 |  | | | |  | |  |  | Another Mystery Gitane Frame On Ebay |  | |  |  | |
 Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 9:45 pm |
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| verktyg |
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| Joined: 14 Jan 2007 |
| Posts: 2814 |
| Location: SF Bay Area |
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Laurent, RIP... I'm going to take a memorial ride tomorrow on my 90ish blue Gitane team bike in your honor! 
Meanwhile there's another mystery Gitane frame on eBay from a French seller.
Apologies to all for being so cynical about these things but there are several French sellers who are apparently too lazy to do any research on the French bikes and frames that they list and try to BS their way through the description sounding as if they know what they are talking about ! 
http://tinyurl.com/2erqom3
This is an interesting frame. My guess is that it's a late French market 1967 Tour de France model "102". The 3 main tubes are Reynolds 531. The forks and stays are probably made of Durifort tubing.
It's a 60cm size frame measured center to top of the seat tube the way Gitane did back then (more BS from the seller calling it a 58cm)!
It has silver foil on the head tube plus the style foil decals that Gitane started using about 1968. Note the swagged seat stay caps on 12mm or 14mm stays. The later all Reynolds 531 TdFs had the willow leaf caps brazed onto to the tops of 16mm 531 seat stays.
The headset is a standard Gitane model rather than a Stronglight P3. The dropouts are proprietary Huret as these bikes came with Huret Allvit derailleurs.
BTW, the French thought very highly of Huret Allvit derailleurs and used them on some top of the line bikes. The alternatives were the plastic Simplex derailleurs or the imported Italian Campagnolo derailleurs (which was a bit much for Gallic pride during that era! 
This should be a really nice smooth riding bike made with classic 1960s French road racing geometry plus the smaller diameter Durifort forks and stays.
A Huret Success, Challenger, Jubilee or even a Duopar rear derailleur would work great on these Huret dropouts. Some model Simplex and Shimano derailleurs too.
Happy bidding. No connection to the seller! |
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Chas.
SF Bay Area, CA USA
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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 |
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| | | | | | | | | Same one maybe | | | | | |
| Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 1:52 am |
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| Frenchbuilt |
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| | | | | | | | | Re: Another Mystery Gitane Frame On Ebay | | | | | |
| Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 7:30 am |
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| greyhundguy |
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| Joined: 09 Apr 2008 |
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| Location: South-Central VIRGINIA |
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| verktyg wrote: |
A Huret Success, Challenger, Jubilee or even a Duopar rear derailleur would work great on these Huret dropouts. Some model Simplex and Shimano derailleurs too. |
Yes, these could be considered wonderful upgrades but would not be period correct for a frame of this vintage. I would like to put this back to its former glory but it's not in the budget. It's a great opportunity to restore an early classic Gitane for someone.
Jay |
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Dance like nobody is watching. |
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| | | | | | | | | Re: Another Mystery Gitane Frame On Ebay | | | | | |
| Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 10:15 am |
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| verktyg |
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| Joined: 14 Jan 2007 |
| Posts: 2814 |
| Location: SF Bay Area |
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| greyhundguy wrote: |
| verktyg wrote: |
A Huret Success, Challenger, Jubilee or even a Duopar rear derailleur would work great on these Huret dropouts. Some model Simplex and Shimano derailleurs too. |
Yes, these could be considered wonderful upgrades but would not be period correct for a frame of this vintage. I would like to put this back to its former glory but it's not in the budget. It's a great opportunity to restore an early classic Gitane for someone.
Jay |
You are correct about "period correct" but... Having briefly owned a Huret Allvit equipped Schwinn Varsity in the late 60s and worked on quite a few Allvit derailleurs in the 70s, I've developed shall we say, a strong aversion to them!
A Huret Svelto or Luxe rear derailleur would be somewhat period correct and work much better - maybe...
BTW, the front derailleurs were always good. |
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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 |
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| Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 11:50 am |
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| greyhundguy |
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| Joined: 09 Apr 2008 |
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| Location: South-Central VIRGINIA |
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Chas.,
I would probably use the early "Blue Label" Simplex Criterium RD if I could find a good one. I suspect it's within the time period of the frame.
Jay |
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Dance like nobody is watching. |
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| | | | | | | | | Simplex on a Huret dropout | | | | | |
| Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 12:38 pm |
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| verktyg |
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| Joined: 14 Jan 2007 |
| Posts: 2814 |
| Location: SF Bay Area |
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| greyhundguy wrote: |
Chas.,
I would probably use the early "Blue Label" Simplex Criterium RD if I could find a good one. I suspect it's within the time period of the frame.
Jay |
Problem with the Simplex is that it may not fit on a proprietary Huret dropout (without modification to the dropout). The fat section to the front of the mounting hole looks too wide for a direct mount Simplex derailleur to hook over (see red line on the picture below).
Simplex used a uniform round banjo shape on their dropouts.
Also derailleurs designed to work on Campagnolo style dropouts wont work properly on Huret dropouts because of the location of the stop notch.
Campagnolo style:
Huret dropout:
From the late 60s until the mid 70s Huret and Simplex were in a heated battle for supremacy of the French derailleur market. I guess that their myopic beliefs were that having a proprietary derailleur mounting system on the dropouts would equate to job security.
At least Simplex used a method for attaching their direct mount derailleurs to their own proprietary dropouts as well as to the de facto standard Campagnolo style dropouts.
In the mean time the Japanese makers, Suntour and Shimano chose to adopt the defacto standard and took over the market from Huret and Simplex, even in France. See what technical chauvinism results in? |
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Last edited by verktyg on Sat Sep 04, 2010 12:52 pm; edited 1 time in total
_________________
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 |
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| Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 12:51 pm |
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| greyhundguy |
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| Joined: 09 Apr 2008 |
| Posts: 678 |
| Location: South-Central VIRGINIA |
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Good point. I'm not going to worry about though, as I have no intent or interest in building up another complete Gitane from scratch.
Jay |
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Dance like nobody is watching. |
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| | | | | | | | | Differences in dropouts from the late 60s - early 70s | | | | | |
| Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 1:21 pm |
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| verktyg |
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| Joined: 14 Jan 2007 |
| Posts: 2814 |
| Location: SF Bay Area |
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In the past year I've seen several pictures posted of late 60s, early 70s TdFs and similar models where the rear derailleurs where positioned too close to the chainstay.
I suspect that these bikes had derailleurs designed for use on Campy style dropouts. While the Huret derailleurs have a threaded mounting hole, the position of the derailleur stop is different which will allow the derailleur to rotate up closer to the stay.
Huret Proprietary Dropout
Campagnolo Style Dropout
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_________________
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 |
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