gitaneusa.com Forum Index » Vintage Gitane » 60`s Gitane?    View previous topic :: View next topic  60`s Gitane?   Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 6:21 am Holger Joined: 27 Feb 2008 Posts: 62 Location: Germany/Stuttgart Hello again, got a new old Gitane wich i bought for astronomical 15,50Euro at e-bay Germany. The bike is pretty original, as i first saw it i wasn`t sure if its pretty or ugly maybe both the candy red color and the white shifters made of plastic does it make look more a plastic toy than a steel made bicycle, but after dismantling all the parts and clean the Frame and Fork its beauty came trough. Found a hard paper card inside the seat tube on wich is written "BSA" maybe a souvenir from the craftman of Nantes? The former owner told me that his Dad was the first owner from new, but he sadly died 25 years ago, and the bike was hanging all the time in the garage. Frame Nr.: B28697 Parts: -MAFAC brakes -Nervar crankset -Cinelli Unicantor saddle -Simplex derailleurs and shifters (many white plastic parts!?) -Pivo stem -Normandy high flange hubs -Mavic sport tube rims -Huret brake cable clips -Christophe pedals wich Ideale Saddle would be the right one for this bike? (I dont like that brown Cinelli) thank you, best wishes from finally sunny germany, Holger Saddle   Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 11:46 am greyhundguy Joined: 09 Apr 2008 Posts: 678 Location: South-Central VIRGINIA Holger, From looking at the 60's catalog pages on this Site, an Ideale 43 might be the way to go. Can you find them easily in "sunny Germany"? Jay Virginia, USA _________________ Dance like nobody is watching.   Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 11:58 am Holger Joined: 27 Feb 2008 Posts: 62 Location: Germany/Stuttgart i dont know, i`ve never searched one before. thanks for your reply! Nice old Gitane   Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 7:02 pm verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area Holger, That's a nice old Gitane that you found. The white Simplex components are vary rare. Unfortunately the DuPont Delrin (nylon) plastic that they are made of doesn't age well and they tend to crack and break from exposure to the sun and oil. There is a chemical compound called Evaporust that will dissolve the rust from your steel components. It's available in the UK but I don't know about Germany. http://www.evaporust.com/index.html It's safe to use and wont damage paint or chrome plating. You can probably find an inexpensive replacement French headset the same as the one on your bike. Same thing with some of the rusted nuts and bolts. Extra fine steel wool (stahlwollen) can be used to remove some of the rust on your parts. Good luck, Chas. Evaporust   Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 7:45 am greyhundguy Joined: 09 Apr 2008 Posts: 678 Location: South-Central VIRGINIA Chas., Chas. wrote: Quote: There is a chemical compound called Evaporust that will dissolve the rust from your steel components. Does the Evaporust work better/faster than a Vinegar soak? Will it remove a corrosion haze from chrome? I Googled, it's not cheap but sounds like it is reusable. Jay _________________ Dance like nobody is watching. Evapo-rust ®   Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 10:50 am verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area Vinegar is dilute acetic acid. Evapo-Rust ® is a more complex compound. It works by dissolving iron oxide which is rust. What is left after treatment is a thin black layer of the carbon that was in the steel. It can be easily wiped off. The surface of the steel that was rusted is converted into a somewhat inert form of iron oxide that is resistant to rusting again. http://science.howstuffworks.com/question445.htm www.EvapoRust.com Evaopo-rust ® is reusable. It starts of as a clear yellow liquid and gets darker from use until it turns black when it's all used up. It has no effect on chrome plating, aluminum, paint or any other non rusted surface. Frequently rust grows under chrome plating which may flake off in places after the rust is dissolved with Evapo-rust ®. Here's some excerpts that I wrote in a cycling newgroup: http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Rec/rec.bicycles.tech/2007-08/msg02752.html This link shows before and after views: http://www.ece.ubc.ca/~gillies/raleigh/international/Carlton77.html BTW, I have no affiliation with Evapo-rust other that meeting the folks who make and distribute it, seeing it used in industrial settings and using it myself. Chas.   Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 12:15 pm greyhundguy Joined: 09 Apr 2008 Posts: 678 Location: South-Central VIRGINIA Well, you use it, it DOES NOT HAVE the "As seen on TV" logo, so I'll see if I can find some locally. Jay _________________ Dance like nobody is watching. Delrin Simplex   Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 1:47 pm greyhundguy Joined: 09 Apr 2008 Posts: 678 Location: South-Central VIRGINIA Holger, Can you post a close up/detailed photo of the front and rear derailleurs? I'm curious to see what they look like. Jay VA, USA _________________ Dance like nobody is watching. "plastic toy"   Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 7:58 pm greyhundguy Joined: 09 Apr 2008 Posts: 678 Location: South-Central VIRGINIA Holger, You may want to hold on to the Simplex shifters... Chas. Quote: The white Simplex components are vary rare. I ran across these tonight. Yours look like NEW compared to this offering on eBay http://cgi.ebay.com/Simplex-shifters-white-vintage-rough-condition_W0QQitemZ290242147915QQihZ019QQcategoryZ56197QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Jay VA USA _________________ Dance like nobody is watching.   Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 1:21 am Holger Joined: 27 Feb 2008 Posts: 62 Location: Germany/Stuttgart Hello,thanks for your messages, i`ve allready found a Selle Ideale and those white rubber bar ends on e-bay, all NOS. But the saddle cost nearly ten times more than the whole bike. The dealer is from Belgium and he got some french stuff. heres the link.: http://stores.ebay.de/WONDERCYCLES_W0QQsspagenameZADMEQ3aBQ3aEOIBSAQ3aDEQ3a45QQtZkm does anybody know how the bars on this epoche were covered. textile or plastic tape? Was the white plastic stuff used because they were cheap or because of their lightness? Bar tape   Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 5:04 am greyhundguy Joined: 09 Apr 2008 Posts: 678 Location: South-Central VIRGINIA Holger, Bar tape can be your personal expression. Use what you like. It is not expensive and can be changed easily. Velox, Tressostar, and Tressorex are French tapes and come in many colors. Black is a traditional color but Yellow, Red or White might look good also. It looks like Red was under the Blue in your photos. Then you have Cork, Synthetics, and Leather, are you confused yet? 84 degrees Hot in Virginia @ 9:03 AM Jay _________________ Dance like nobody is watching.   Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:18 am verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area Holger wrote: Hello,thanks for your messages, i`ve allready found a Selle Ideale and those white rubber bar ends on e-bay, all NOS. But the saddle cost nearly ten times more than the whole bike. The dealer is from Belgium and he got some french stuff. does anybody know how the bars on this epoche were covered. textile or plastic tape? Was the white plastic stuff used because they were cheap or because of their lightness? Holger, Look around on eBay some more. Check out French, UK and US eBay. The Belgian sellers usually have good things for sale but their prices are generally high for classic French components because the Japanese collectors run the prices up. From the late 1960s until at least the mid 1970s Gitane racing and other higher end models usually had white cloth handle bar tape that had to be installed during assembly. Less expensive models had white plastic tape which was installed at the factory. Sometimes the color was black and some white Tour de France bikes came with light blue cloth tape. Plastic was the rage in that era. All kinds of products that were formerly made of wood or metal where being produced in plastic. Lucien Juy the founder of Simplex fell in love with DuPont Delrin plastic, which was an improved version of nylon. Molded Delrin plastic components saved a lot of money over cast or stamped metal parts because they required little or no machining before assembly. Unfortunately what was originally an innovation ended up contributing to the downfall of the French bicycle industry. Plastic items quickly became synonymous with "CHEAP". My suggestion would be to save the original white Simplex components and find a set of newer Simplex Prestige derailleurs. There were millions of those produced. Use Prestige components if you want to keep the bike somewhat period correct. They work OK if kept well lubricated. The Simplex rear derailleurs actually worked better than Campy derailleurs! Chas. 60`s Gitane?     gitaneusa.com Forum Index » Vintage Gitane You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum All times are GMT - 8 Hours   Page 1 of 1   All Posts1 Day7 Days2 Weeks1 Month3 Months6 Months1 Year Oldest FirstNewest First  Select a forum Gitane USA----------------Vintage GitaneGitane RacingModern GitanePro Racing - Classics/Giro/Tour....Owner Gallery   Powered by phpBB © 2001-2004 phpBB Group Designed for Trushkin.net | Themes Database.