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my new Gitane tandem 
PostPosted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 8:15 pm Reply with quote
Steve Mac
Joined: 19 Jul 2006
Posts: 5
Location: Davis, California
Just got this tandem, which I was told was circa 1990:

http://www.pbase.com/g2_steve/gitane_tandem

Based on research I've done on this and other web sites, I'm stilll unsure what model this is. The decals say Gitane, but no model name or number that I can find. The frame is Reynolds 531, the stoker top tub is horizontal rather than sloped, it has a 7-cog cluster (probably not a cassette), Shimano derailleurs and bar end shifters, decent wheels, saddles in good condition, TA cranks, and ... the large chainring has 57 teeth! I forgot the pedal manufacturer, but they appear to be a copy of older Campy pedals like the ones I used to ride on my Cinelli Super Corsa. The bike has one of the legendary Cateye solar computers, but I'm not sure it works.

They guy I got this from purchased it around 1991 and he said it was about a year old at the time. He and his wife rode it for a few months, after which they went to single road bikes and this went to the back of the garage. The bike was originally sold by a bike shop in San Francisco, and the shop's decal is on the frame.

I'll be repacking all bearings, cleaning and lubricating chains, installing new brake covers and pads, new bar tape, new tires and tubes, etc. this coming weekend and post more pics. I'd appreciate any advice anyone has, including observations about model name and year.

If you can't wait to follow the link to my pics, here is one below.
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 20, 2006 4:45 am Reply with quote
sandranian
Site Admin
Joined: 27 Feb 2006
Posts: 2701
Location: Southern California
Nice tandem!

The previous owner was off by just over 10 years. That is a 1978 Gitane...the model name is unknown, but clearly a quality bicycle. That would have been the top of the line tandem offered.

As for the name, Gitane called their mid range tandem the "Rallye", but this one is of higher quality than the ones pictured in the catalogues.

Thank you for sharing the pics. I am trying to gather as much information about Gitane Tandems as possible. I don't know very much about them, but I would like to add a page to the website about them...but need all of the information I can get!

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Stephan Andranian
Costa Mesa, CA
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Still unsure of year 
PostPosted: Thu Jul 20, 2006 5:35 am Reply with quote
Steve Mac
Joined: 19 Jul 2006
Posts: 5
Location: Davis, California
Thanks much for the reply! I checked the catalogs again, and it appears that the shift from front to rear location for the chain rings was in the mid-1980s -- perhaps making this a newer bike. The 1978 catalog shows the larger crankset and chain rings on the front, and a long chain to the rear with an idler pully that I don't have.

The front hub is Campy and the rear is Specialized, as is the stem. This weekend I'll find the serial number and report on that and other details. I may also contact the SF bike shop, if it still exists.

Time will tell if I keep this bike in original equipment -- if that's what I have right now. The saddles are obviously newer. I've never seen this design of Shimano cantilever brakes -- reminds me of the old Mafac Driver brakes I had on a Gitane single bike I owned in 1967. Could not find replacement Shimano pads for the pad holders.

All for now ...

Steve
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 20, 2006 12:02 pm Reply with quote
sandranian
Site Admin
Joined: 27 Feb 2006
Posts: 2701
Location: Southern California
The tandems in the 1978 catalogue are of lesser quality. I can pretty much guarantee that your bike was not made past 1980...at least the frame. When the parts were put on is anyone's guess, but the frame is definitely 1980 or earlier. The decals, coupled with the Reynolds decals, are all 1970's vintage.

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Costa Mesa, CA
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More on the Gitane tandem 
PostPosted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 6:44 pm Reply with quote
Steve Mac
Joined: 19 Jul 2006
Posts: 5
Location: Davis, California
Based on a bit more research, I am inclined to conclude that it is a circa 1978 model, although it is still hard to tell. The decal style seems to confirm it, as does the existence of the unused idler pulley bracket. It may be that a prior owner moved the front derailleur and chain ring cranks back to the stoker position, although interestingly there are also cable routing brackets welded to the frame that are designed to route the front derailleur cable to the stoker position. Maybe this model was built to accomodate either position? Weird!

I've replaced tires, tubes, brake pads, front brake handle covers, repacked bearings, installed new bar tape and greased and adjusted all cables. Chains and cluster seem to be in very good shape, and are well-lubed. I removed the stoker brake handle dummys. They were apparently intended to be an additional hand rest for the stoker, but are in the way of the captain's legs.

Based on the descriptions in the 1978 French catalog, this might be an Audax 1716, described as Version double homme du modele TRANSALP, which itself is described as having a Reynolds 531 frame but with an avant homme, arriere, dame type torpille. You get the picture. The three tandem pictures in this catalog show the triple in the front rather than stoker position.

I will post updated pictures to my photo web site this weekend, including details of the brakes, cranks, decals, etc. I suspect the combination of Sun Tour, Shimano, Specialized, TTT and TA parts is an indication that this is not all original equipment! But it sure looks cool and rides well.

