gitaneusa.com :: View topic

greyhundguy

Any list members in the Windy City? NOS Mixte

http://chicago.craigslist.org/wcl/bik/830674968.html

Jay

Gtane

This is a great item. Thanks for the post, Jay.

A lovely machine in that original condition and state. I wonder if there's a warehouse somewhere with piles of Gitanes in pre-showroom condition?

Tim

verktyg

In the late 1970s nice mid range European bikes were getting hard to find here in the US. By that time Gitane was out of the picture but there were Peugeots (Yuk), Motobecanes, and Raleighs, Their mid range bikes were designed for looks not performance. We imported Bertin bikes from France built to our specs but between shipments we ran low on bikes to sell.

Most of the other makes that were readily available were from Japan or Taiwan. There was still some resistance to Japanese made bikes plus they hadn't fine tuned the frame geometry on most of the models so they tended to handle like wheelbarrows! They had great components on beautifully painted bikes made with heavy gage "gas pipe" tubing!

Our focus was on mid to high range European bikes for the commuter, tourist and club rider set. We didn't cater much to the local racers (they never had any money plus they were slaves to the latest fads).

We contacted all of the bike importers and wholesale distributors for old Bike Boom era bikes that they may have had leftover in their warehouses.

They were happy to get rid of their dead stock and we were able to buy their old inventory at a great price. We where more interested in how the bikes rode than how they were equipped. If you had a good frame and wheels, you could upgrade the rest of the components later.

Sometimes we bought a "pig in a poke". The bikes were in boxes that were falling apart or were damaged from prior shipping. We were lucky most of the time and came up with some little known French brands like Velo-Solex, Stella, Liberia plus some Italian bikes.

Chas.