gitaneusa.com Forum Index » Owner Gallery » My old Criterium Goto page 1, 2, 3  Next    View previous topic :: View next topic  My old Criterium   Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 12:21 am ozbike Joined: 20 Nov 2010 Posts: 47 Location: Australia Hi Thought I would post some pictures of me and an old friend. I bought this bike new in 84 I was 19 years old, I am now 46, and she is 27. I did a few races on it then (wasn't much good but didn't disgrace myself either) and stopped when I met my future wife. I still rode the bike as a commuter 40 kilometers each way to work and back, I did this for 10 years! A change of jobs dictating the use of a vehicle relegated the bike to the garage, she only got the odd ride to the shops to get bread or milk, or if I had to get somewhere and my wife had the car. I moved from Sydney to the gold coast 12 years ago so I loaded her up with all the other stuff and brought her with me. My first job up here I had to drive to work with a company truck so she sat in the shed for the last few years and did pretty much nothing. My daughter is a dragon boat paddler and was constantly asking me to come down and have a paddle, I always said no because I thought at my age I was past my sporting glory and an old man, but she was persistent so I dragged my aging overweight carcase down and gave it a go, that was two years ago and I am loving it. At first I found it quite hard my fitness was low and I was 20 kilos overweight and had to get some more weight loss training under my belt. I mentioned this to a cycling friend I have and he said why don't you get that old bike you have hiding in the shed out and get it back on the road, the thought had never entered my head, I started to get excited and went down to my LBS and got all the stuff I needed, new tires, bar tape, pedal straps, chain and a bigger rear cluster! I can't push the old 11-18 one that I had on it from the old days, I now have a 14-28 cluster and the Sugino Mighty 52-42 crankset I put on it years ago when the original wore out. I have Suntour superbe pro shifters, front and rear derailers, and headset, the stem and bars are Cinelli The wheels are Mavic G 40 clinchers with Campagnolo record hubs. I bought all this stuff years ago when the original stuff wore out, I wish I kept it all but at the time it was just worn out junk! how wrong I was. Anyway now the bike has equal status as my dragon boat activitys and I have started doing some more serious rides on it again. I ride it to work and back 4 times a week 30 kilometers each way and I do a long ride on a Sunday 60-100 kilometers depending on time and how I feel. I am not sure if I will ever race again, but I have been doing some 100 kilometer charity rides and loving the feeling of riding in a bunch again (it's also a bit easier drafting young fit blokes) the last one I did took me three hours flat for the 100km. I also like the attention the bike gets from other old timers the "I used to have one of them" comments and the look of nostalgia in their eyes. It's also nice to be able to pass some of the $6000 dollar carbon jobbies on the old steel is real bike. She is now a part of my life again and I will never let her sit again. I now have a set myself a goal to do the L'Eroica in Italy in 3-4 years time on her, I cant wait! Rob... _________________ Old is good   Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 2:20 pm Wisey Joined: 19 May 2009 Posts: 631 Location: Brisbane, Australia Good on ya Rob. Welcome to the club. Wisey, up in Brissy. _________________ Kind Regards, Wisey Delta Dreamin'   Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 3:14 pm trois tubes Joined: 16 Apr 2010 Posts: 136 Hi Rob, I am also 46 and have been riding since age 15 but did not own a Criterium until a few years ago. Of all the bikes I've owned it is my favorite. An unpretentious bike that delivers pure bliss. 1984 Gitanes   Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 7:08 pm verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area Nice bike, I especially like the blue color on the Criteriums. The 1984 Criterium, Tour de France, Super Corsa and Team Pro all used the same frame geometry. I have a 1984 Super Corsa, 2 TdFs and a Team Pro. Only the SC and 1 of the TdFs are ridable at this point but they are the best riding and handling bikes I've ever been on. I need a 1984 Criterium for a full set! _________________ 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: Tue Jul 12, 2011 3:46 am ozbike Joined: 20 Nov 2010 Posts: 47 Location: Australia Hi Wisey I am registered for the Wilson Brissy to gold coast 100. Are you doing it? I did the Brissy to the bay 100, I only saw one other steel bike, It was a Merckx I was stuck in a group and saw him go past at the last minute, I couldn't get out in time to catch him he was to fast. Trois tubes Great bike! what group set do you have on yours! Do you have other bikes? I bought my Gitane because Fignon and Hinault were my hero's I bought the best model I could afford at the time I think it was a sprint, it was black and I think it had Vitus 788 tubing. I had that bike for a year and sold it to my brother so I could buy a Criterium to race with, it was the closest thing to a team pro I could afford, it had a similar color and decal set and a good group set. When I bought the Criterium I was given a wool Renault jersey, I gave it away years ago because I could not get into it, bad mistake, since I have lost the weight I would have been able to wear it again! Verktyg Good luck finding one, I can honestly say I have never seen another in this country in all the years I have had mine. I did have one fellow ride up to me a few months ago and say that he had one the same but thats it. I wonder how many they sold? not many in Australia I would imagine. Most riders when I raced had Colnago's, Benotto's, Viner's, with Columbus or Peugeot, Raleigh, with Reynolds 531c tubes. most of the Vitus stuff was aluminum 979 or Alan stuff. _________________ Old is good   Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 9:09 am verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area ozbike wrote: Verktyg Good luck finding one, I can honestly say I have never seen another in this country in all the years I have had mine. I've missed out on 3-4 Criterium bikes or frames on US eBay. I lost out at the last seconds to "snipe bidders". The Team Pro was made of Columbus "SL Competition" tubing which was probably the super light Columbus KL tubing. The Super Corsa and Tour de France models shared the same frame made of Super Vitus 983 tubing. The SCs were blue and the TdFs were orangish red. The Criteriums were made with Super Vitus 983 main tubes and Vitus 181 forks and rear stays. Both types were made of the same Chrome-Moly steel but the Vitus 181 tubes had a slightly high wall thickness than Super Vitus 983 tubing. It looks like the Sprint model shared the same frame geometry too. They were made with Vitus 788 tubing. So now I need to get TWO more models to get a Royal Flush of 1984 Gitane performance models! There was less than 3 Lbs. - 1.5 kg weight difference between the Sprint and the Team Pro and a lot of that was in the wheels - clinchers vs. tubulars. Spec sheet from the 1984 Gitane catalog in the Catalogue section of this site: _________________ 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: Tue Jul 12, 2011 6:07 pm ozbike Joined: 20 Nov 2010 Posts: 47 Location: Australia Hi Chas My Criterium has a Vitus 980 sticker on the forks I have seen one other Criterium with 980 forks on another site, wonder if it was an end of run thing and they used up what tubing they had left? BMW used to do this with their motorcycles. Rob... _________________ Old is good   Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 6:51 pm verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area ozbike wrote: Hi Chas and and SV My Criterium has a Vitus 980 sticker on the forks I have seen one other Criterium with 980 forks on another site, wonder if it was an end of run thing and they used up what tubing they had left? BMW used to do this with their motorcycles. Rob... Several possibilities, the 1983 Criterium, Tour de France and Super Corsas made for the US market were spec'd out with Super Vitus 971 tubing which had the equivalent wall thickness as Columbus SL tubing. Super Vitus 980 was considerably lighter than SV 971. Gitane made frames with SV 980 tubing from the late 70s until the early 80s. It appears that Gitane switched back and forth between SV 971 and SV 980 for a number of years until 1984 when they changed to SV 983. What does the tubing decal on the frame say? All three types of tubing were light weight premium quality and had the same strength characteristics as Reynolds 531 and Columbus tubes. My 1980 Bertin has Super Vitus 971 stickers on the frame and fork but the paint is thin and you can see SV 980 stamped into the main tubes. There were no "specification police". It was common for bike makers to use what they had on the shelf! That could be variations in tubing wall thickness or even decals. One other thing, Gitane, Peugeot and Motobecane all made models with different features for specific markets: France, Holland, Germany, the US, Canada, the UK, the East Bloc and so on. My 1974 Gitane Tour de France came from OZ via Wisey and Sandman. It has British threads while French bikes of that era had all metric threads. It may have been built for the UK and ended up in austral lands. Picture from Wisey's torture chamber in OZ. The way it looks now. Clear as mud, eh? _________________ 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: Tue Jul 12, 2011 9:17 pm ozbike Joined: 20 Nov 2010 Posts: 47 Location: Australia Hi Chas Yes very clear, I may get my head around it in ten years or so LOL. My main frame decal is Super Vitus 983. Thanks for all your input and knowledge. You must really love these old bikes! Rob... _________________ Old is good   Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 6:05 pm ozbike Joined: 20 Nov 2010 Posts: 47 Location: Australia Not much to do at work today, it's pouring rain. So I thought I would do something I wanted to do 20 years ago but did not know how. The old Criterium will love this. _________________ Old is good   Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 1:06 am ozbike Joined: 20 Nov 2010 Posts: 47 Location: Australia Took the old girl out for a charity ride 100km Brisbane to the Gold Coast managed it in 2h 55m enjoyed every minute of it and let some of the younger crowds see what bikes used to look like. _________________ Old is good   Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 5:18 am ozbike Joined: 20 Nov 2010 Posts: 47 Location: Australia Here she is at a eroica type retro ride, 80 miles 20 of it on dirt _________________ Old is good   Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 10:44 am sandranian Site Admin Joined: 27 Feb 2006 Posts: 2701 Location: Southern California Looks good. Although it appears your saddle could be raised a bit... _________________ Stephan Andranian Costa Mesa, CA www.gitaneusa.com   Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 6:06 am ozbike Joined: 20 Nov 2010 Posts: 47 Location: Australia Yeah it dose look that way but I think it is just the camera angles. In this picture I still have an inch or so of extension to go on the cranks and my leg is going to straighten a bit more, If I lift the seat much more my leg would have no bend in it at the bottom of the crank stroke. What do you think? _________________ Old is good   Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 8:53 pm Wisey Joined: 19 May 2009 Posts: 631 Location: Brisbane, Australia It looked pretty good to me when you were dropping me on some of the hills _________________ Kind Regards, Wisey Delta Dreamin' My old Criterium     gitaneusa.com Forum Index » Owner Gallery You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum All times are GMT - 8 Hours   Page 1 of 3   Goto page 1, 2, 3  Next All Posts1 Day7 Days2 Weeks1 Month3 Months6 Months1 Year Oldest FirstNewest First  Select a forum Gitane USA----------------Vintage GitaneGitane RacingModern GitanePro Racing - Classics/Giro/Tour....Owner Gallery   Powered by phpBB © 2001-2004 phpBB Group Designed for Trushkin.net | Themes Database.