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Donation Bike (1972 Orange TDF) 
PostPosted: Sat May 12, 2007 12:32 pm Reply with quote
SilentGTboy
Joined: 12 May 2007
Posts: 13
Location: Plant City, Fl
I work at a bike shop out in Tampa, Fl and a man brought this bike in as a donation. The paint was covered in black grease and everything chrome was covered in a brown tar, derailleur, cranks and everything was covered. He was the original owner, with all the original components. I've been cycling for 3 years and racing for 1.5 years and being 19 and a new cyclist, any bike 5+ years old seemed junkie and outdated. I was excited to clean this bike mainly because of all the campy, but it was a pleasant surprise how little actually changed over the years. What? The bike has cartridge brake pads, replaceable chain rings, tubular tires, and these hubs spin nicer than my own race wheels?! This bike was truly an amazing eye opener for me!

Such a beautiful bike!



MAFAC "COMPETITION" Brakes & Cartridge Pads (Italian replacement tires)



Hutchinson SuperSprint Tubular Tires MADE IN ITALY. Hutchinson tires are made in France



Campagnolo Record Nuovo (Patent 1972)



Fork right side sticker



Mavic Montlery Made in France stamped on the tubular rim



Downtube Decal



Top Tube Decal



Pivo Stem which should clean up nice & shiney. The half thats in the frame is a nice silver color.



Headtube Decal



Now does this bike come with a pump or could that be an accessory at the time of purchase?



Freccia D'oro Plastic Saddle with an tension nut under the nose.



Bottom bracket: Stronglight cranks, Campagnolo front derailluer and cable guide.



Campagnolo shifters, MAFAC brakes, Stronglight headset, Campagnolo hubs, Mavic rims



This derailleur hanger is held on by the quick release.



Campagnolo Hubs



Beautiful white brake cable housing.



Clean brake hoods and black cloth tape.




This bike is amazing to me and it's been real fun going through and cleaning it so far. I have relaced the front wheel with new spokes and the back wheel will get the same. The hubs are amazingly light! I will eventually strip the whole bike. There are small rust flakes that come off with ease when you scratch it. I am looking forward to deep cleaning everything and making it look like new!


Last edited by SilentGTboy on Sat May 12, 2007 9:39 pm; edited 2 times in total
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PostPosted: Sat May 12, 2007 1:10 pm Reply with quote
verktyg
Joined: 14 Jan 2007
Posts: 2814
Location: SF Bay Area
Looks great. I'm looking for an early 70s orange TdF or Super Corsa myself.

My first Gitane a 1972 Gran Sport was that color. As soon as I walked into the bike shop I said "I want that one....".

Yours is probably a 1971 to 1973 Tour de France that looks like it has the all the original components except for the Simplex Criterium derailleurs.

Some of the earlier models had Normandy Luxe hubs and later TdFs came with Sugino cranks because of a shortage of Stronglight cranks at the height of the bike boom in 1973.

It's too bad that the clumsy butcher that installed the Campy derailleurs cut off the Simplex gear hanger. We modified a lot of these to take Campy rear derailleurs. We had to do a little filing on the dropout and thread the hanger hole. Simple job, 20 minutes!

These bikes had the classic 72° parallel road racing frame geometry and medium length wheel base that made them stable and comfortable to ride all day long.

Chas.
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PostPosted: Sat May 12, 2007 1:21 pm Reply with quote
verktyg
Joined: 14 Jan 2007
Posts: 2814
Location: SF Bay Area
One other thing that I forgot to mention, if you plan on doing any serious riding, get a new stem and bars. The Pivo stems and other French cast aluminum stems from that era were notorious for breaking.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/velos.html#stem

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/french.html#stems

Chas.
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PostPosted: Sun May 13, 2007 7:42 am Reply with quote
the70sbike
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Posts: 46
Location: San Diego, CA
Very nice find! I am glad you appreciate it for what it is. It is a shame that someone cut off the bottom of the drop out, but with an adapter claw you can use pretty much any derailleur you want.

I used to have a Gran Sport De Luxe in that color, at least before the rust took it over.

If you don't know, be aware that the Stronglight crank requires its own special puller. The puller for the TA crank looks like it will work, but won't. Please make sure you have the right one before you remove the crank set!

Here is quote from Sheldon Brown's site: "Older French cotterless cranks used different threading for the crank extractor. In particular, older TA and Stronglight cranks each had their own unique thread for this purpose, and you will need to get the correct puller for the crank you are working on. TA used a 23 mm extractor, Stronglight used 23.35 mm until 1982, when they converted to the standard 22mm diameter."

Best of luck with your ride and enjoy it!
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PostPosted: Sun May 13, 2007 9:18 am Reply with quote
SilentGTboy
Joined: 12 May 2007
Posts: 13
Location: Plant City, Fl
Blah! Well, how hard would it be to find that 23.35 mm thread crank puller?
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PostPosted: Sun May 13, 2007 10:45 am Reply with quote
the70sbike
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Posts: 46
Location: San Diego, CA
SilentGTboy wrote:
Blah! Well, how hard would it be to find that 23.35 mm thread crank puller?


