gitaneusa.com :: View topic - Who bought your Gitane back in the day? Tell your story.

STW

Chas's description of OEM Gitane saddles in another thread prompted me to tell the story of how I bought my Gitane way back when. Also reminded me how many of us on this board bought a Gitane back in the 70s or 80s, before they were vintage. Here's my story. What's yours?

The shop where I bought my Gitane in late 1976 (Atlanta) was a big high-end Raleigh dealer where all the shop guys rode Professionals and Internationals. A teen-ager, I'd just bought my first nice bike, a Super Course, from them but I got run over by a moving truck two days later. I was ok--I jumped away from the bike as the truck tire flattened it--but the Super Course was toast. So here I came to the shop again dragging this crumpled Raleigh and my settlement check for $209 (the cost of the new Super Course) from the trucking company. I'd saved for a while for that $209. They took pity on me and one guy said something like, "This kid needs an upgrade. What about that Gitane TdF we still haven't sold." They had just dropped Gitane as a line and as they conferred they agreed they didn't want to have it around. I jumped at this because I knew that the full 531 db was a big step above the straight gauge 531 in the three main tubes of the Super Course. Also was exited about the Huret Jubilee gear that I considered on par with Campagnolo, which I couldn't afford yet. Plus it was clearly a full on racing bike compared to the Super Course. They let me have the Gitane Racing Team for the $209 check I had in hand.

Funny that I took it out of the shop without even having put a leg over it. The shop guys looked at me and said that's a good size for you. I'd agonized over the size of the Super Course and settled on their 23.5" so the Gitane was bigger at 60cm or 60.5cm c-c. Didn't notice this until I'd loaded it in the back of my dads Datsun B-210 hatch back for the drive home. He had to make a stop and I insisted on getting it out of the car to ride while he did an errand. Caught my breath as a kicked a leg over and straddled it. Felt much bigger than the Raleigh and I wondered if I'd made a mistake. Then I rode it around the neighborhood and felt way too stretched out on the long tt and stem. But I was a new rider and didn't know yet how to get comfortable on the bike, having been riding bikes too small for me for too long. After a few rides I was OK with the reach. But I was just a kid still growing. I grew a little height after that, and my shoulders grew a lot. Within the year the fit was perfect.

Still fits perfectly more than 30 years later.

Pictures of it posted in my other thread about my newly painted bike.

--Mitch

Paul Wiseman

Cool story Mitch.

I'm a couple years younger, but have a somewhat similar story.

I had saved for my first racer as a kid, and had a few buddies with whom I did our "big" rides. We're talking about 10-15km here! Laughing

I had a Malvern Star (aussie version of schwinn I guess). It was the Sprint 12 model which was second from the bottom of the range. Just a basic bike. As i got more into it, I also became more and more interested in the machine itself, and began tinkering. It started with replacing bar tape, and ended with fitting my first set of 700C wheels. I rode this bike till July 87 when I had an unfirtunate encounter with the side of a Volvo that turned in front of me. Nasal bones smashed into a hundred pieces, dead teeth, facial lacerations. More importantly, the sprint 12 was history. The insurance paid the bike out quickly and we headed off to Tom Wallace Cycles to get a new one. The bike that really caught my eye was the green performance, but it was way outside the required price range. I ended up having a choice between the Victoire and a second hand Appolo IV with Suntour ARX gear on it. In reality the Apollo was probably the better bike, but the purple/yellow Victoire just looked so much better. And that's how I started on a Gitane. Over the years, my Victoire had a few changes. As I grew, I replaced the bars and stem to give me a longer reach and more width. Cinelli 1A stem and a set of Criterium bars. Next were the brakes. A set of the new Shimano (aero) SLR 105 brakes. BB and cranks were replaced with Shimano 105 as well. The drive train was next and I got one of the small group Suntour Sprint 9000 accushift sets. 7 speed indexed. At some point the black plastic ATAX seat post snappet at the top (as they tended to do). I don't remember what it was replaced with, but probably just a basic alloy post. Saddle was upgraded to a San Marco Rolls. Time pedals were added when I graduated from clips and straps. Other casualties along the way were the fork and rear tips. The tips in the fork began to crack, so I replaced it with a stock Tange fork. I broke one of the rear tips while charging up a hill in the 53 one day. They were replaced with a set of Campy tips. Later, the whole lot was changed for a Campy Chorus groupset. Once I outgrew the frame, it sat in the garage for a good few years. I eventually gave it to my sister's boyfriend. It was painted red and given a set of fake Colnago decals. That is how it stayed until last year when ran into Brendan (after many years), and I re-aquired the bike. I already had another Victoire in original colours, so I painted this up in my favourite scheme. Blue with the mid-70's decals.

Original:

Colnago?

Now:

Still a work in progress. I still need to find some Chorus cranks and a rear der. Hoods are split. And a new Rolls saddle is required. But it's getting there.

