| verktyg |
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| Joined: 14 Jan 2007 |
| Posts: 2814 |
| Location: SF Bay Area |
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My intent is not to post every old Gitane that shows up on the internet, just some of the more interesting ones from an historical perspective or from a humorously misinformed seller.
This is an interesting Gitane TdF Frame. My guess is that this frame is from the mid 1960s:
http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-GITANE-PROFESSSIONAL_W0QQitemZ280205625425QQihZ018QQcategoryZ98084QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
The seller lists it as a 66cm (26") center to top. I don't recall ever seeing a Gitane bigger than 64cm (25"). A 66cm was the largest frame that could have been built with a standard Reynolds 531 tubset at that time. Looks pretty big in the photos so it very well could be a 66cm.
I'd mentioned in the past seeing Tour de France frames with Campagnolo rear dropouts. This one has them. I enlarged the photo and could clearly see that they are Campys.
Notice the whole head tube is covered with silver Mylar foil. Before the 1970s the top end Gitanes came this way. The Super Corsa pictured in the 1970 catalog has this feature. I've only seen a few bikes "in the flesh" that had remnants of the foil.
Also notice how the Pivo??? alloy bars are drooping and that the cast aluminum Pivo stem is dangerously high considering their history of failures.
I think that it's an original Tour de France vs. another model with the wrong decals applied. It has the same Stronglight P3 headset that every TdF I've seen had (Peugeot PX-10s had the better quality Stronglight V4 headsets that cost a few Francs more). The brakes are Mafac Dural Forge models. Mafac changed the name of these to Mafac Racer brakes about 1969.
The frame also has the swagged over seat stay tops vs. ones with brazed on oval plates and no brazed-on bridge for a brake cable stop. I always attributed these changes to top end Gitane frames made from about 1971 or 72 on. They could have been features added in the late 60s and dropped during the Bike Boom in the early 1970s..
One other curiosity is the Stronglight model 49 cranks with TA Criterium chain rings. In those days this was a popular combination for some unknown (to me) reason. All of the early TdFs pictured in the catalog section show TdFs with the better quality Stronglight 93 cranks.
Trying to pin down the age of a European bike from the last century is a lot like guessing the age of a piece of furniture on TV's Antique Road Show.  I don't have a twin blond brother but I'm guessing that this is an original from maybe around 1966-7. 
European builders, especially Gitane and Raleigh frequently used different styles of fork crowns, lugs, dropouts and components. I don't know whether is was price or availability. Who knows, probably a combination of both.
Chas. |
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