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rustlover

Hello, just found last weekend this little dream:

The Quality of the paint is not really good, parts with little rust under the colour - is the colour the original?

The parts seems all to be the right one like in the 1980 catalog.
Full Dura ace with aero cranks and dd pedals.

Its a 56 size and the frame number is a birthday number ...7.81

My 1983 Team Pro is still in work, still searching a slj front derailleur.

greetings

sandranian · Site Admin

Color is the original. That bike was the forerunner of the "delta" time trial bike. Really an innovative machine for the time.

rustlover

Thanks stephan,

the profile is a perfekt friend for my team pro and i will
finish both bikes this winter. I am really happy to find them.

Did anyone know the colour code for this Gitane blue from 1981
and either for my 83 team pro?
Cause i have to do some cosmetics at both bikes and i dont
want to paint them new.

Sorry ivan (trois tubes) that i was so long away and lofter is it
possible to send me some pictures of your profile?

With friendly greetings

lofter

Yep sure,

sandranian · Site Admin

Du schreibt doch gut Englisch. Meine Mutter kommt aus Hessen...und mein Bruder hat Berlinerin geheiratet.

Tschuss!

...und....

auf geht's Eintracht Frankfurt!

trois tubes

Good to hear from you and what a special bike you have!

I had some decals made this past summer for my Super Corsa that are from 1981/82. Let me know if you need a set.

Have fun!!!

logarto

I consider myself a pretty accomplished vintage bike scrounge and I have to say that these bikes are magnificent scores at any price.

Were those the skinny Dura Ace AX levers with no hoods, rustlover?

I sold a set of NOS AX Hoods on Fleabay for more than 80 Bucks once. The problem with those levers is that they got real popular about two years into the triathalon thang right along with the original Scott Bars. Shimano sold them with the 7400 Dura Ace Sidepulls up until about 86 but after that the used parts availability got picked real clean by first geneation tri dorks. You could still get the stem and seatposts new through 89 if not later.

There was some plastic in the AX group that, like the later Sante hubs, tends to be pretty decrepid after 30 years but the Dura Ace EX hubs with all the spoke heads pointing in are VERY cool and should hold up nearly as well as Nuovo Record. If I'm not mistaken they only existed in six speed cassette?

The cliff notes version of this post is that the 1981 aero road bike fad can just about be measured in months and some of the real funky parts were sold as new for maybe two years max. By 1983 I could pick up the phone and buy 20 Super Record Groupos from three different sources but getting even two groups of just the regular Dura Ace EX from anywhere was like pulling teeth. I don't think that I ever even saw the full Dura Ace AX except on a bike.

On the other hand that Dyna Drive Crank was the best Shimano you could buy from 1981 up to 7400 SIS Dura Ace in early 85 and the AX Aero brake levers stuck around a year or so after that. You could still get the stems and seatposts new through 89 if not later. If you look at the original 7400 (toe clip) pedals you can see a clear lineage from the Dyna Drive.

If it was just about being unique and rare these full AX bikes should be the most collectable stuff from the 1980s. For some reason (like people being able to afford $600 bikes rather than $1000 bikes 30 years ago,) I see a lot more 600AX than Dura AceAX.

rustlover

Hello, thanks a lot for your answers.
Stephan thanks for your comment about my english and
lofter thanks for the pictures of your profile.
Nice to hear from you ivan and yes i am interested and
either in the 83 decals for my team pro if you still got them.

Since i saw first the profile in the 80, 82 catalog i want one but
did not thought i will find one but luck happens.

Did anyone know how was the price new in 1980 - 1982?

I think that this bike was the first aero bike and the beginner, innovator of
the aero aera which started at 1981 with the ax groups.
In my opinion the ax groups was sold in beginning mid 1981 and the most
aero bikes were produced in the years 82 to 84.
Shimano started at first with the crank and dd pedals in 1980 called
dura ace aero and was soled as a set for 390 DM and only marked
with dura ace - later after 81 dura ace ax.

The italian aero stuff was first shown in 1981, 1982 at the trade fairs as
show bikes like the cinelli laser, colnago cx ...
There is in 1981 a japanese bike from Rensho which looks like
the gitane profil.

In this summer i had the luck to buy the complete german bike magazin
"tour" from 1980 to 2000 with a lot of interesting articles but nothing
about Gitane bikes - nice reading by laying in bed.

The parts of my profile:
stem: phillipe
bar: phillipe
brakes: Dura ace ex
cranks: dura ace (aero)
pedals: dura ace dd
drrailleurs: dura ace ex
hubs: campa record
rims: gp 4
saddle: concor
seat post: nn (gitane) aero
headset: dura ace

Brake levers? I never see this one, really small and the cable nip is
beginning were normally the brake cable gets out of the brake lever and
cable routing is in the brake lever round a role, reel.

with greetings

olaf

lofter

Ive got the seatposst figured out, the seat post on my profile s track bike was missing parts. So i had to track them down, it uses a a two bolt seatpost like the nuovo record post. But something didnt seem right about it. If you look at the seat post, on mine it hastwo places on each sidewhere the post has had marks where the company logo is ground off the post. Its on both sides of the post and on both my road version and track version. Still thinking it was nuovo recordi started to look real close at the campy post. But the campy post has a rough anadized finish at the top of the post ,this one is smooth like the shaft of the post. I needed the two bottom rails for the post. The previous pwner had it jerry rigged. So im looking at the campy ones and at the bottom of a ebay page was a item similiar to the campy. I clicked on it and bam there it was. The post is a sr sakae two bolt post.the grind marks are where they ground off the sr on the sides and the top is smooth instead of anadized finish. Mysttery solved

rustlover

Hi lofter,
interesting, i will check my seatpost.
Do you know from which year your profile rs is?
Is your frame number a birthday number?

Is yours in the original condition or new color and decals?

greetings

trois tubes

Since no one had the '80-'82 version of decals available, I went ahead and recreated them to scale and provided Gary Prange at SSSink with the artwork. He should be able to provide these to anyone in need.

You will probably have to provide a few photos and a serial number since he is somewhat wary of non-genuine resto bikes out there.

Olaf - he also has the '84-'86 yellow outline "bubble" lettered version for your Team Pro as well. However, I don't think he has the vertical lettered seat tube decal that is specific to 1983.

Here is Gary's contact info:
sssink@skybest.com
http://www.sssink.com/sssink_2010_016.htm

You may want to mention you know about this from Ivan at Gita.

rustlover

Thanks a lot for this contact and your information ivan.

I will make some better pictures and with more details.

greetings