gitaneusa.com :: View topic - New Bike Coming

verktyg

My ridding buddy says that it's a sickness... Laughing

.... but he wants the keys to my basement in case anything happens to me! Shocked

I just bought this Gitane frame on eBay from a seller in the UK.

Anyone know what it is?

My guess is that it's an early 90s Team Replica. It's made of oversize Columbus EL tubing with Shimano dropouts. It's just my size and should be a great riding bike. I'm planing on building it up with 90s vintage Shimano components.

In the mean time my 1984 Super Corsa has become my main ride. What a great bike! It rides smooth as silk and very stable but it's still really responsive. Cool

Chas.

Gtane

Chas, this looks to be a very nice frame indeed. Top quality road frame and with the race number peg. Rare too in EL. I'm guessing the weight to be about 1.8kg. Lovely.

Congratulations on having the winning bid.

Looking forward to seeing the finished item in all its glory.

Tim

sandranian · Site Admin

Any luck finding anything that looks like it in the catalogues? I haven't really looked yet.

I don't know much about Columbus EL either. The only teams I am familiar with in the 1990's are the RMO squad and Toshiba, both of which used bikes that were painted differently than that bike. However, that is a really interesting frame, and I don't know how that made it past my radar screen completely undetected!

verktyg

Peter S. Horn

Chas.,
What a beaut! The color scheme is a real surprise, as it seems to be similar to the 1984 or 1986-87 Team Pros (Columbus SL and Reynolds 531P, respectively). I do think that your guess is an accurate one.

I requested and received a specification sheet (there was no catalogue available, thus no pictures) from Torsten at Provelo late 1990, delineating the 1990 program (Reynolds road frames, only) and a more extensive program for 1991, including the top model, the Replica Two, a Columbus EL equipped model, available either as a frameset only, or as a complete bike with a Campagnolo C Record groupset. I had noted some RMO team bikes (the Toshiba bikes were, I believe, Vitus equipped) in Velo magazine and elsewhere in much darker (almost black) team colors, therefore the surprise at your velo's lighter Renault/Systeme U like scheme!

However, the RMO bikes might have been a slightly different model. I noted that those bikes (TVT carbone models, aside) were lugless, TIG welded (probably Columbus Genius) models.

As an aside, whereas I was originally looking for a commuter bike (probably a Gitane-Cromor-Sachs model), Torsten advised me that he had a 1990 Reynolds Replica Two in my size, an opportunity not to be missed. Best luck with this great velo.
Best Regards,
Peter H.

Gtane

Chas, I would hazard a guess that it's a 'special division' frame.

There were many interesting changes in top columbus tubing during the early '90s such a Genius, Max, TSX (for a very limited time) and of course EL and EL OS. I suspect Columbus were live trialling various grades to see which would be best suited to certain conditions as many grades died out by the mid to late '90s. EL was without question a professional grade tubeset.

Here's a nice chart illustrating the various and wide ranging tubsets that Columbus used. Although there is no date against it, my guess would be mid '80s to mid '90s for the tubsets detailed. I'm sure you have seen this before and if you have any further date information, that would be much appreciated.

http://equusbicycle.com/bike/columbus/Columbus-tubes.jpg

Peter, so far as actual professional frames are concerned, could it be that Gitane produced frames on behalf of pro teams, perhaps RMO and Toshiba, badged in others details? I suppose it's so hard to know for sure unless we can make contact with someone who actually made the race frames but one does hear of rebadged frames or frames made by specific riders and teams that were not what they were supposed to be just going by the brands displayed on the machines.

There are some interesting points raised here. It's certainly got me thinking and searching. Those additional catalogues will be so important in pinning this down. Having said that, there's a 1999 catalogue for sale on Ebay right now and I've posted the link in the for sale section.

Tim

Peter S. Horn

Tim,
I have no facts on this either way, therefore I can only add one person's opinion to the discussion. As with most pro teams, Toshiba and RMO rode several frames; those being Gitane in 1990 and 1992, respectively. Some other velos ridden by the two teams include Basso and Look (Toshiba)and Liberia and Meral (RMO). I would highly doubt that the team Gitanes (particularly given the Machecoul factory's great racing tradition (the factory had a separate facility for building the team bikes)) would have been built by another manufacturer, or other team bikes built by Gitane.

We all know that some pro riders had bikes built by craftsmen other than such on said bikes' down tubes, etc., but in this case, in my opinion, this would be tantamount to master frame builders Srs. Ernesto Colnago and Giovanni Pinarello saying to a putative manufacturer: "Please build some team bikes for our teams; Rabbobank, Milram and Caisse d' Espargne".
Bienvenue,
Peter H.

Gtane