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verktyg

Last week I stopped by a LBS that specializes in new and used classic steel bikes. The owner showed me an old Gitane TdF that someone had just brought in for consignment. It was a 54cm which I can ride but I prefer a 55 to 57 cm frame plus it looked pretty rough.

Today when I went back in to get some bar tape the owner twisted my arm so I bought the TdF. We're about the same age and he cuts me lots of deals so I didn't mind.

The bike is a 1968 to 1970 Tour de France and as I mentioned it's a 54cm center to top frame. After looking it over closely I figured if nothing else I could part it out on eBay.

Here's the right side view:

Here's some close ups of the left side after about five minutes of cleaning with some industrial strength spray and hitting the chrome with xxx fine steel wool:

The reason I think that it's a 1968-1970 vintage is the caps brazed onto the top of the seat stays, a brazed on rear brake cable bridge plus it has the earlier Mafac Dural Forge brakes and Normandy Luxe Competition hubs.

Later models especially after the Bike Boom started in 1971 had the seat stays crimped over, they used a rear brake cable stop held on by the seat post bolt, TdFs came with Mafac Competition brakes and many TdF came with Campy Nuovo Tipo hubs.

The bike looks like someone may have used it for a little cyclocross or off road riding as it has cyclocross sewups and the top tube brake cable clamps are turned sideways so as not to catch when you hoist the bike onto your shoulder.

The frame and wheels are in good shape except for some barn or garage dirt, scratches in the paint and a little rust and corrosion. Nothing that a couple of hours of elbow grease, some rubbing compound and white touchup paint can't fix (white is easy to touchup).

The derailleurs have been upgraded with some older Shimano 600 friction shifters plus Suntour bar end shifters. I'm considering putting Simplex Criterium derailleurs and shift levers back on (I never thought I'd ever say that as we threw dozens of old Simplex derailleurs away). Embarassed

If any one is interested in a trade for a comparable vintage 57cm TdF or SC frame or buying the bike outright please PM me. Once I start working on it the price goes up... Twisted Evil

Chas.

smilingroadrunner

Chas, Once again ---you've identified another few subtle things we can look for in trying to put a date to these rides. On your last photo on the above post it does appear to be more apparent of seemingly a flat plate brazed over the seatpost stay and the obvious brake cable bridge.

Looking at my White '70-'71TdF and Blue '70 TdF it's not as obvious as your image--almost to a degree the top of the seatpost stay on my bikes looks like the metal has been folded over and brazed.

Some evidence of the seam near end

Brazing seam is real obvious on the blue frame
I noticed that both of these frames seem to have a small hole at the top of the seatstay tube under side.

The red '73 TdF seatstay is missing some of the paint--but definitely appears to be crimped and brazed--it does not have the small hole on the underside but there is a small hole on the inside (towards wheel). I assume they have some purpose in venting pressure during the brazing process.

Both '70 TdeF frames again have the brake cable bridge that you mentioned. My '71 and '72 Interclubs and the red '73 TdF utilized the seatbolt cable holder. The '70 TdF rear brake mounting bridges also seem to have more cutout detail to the braze on braket that holds them to the frame than the later '73 model.

As you pointed out the Mafac stamp on the brake arms for this bike. I've often wondered just what the difference was between the Mafac Competition on the TdF frames and the Mafac Racer on the Interclub frames. The only real obvious thing I see is the "Round Ball" end effect on the Competition Vs a "slotted" form on the Racer. It may be my imagination (or poor close up vision--good ol' Presbyopia) It might be subtle but possibly the arms on the competition seem slightly less bulky

Mafac Competition on '70 TdF

Mafac Racer on '72 Interclub

So my apology for some of the 'Fuzzy' closeup images. I'm fairly confident that the Blue TdeF is a 1970 from conversations that I had with its' owner. I never will know the complete provenience for what I thought was a '70 or '71 White TdeF (the fact that it has the brake cable holder like the blue one now gives support that it is probably at least a 1970 model). So as you point out in your post above, the obvious "Flat" plate brazed to your models seatstay and different Mafac brake arms and other details you mentioned would seem to support dating your model earlier than 1970.

