 |  | | | |  | |  |  | Attention All Fellow Gitane Tandem Owners |  | |  |  | |
 Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 12:50 pm |
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| ranger |
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| Joined: 25 Nov 2007 |
| Posts: 1 |
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| I just got a 1973 Gitane touring tandem from a relatve, it has sat in a basement for over 15 years and hasn't been ridden in almost 20 years. My uncle who used to own it worked at a bike shop and it has many upgraded components. Dual brakes on the rear wheel, leather saddles, fenders, luaggage racks, 3 gear cluster in the front and 6 gear cluster in the rear...... I have started pulling off components and cleaning/polishing them. Everything is mint, just dirty. Any insight, tips, hints, fellow Gitane tandem owners........please reply. This is going to be my winter restoration project, would be great to hear from anyone. |
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| Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 1:43 pm |
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| verktyg |
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| Joined: 14 Jan 2007 |
| Posts: 2814 |
| Location: SF Bay Area |
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Gitane made a number of different tandems. What model is yours? Can you post some pics - before and after shots are great.
I'm familiar with the early to mid 70s models that were imported into the US. The Tandem Sport was the lower priced model with steel cranks, wheels, bars, etc. We kept one around the shop as a demo/display model. The frames were well made but they used the same kind of medium gage carbon steel tubes as on their standard bikes. The components were OK for short rides.
They also made a full Reynolds 531 model. It came with T.A. Cranks, Campy hubs and a lot of other upgrades. I've only seen 2 or 3 of these bikes.
A friend had one and I rode 1/2 a century with him as stoker. We started out right after the fast racers took off. We caught the in a few miles. On the flats they were all wheel sucking behind us. They'd drop us on the hills but we'd reel them back in on the back side. It was fun watching them trying to jump on our wheel as we zipped past at 40+ MPH.
He was a machinist and made his own BB spindle to handle 4 chainrings on the T.A. cranks - 26T - 60T. He also had to make a special cage for the Campy front dérailleur, same for the rear 13-34T. It was fun spinning out 60/13 gears on a long downhill. I was never real comfortable at that speed on Clement del Munodo sewups.
Sounds like a great project. Good luck.
Chas. |
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