I have 3 of them now in a bowl. Anyone interest in 1 ? verktyg wrote: Them? are there more than one? People used to used wood dowel pins of broom handles just in the the bottom 2" to 3".   Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 2:36 am Holger Joined: 27 Feb 2008 Posts: 62 Location: Germany/Stuttgart found one of them too, came with that "mysterious" 753 Frame, as it was a bare frame i thought it was some kind of a transport security thing.   Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 10:45 am sandranian Site Admin Joined: 27 Feb 2006 Posts: 2701 Location: Southern California Holger: You need to send me that Gitane poster (the vintage one) you have hanging in your garage. _________________ Stephan Andranian Costa Mesa, CA www.gitaneusa.com   Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 7:27 pm Kinst VonSterga Joined: 26 May 2008 Posts: 153 Location: Hillsboro, Oregon USA sandranian wrote: Holger: You need to send me that Gitane poster (the vintage one) you have hanging in your garage. I'll raise Sandranian's empty bid ... and will give you 3 worthless Parisian plugs for your poster Found the third stuck in one of my Peugeots! These things are multiplying like French tribbles! Spin the bottle anyone?   Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 1:00 am Holger Joined: 27 Feb 2008 Posts: 62 Location: Germany/Stuttgart here it is!   Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 1:03 pm Kinst VonSterga Joined: 26 May 2008 Posts: 153 Location: Hillsboro, Oregon USA Thanks Holger! ... and they rode the pedal-Mopeds side-saddle back then (or its a one-legged gypsy?), very cool poster!   Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 3:03 pm verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area Kinst VonSterga wrote: ... and they rode the pedal-Mopeds side-saddle back then Modesty! If you have a Peugeot (or Motobecane) from the 60s or 70s, look into the underside of the fork crown to see if there is a split sleeve brazed into the bottom. If so, put a wooden plug in it. You could use a piece of wooden dowel or an old broom handle cut to length - about 3". Drill a 1/4" (6mm) hole for the brake bolt. Here's an early 70s Peugeot U-08 fork showing the brazed in split sleeve (red arrow). Also note the lines in the rear of the fork blades. Peugeot figured out a way to save a few centimes by making the fork blades out of sheet metal rolled to the correct shape and brazed together instead of real steel tubes. see red arrows. The problem with these is if the fork gets bent, the seam will split like a banana when you try to straighten it! Imagine my surprise back in the 70s the first time I tried to straighten a bent Peugeot fork! They used these "blades" for many years on all of their bikes from the entry level U-08 models to the 3 tubes Reynolds 531 PR-10. For a long time only the all Reynolds 531 bikes like the PX-10 had real steel tubing in the fork blades. BTW, people used to put old wine bottle corks into the bottom of their steerers to keep water out. Cork will hold moisture in... DOH! _________________ Chas. SF Bay Area, CA USA ============== 1984 Criterium 1969 TdF 1971 TdF 1974 TdF 1984 TdF x 2 Bikes 1970 SC 1971 SC 1972 SC 1984 SC 1984 Team Pro 1985 Professional 1990s Team Replica   Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 5:13 pm Kinst VonSterga Joined: 26 May 2008 Posts: 153 Location: Hillsboro, Oregon USA verktyg wrote: Kinst VonSterga wrote: ... and they rode the pedal-Mopeds side-saddle back then They used these "blades" for many years on all of their bikes from the entry level U-08 models to the 3 tubes Reynolds 531 PR-10. For a long time only the all Reynolds 531 bikes like the PX-10 had real steel tubing in the fork blades. I just checked my other Peugeots and I found another plug, too funny! You may want to modify which frames Monsieur Peugeot decided to put them in, as I found plugs in some of my full-531 frames and one in a custom super legere frameset. The only frame that I didn't buy from a Frenchman ironically was sans plug (std) 1979 PX-10LE 1980 CFX-10 1980 PXN-10 (std) 1982 PY-10S The plug I found in my older 60s gitane (I think its was part of an ad-hoc mounting bracket for the front fender).   Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 3:08 pm verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area Kinst VonSterga wrote: I just checked my other Peugeots and I found another plug, too funny! You may want to modify which frames Monsieur Peugeot decided to put them in, as I found plugs in some of my full-531 frames and one in a custom super legere frameset. The plug I found in my older 60s gitane (I think its was part of an ad-hoc mounting bracket for the front fender). As I mentioned, I've rarely seen plugs in Gitanes, even entry level bikes like the Gran Sport. I suspect that they were put in after the bikes left the factory. Again, the real reason to have a plug in a Peugeot or Motobecane is if they have a sleeved steering tube. Throughout the 70s Gitanes used Nervor butted steel steering tubes from the entry level models up to the Reynolds 531 frames. In the 80s they started using the steerers that matched the tubing brands on the better Gitane models Here's another reason for using a wooden plug in an early 70s bike boom frame. This was a Raleigh fork but it happened with other makes too! Notice the minimal amount of braze penetration in the joint and the black area in between. The most common reason for this was failure to properly clean dirt, oil, grease and/or corrosion off of the steering tube and fork crown. For a good bond the parts have to be CLEAN! Brummy came back after several pints at the pub for lunch and grabbed the first parts available. Same thing with Pierre or Luigi after a litre of wine! Here's a sacred cow Cinelli fork that came apart. See the rust in the braze area! I saw this kind of fork failure on several early 70s bike boom Gitane Gran Sport forks too including one of my Gran Sport beater bikes I commuted on. I started feeling some looseness in the headset area which I adjusted several times. One day I rode into our shop and discovered that the brake mounting bolt was the only thing holding the fork together! After that plus several broken stems and a broken steerer on customer's bikes that I was test riding, I started checking out every bike that I'd never ridden before! I grab the stem and lift the bike a few inches then bounce the front end several times feeling for any looseness. That can ID a loose or defective stem, headset, steerer or fork crown. Between 1970 and 1973 European bike makers were pushing bikes out the door as fast as they could box them up (and before the Bike Boom fad ended). After 1974 and the mad rush of the bike boom came to an end. Brazing and assembly of most European bikes improved (they also had to compete with the Asian bikes that were starting to hit the market). This is one reason why I encourage frequent inspection of the frames and components on 33-40+ year old bikes. _________________ Chas. SF Bay Area, CA USA ============== 1984 Criterium 1969 TdF 1971 TdF 1974 TdF 1984 TdF x 2 Bikes 1970 SC 1971 SC 1972 SC 1984 SC 1984 Team Pro 1985 Professional 1990s Team Replica   Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 5:09 pm Kinst VonSterga Joined: 26 May 2008 Posts: 153 Location: Hillsboro, Oregon USA verktyg wrote: Again, the real reason to have a plug in a Peugeot or Motobecane is if they have a sleeved steering tube. . Great advice, thank you. One of the forks is sleeved, so I will put the plug back into it. 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