Hoping to finish cleaning and polishing up items for the Blue TdeF over the holiday--the rims and wheels are ready for my local bike shop to build---while I continue to touch up the frame. I was just wondering if you could offer a suggestion for a suitable spoke in rebuilding these wheels. Hopefully will start cleaning up the '72 Interclub as soon as the TdeF is completed.
___________________
C.A.
Salina, Ks.

verktyg

The blue bike is looking good, the white one is.... well it's white, what can I say?

My first pro bike was a white 1971 Gitane Super Corsa that had been on display at the local Gitane dealer for several years. I bought it at the end of 1973 and got it for $150 because it was the end of the year closeout sale.

It was full Campy except for Mafac Competition brakes. The frame had brazed on seat stay caps and the brazed on rear brake cable stop like my newest acquisition.

The frame was a 60cm (23 1/2") which was a little too big for me. I was able to swap it out (+ $100) for a new 1973 57cm frame that another dealer had in stock. He was buying Gitane Super Corsa bikes cheap and pulling off the Campy grupos so he had some SC frames in stock.

The new frame had beautiful candy apple gold paint. It also had the swaged seatstay tops and no rear brake cable stop. Gitane used that style of seatstays on their Super Corsa, Tour de France and Interclub frames for many years afterward.

Except for some of the British makes only the mid range to top of the line European bikes came with fancy caps or wrap around ends on the seat stays. Most European bike builders used some type of swaged ends on the tops of their seat stays, especially once the US Bike Boom started taking off in 1971. They couldn't produce bikes fast enough to meet the US demand so they started cutting a lot of corners to speed up manufacturing.

I assume that sometime around late 1971 to early 1972 Gitane stopped using the brazeon seatstay caps and brake cable stops on their TdF and Super Corsa frames. The 1970 catalog shows them but they're not shown on the TdF and SC in the 1973 catalog.

I also think that there was very little inventory management at both Gitane and at Mel Pinto's who was the US importer for Gitane at that time. You got what ever bike was closest to the warehouse door or whatever sizes and colors they had available.

Up through the mid 70s were received Gitanes made from 1970 to 1975 when we ordered bikes so it's hard to tell the year the bikes were manufactured by when they were first purchased.

After 1975 Gitane drastically limited there choices of models and colors By 1976 Gitanes were very hard to come by plus over priced compared to the competition. In 1976 we bought up all of the older Gitanes we could find in the US - which wasn't many.

Mafac produced a wide variety of brakes with differing quality levels and brake reach capacities for the same model names. In the early the early 1970s they had 2 primary models: the Racer was their general purpose model with reach for fender clearance, the Competition designed for shorter reach applications where there was no need for fender clearance. Many bikes equipped with sewups came with Mafac Competition brakes.

The better quality Mafac brakes had chrome rather than zinc plated fasteners and brass bushings vs. plastic bushings. Racers were the considered cheaper models but they also came with chrome or zinc fittings. The name Dural Forge was changed to Racer in the late 60s.

http://www.classiclightweights.co.uk/mafac.html

BTW, Mafac brakes were the choice of most pros throughout the 1960s. Campy brought out their sidepull brakes in 1969 and the rest is history.

Here's a chart probably from the 1980s showing some of Mafac' models:

Break out the elbow grease and get at it... Very Happy

Chas.

smilingroadrunner

Thanks Chas for the technical and historical info and your time that you've given to share that information with others at this site.

Yes, I have to admit, that 3 of my Gitanes and my Paramount are white. But that's why I had to make the offer on the Blue TdF earlier this fall.
The metallic candy apple blue was probably my first color choice when I bought my white 71 Interclub in the summer of 71---youthful impatience after watching several consignments of Gitanes arrive at my local dealer w/o a blue frame through the late winter early spring of that year.

I'm slowly getting a handle on the larger scratch & rust areas --but even looking at the images from my post earlier today I have a lot of less obvious spots that will try to improve or protect. Compared to the way the frame looked when I started I'm already pleased--It definetly will be better protected. And I believe that it will look pretty good ---as long as one doesn't scrutinize it too closely.----It's a 37 year old frame with a history of active club racing so it will have some patina. I'm just amazed that it doesn't have any "dents or dings" to the tubing.

Wishing you and all a safe and joyful Holiday!!!
___________________
C.A.
Salina, Ks.

verktyg

You're welcome.

It keeps my memory gland functioning.... Laughing

Chas.