STW

Breaking the rear tips. That was some climb.

Paul Wiseman

It was a short berg that I was charging over in a 53x15. One theory is that I was such a hammer that I just snapped my frame in a burst of adrenaline fueled fury Twisted Evil

. Another theory is simple metal fatigue in some really cheap-ass french stamped drop outs Rolling Eyes

. You decide which is more likely....... Confused

When we pulled out the tips, you could see where it had been cracking for some time. My little burst of energy just finished it off. I actually thought I'd just popped a spoke. There was a "bang" and my rear rim started hitting the brake, so I limped it home slowly. When I pulled the wheel out, there was no broken spoke. Took me about 20 minutes to actually find the problem as the tip was still sitting in alignment when under no load. Was scratching my head for a while.

verktyg

I bought my first Gitane in the early 70s. I'd recently moved to New Mexico. I was pushing 30 years old and going nowhere fast so I decided to go back and finish college. I sold my car and bought a bike so that I wouldn't be temped to head off to the mountains to go backpacking or fishing all the time.

It was the beginning of the Bike Boom and there were 3 bike shops near the university. One sold Raleighs and Peugeots, another Schwinns and Motobecanes and the third Gitanes plus a few Japanese bikes.

My girlfriend had a Motobecane mixte that I wasn't too impressed with and I had previously owned a Schwinn varsity so that left two shops to pick from. I walked into the Gitane dealer and spotted an orange Grand Sport DeLuxe and said "I want that one".

I met some other cyclists and started riding with them on week ends. Riding without toeclips on the original Gitane ass hatchet plastic saddle became a bit much on 15-25 mile rides.

During the winter of 1973 I got a really good deal on a 1971 Gitane Super Corsa that had been on display at the Gitane dealer's. I paid $150 for the Super Corsa including all the changes I had them make on it. It was all Campy except for Mafac Competition brakes and came with sewups and an Ideale 90 leather saddle.

I had the Mafac brakes replaced with Universal 68 sidepulls and the sewups changed to 27" clinchers with Weinmann alloy rims (700c rims weren't common in the US at that time). I was still a starving student and figured that I couldn't afford to ride sewups yet. I also switched to a series of different saddles including a Cinelli Unicanitor. The black greasy dye on the Ideale 90 had the reputation of rubbing off on clothes for years.

My Grand Sport had a 23 1/2" (59cm center to top) frame which was about an inch too big for me. There seemed to be a shortage of 22 1/2" bikes at that time so I suffered through with it.

The Super Corsa was a great deal but it too had a 23 1/2" frame. It must have been made of extra light gage Reynolds tubing because with sewups and a leather saddle it weighed ~21 Lbs. It had the most whippy bottom bracket I've ever experienced. On a hard climb or sprint it would move from side to side enough for the front dérailleur to try to shift.

A few months later I lucked out and was able to trade in the 23 1/2" Super Corsa frame for a brand new gold 22 1/2" (57cm) SC frame at another Gitane dealer. Not long afterward I got a set of sewups and started riding in local races. I also started working part time assembling bikes at at both Gitane shops. Later I ended up managing one of them for the next 5 years.

In 1975 I switched to a 21 1/2" frame and sold my 57cm Gold SC frame. I can still kick myself for getting rid of it. I kept 1 or 2 Gitanes around for beater/training bikes including several Interclubs until 1980 when I moved to California. I sold off all of my bikes before the move except two, a 78 Colnago and a MTB that I built for myself.

For the past few years I'd been riding my early 80s Andre Bertin or a 1978 Motobecane Le Champion most of the time. At the beginning of the year I found a 1984 Gitane Super Corsa frame on eBay. I set it up pretty much like the one pictured in the Models section of the website. I bought it to use as a wet weather/beater bike but after I started riding the 84 SC I found it's a really pleasant bike. I've had it out on a number of local Classic Rendezvous rides.

Here's a picture from 1975 showing my first custom built bike, a Gus Betat frame.

Chas.

cbs

Bought new Inter Club 1972 Farmington (Michigan) Bike Shop (they're still in business). Immediately disassembled and sent frame out to Windsor Chrome Plating in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Kept the fork original finish because the IC transfer was nice, the crown chrome was nice and the concern about possible hydrogen embrittlement affecting structural integrety, ie. massive failure/accident. Also wanted to keep a flash of the original (green) paint.

Reassembled, rode extensively including touring, still have it, still the favorite, still the lightest and best. The tubular tire hassle contributed to keeping it off the road some years, but there's nothing like it. Has three bike licenses on it, of course the saddle's been replaced by a N.O.S. Ideale, and gone through one rim replacement. Repack the bearings every 7 years. Still prefer the Simplex/Mafac to the equipment on my other bikes. Chrome really sets it off.

Nothing like taking it out for the occasional quick spin on the local bike club routes to expose real style and historic bicycle (and rider) speed.

Original Owner; Not for sale; Thanks for listening.

Cort