gitaneusa.com :: View topic

Frenchbuilt

I bought this one for $30 and just picked it up. Cost more for gas than bike.

Its rough and has one small ding in the top tube but all is straight and original.

I want to repaint in black, add decals and use it as a cruiser. Summer project.

Of the Gitanes that I have, this one has the best build quality.

Dan

sandranian · Site Admin

Wow. Full Reynolds 531...a top-end bike for sure. Copper wool will clean up the rust on the chrome parts.

verktyg

With a little "elbow grease" this bike could look surprisingly good as is!

Change the top tube brake cable clips and maybe a few other components and you will have a rare classic with patina.

With some gentile rubbing using an automotive cleaner that paint will come back to shine plus some extra fine laines en acier will clean up most of the corrosion on the chrome plating.

This is how my 1974 Tour de France looked when Forum member wisey found it in Australia:

And how it looked with all Campagnolo components when Stephan A owned it:

And how it looks today with mostly all French equipment:

Your "new" bike is most likely a 1976 Tour de France but it could be a 1974 to 1976 Champion Du Monde.

What I'm looking at is the seat stay caps with the 2 dots and stamped in Gitane logo. That plus the headset height. It looks like it might have a standard Gitane headset like those used on Gran Sports with some extra spacers added in or else a Stronglight P3 with extra spacers and a Gran Sport lock nut.

Another indicator for a 1976 TdF is the Rubis fluted steel seatpost made of chrome plated light gage steel tubing; Rubis = Durifort tubing. Also the leather covered Ideale 2002 saddle, Beleri stem and the Mafac Competition or 2000 brakes.

The derailleurs are mid range Simplex models that would have replaced the Criterium derailleurs found on earlier TdFs.

Here's a review in Bicycling Magazine of the 1976 Gitane Tour de France. The derailleurs and crankset were different but that was not uncommon with Gitane.

http://www.velo-pages.com/main.php?g2_itemId=1932&g2_imageViewsIndex=1

BTW, what kind of brake levers are they?

Clean it up, tune it up and enjoy riding it.

Ne le châtrez pas et ne le transformez pas en fixie!

Frenchbuilt

Don't worry, this bike will not be made into a fixie.

What I don't like is just the stupid small dent on the top tube (see photo) There are scratches everywhere but only this one dent. I checked to make sure nothing is bent and the top tube is dead straight along with all of the other tubes.

The dent is really no big deal but it would be fixed in repainting.

I can match the original blue since I have access to a paint mixing lab. but too much work right now. Maybe I will just repair and repaint the top tube ending the paint repair at the lugs.

The first thing that came to mind was a repaint and new original style decals. I sort of wanted a Black TDF in '72 when I bought my green one from stock in Los Altos, but, there were none.

Or, I just leave the whole thing alone.

The brakes are Mafac Competition with the cables cut and the handles placed on the top bar (handle bar) which the original owner flipped over just like everyone did in the '70's to ride sitting up-right.

Thanks, Dan

Frenchbuilt

Just a thought, maybe someone has already done a "contretypage" and they have a paint reference code for the Gitane blue?

Slight chance but you never know.

Thanks, Dan

sandranian · Site Admin

If it were painted black, the pump would match.... Very Happy

Frenchbuilt

My $30 special is nearly rebuilt and I am keeping it rough and original.

While rebuilding my lotus europa clutch one sunday we discovered that the new pilot bearing was the wrong one and in true French fashion, my helping friend said "lets improvise" So, he got out a bar of round brass/bronze that he collected from somewhere in a big box of junk and after some measurements he had a new one turned on the lathe by midnight and the car on the road by monday morning.

The bearing cones in the rear hub of my Normandy Competition hubs were pitted and so I thought easy to find new ones here in France for a hub sold in the Millions. After trying the last two or three real bike shops that are left in the west Paris area where both guys said I was 40 years too late, I gave up and decided to improvise and set about reworking the old cones.

I made up a tool from a drill bit shank of the same radius as on the cone bearing area and set up everything in the drill press.

The cones were kept close to the chuck and with no wobble, and using 120 grit emery wrapped around the supported tool and constant changing the contact area, and keeping everything in motion, the cones cleaned up better than new. The hub races were perfect (often are) and with new ball bearings, the hub works fine.

The French are very practical and bike shops probably trashed old parts to make room for the new stuff and then most of them closed down anyway. Still I did have the feeling that the old guys who ran the shops I visited had a box somewhere under the counter full of old parts that they did not want to give up.

Recycling can be done even on 30 cent pieces.

Dan