Depends on how much you are willing to pay. I needed one pretty fast and paid top dollar. The J.A. Stein model was out of stock when I needed one, I bought a NOS one.

Here is the Stein: http://www.velo-orange.com/jast23stcrpu.html

Welcome to the wonderful world of French bikes. Nothing is standard but we love them anyway!

You can always check local bike shops to see if anyone still has this tool and have them pull the crank.

Good luck!
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PostPosted: Sun May 13, 2007 3:38 pm Reply with quote
SilentGTboy
Joined: 12 May 2007
Posts: 13
Location: Plant City, Fl
The chrome on the bike is perfect, rubbed it down with some aluminum foil and any little specs of rust came right off. I'll have a decal set for the bike in a month, and a redo of the Orange Corsa/ Sport Orange paint job and gold trim around the lugs. The only hard part is going to be sitting for a couple hours with each wheel scraping off 35 year old glue.
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PostPosted: Sun May 13, 2007 4:06 pm Reply with quote
verktyg
Joined: 14 Jan 2007
Posts: 2814
Location: SF Bay Area
SilentGTboy wrote:
The only hard part is going to be sitting for a couple hours with each wheel scraping off 35 year old glue.


Paint remover works great. Be careful of the logo labels on the rims it will take them off too.

Chas.
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PostPosted: Thu May 31, 2007 8:28 am Reply with quote
SherryB
Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 1
Location: British Columbia, Canada
*Ack* Now I'm really having pangs of nostalgia. My TdF was originally orange. I bought it new in 1977. I eventually grew bored of the orange, and repainted it blue in about 1996. Now I kinda wish I hadn't. I guess the older I get, the more I value originality in vintage bikes; when I look at this lovely orange TdF, it takes me right back to the day I bought mine. I love the colour my TdF is now, but a large part of me wants to have the orange back. It's going to be a tough decision.
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 5:48 pm Reply with quote
Schecky
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Posts: 5
Location: OC
Very nice. Donated vintage Campy. I'm sure there are a few drools of jealousy out there.
Orange bikes rule. http://www.gitaneusa.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=73

Are you guys sure that the dropout was cut?
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 12:06 am Reply with quote
verktyg
Joined: 14 Jan 2007
Posts: 2814
Location: SF Bay Area
Schecky wrote:
http://www.gitaneusa.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=73 Are you guys sure that the dropout was cut?


The single speed bike in the link above has the older, pre 1970 Simplex economy rear dropouts that didn't have an integral derailleur hanger. Notice the word Simplex is in front of the axle.

The bike with the Campy derailleurs pictured in this thread has the newer dropouts with Simplex under the fender eyelet. You can't see it on this bike because it's covered by the removable Campy hanger. It looks like someone cut off the Simplex derailleur hanger on this bike.

Campy first brought out their dropouts with an integral derailleur hanger in 1951. The advantage of having a derailleur attached directly to the dropout becomes clear after you had a derailleur falls off when you're trying to remove the rear wheel; you are holding the bike in one hand and the wheel in the other, the chain twists around the freewheel, the wind is blowing dust, it's cold, the chain is greasy and so on.

The cost of adding rear dropouts with a derailleur hanger only add a few dollars to the cost of bike but most of the manufacturers were notoriously cheap.

Chas.
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 4:17 pm Reply with quote
c.vanscoyk
Joined: 27 Jun 2006
Posts: 2
Location: Ankeny, IA
Hey, nice bike. Looks like it got very few miles over the decades. I thought there would be Reynolds 531 on it somewhere.
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 8:42 am Reply with quote
sandranian
Site Admin
Joined: 27 Feb 2006
Posts: 2701
Location: Southern California
{I thought there would be Reynolds 531 on it somewhere.}

There appears to be one under the pump peg on the seat tube. The 531 decals are notoriously fragile and don't stand up well over time. You can see that the one on this bike is in bad shape. Otherwise, a beautiful orange bike....

How well does that derailleur hanger work? I wouldn't be that comfortable with it being held on by a quick release - but then I guess it can hold the wheel under pressure from the drivetrain, so why wouldn't it be able to hold a derailleur???

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Stephan Andranian
Costa Mesa, CA
www.gitaneusa.com
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 12:24 pm Reply with quote
SilentGTboy
Joined: 12 May 2007
Posts: 13
Location: Plant City, Fl
The rear derailluer hanger was missing a bolt and brace which keeps it in place.

I spy two bikes with record in that picture.
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 8:12 am Reply with quote
SilentGTboy
Joined: 12 May 2007
Posts: 13
Location: Plant City, Fl
If I were to replace the pivo stem on that bike with a safer French size stem from '72, what are my options?
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Donation Bike (1972 Orange TDF) 
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