Steve 'Twisted Evil'
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Gitane replaced 
PostPosted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 7:17 am Reply with quote
Steve Mac
Joined: 19 Jul 2006
Posts: 5
Location: Davis, California
Several months after this post the Gitane was gone to a new home with a couple of graduate students at UC Davis. It was replaced by a new Co-Motion Speedster. We credited the Gitane for getting us active into tandeming, but glad to have more modern equipment -- particularly a tandem frame that does not "go around the corner one rider at a time".
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so long, farewell....... 
PostPosted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 2:01 am Reply with quote
Paul Wiseman
Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 584
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Sorry to see the gitane has moved on. Great that it brought you into this wonderful sport though. Please stop in and say hi and let us know where your tandem travels take you. And tell those grad students to look us up and tell us what hijinks they get up to on their new gitane tandem. Ahhh, I remember the student days, riding home ay 3am, after a big night....................... Wink

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Wisey
Brisbane, Australia
1974 Paris - Nice
1985 Defi
1985 Victoire
1985 Victoire (yes, another one!)
1985 Professionnel
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Tandem web site 
PostPosted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 7:17 am Reply with quote
Steve Mac
Joined: 19 Jul 2006
Posts: 5
Location: Davis, California
Paul -- I may not visit this Gitane web site very often, but hang out regularly at:

http://www.bikeforums.net/forumdisplay.php?forumid=44

This is the bike forums tandem web site. We have about 200 miles on our Speedster, buying it just in time for the cold, wet weather in northern California. The Co-Mo is a great fit with our single bikes: Cannondale Synapse 10-speed Ultegra and Cannondale R1000 Ultegra 9-speed. Although I love old bikes, there is nothing better than modern index shifting -- but I sill miss my all-Campy 1966 Cinelli Super Corsa....

Steve
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 1:09 am Reply with quote
verktyg
Joined: 14 Jan 2007
Posts: 2814
Location: SF Bay Area
Gitane made several models of tandems in the early 1970s.

The lower priced model was equipped pretty much like a standard Grand Sport with a low carbon steel frame and triple steel cranks. I think that they had Mafac cantilever brakes. They weighed about 50 lbs. They were available man/man or man/mixte in 3 sizes in the catalog.

The top model came with a Reynolds 531 frame, Campy hubs and some other Campy components. It had TA Triple Cyclotouriste cranks with crossover drive. It weighed about 40 Lbs.

A friend had one of these tandems. He built special front and rear derailleur cages for use with quad front chainrings with 60 to 26 teeth sprockets and a 13 to 30 tooth 6 sprocket freewheel.

I rode with him in a century one time as the stoker. We had a great time riding in the pack with the fastest racers in the crowd. I'd look over my shoulder and the peleton was drafting off of us. They dropped us bad on the hills but we would reel them back in on the way back down. We were spinning out 60 - 13 gears and they'd try to jump on our wheel.

I think that these were available man/man and man/mixte in 3 sizes too.

Chas.
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 1:36 pm Reply with quote
Eric Amlie
Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 4
Location: Madison WI
Chas., you seem to know a bunch about bikes. Maybe you can answer a question for me.

Whenever I hear of a quad crankset, it is always associated with a tandem. What is it about tandems that makes the quad more useful or useable on them than a solo bike. Is it just that the tandem can use higher ratios due to the two "engines", or are the chain stays longer making the cross chaining less severe? Question
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 8:39 pm Reply with quote
verktyg
Joined: 14 Jan 2007
Posts: 2814
Location: SF Bay Area
The quad crankset had 4 chainrings. It required a special bottom bracket spindle. My friend was a machinist so he was able to make a lot of custom bike parts.

The benefit of 4 chainrings was that it allowed for more even shifts between the super high 60 tooth sprocket and the super low 26 tooth sprocket.

The 60/13 combination was 120" gearing vs. the standard 52/14 which was 100" gearing (27" x 1 1/4" tires).

On a long downhill or with a good tailwind it was easy to "spin out" 100" gearing when both riders were pedaling at over 90 RPM.

When you reach your maximum pedaling RPM, you start bouncing on the seat and loose efficiency and that's where you "spin out".

We could spin out 120" with the tandem. Some other friends had their tandem over 60 MPH on a long downhill run. They said that it was just like riding a motorcycle.

I hope that answers your question.

Chas.
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 20, 2007 6:49 am Reply with quote
Eric Amlie
Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 4
Location: Madison WI
Thanks Chas.
Let me see if I have this right.
Because of the two "engines" powering the tandem, it can use a significantly higher top gear resulting in a wider overall range. The quad crankset covers this expanded range with closer steps between ratios. This is simply not necessary on a solo bike because of the narrower overall range. A quad on this narrower range would result in steps that are too close together to be practically useful(assuming you could even set it up for relatively even steps).

So how was the quad set up? My guess would be half step plus granny and "superman" gears. Crossover gearing would skip too many gears to provide the small steps I think(assuming you are avoiding severe cross chaining), and anything else would result in an overly complicated shift sequence.

Thanks for your thoughts.
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 12:56 am Reply with quote
verktyg
Joined: 14 Jan 2007
Posts: 2814
Location: SF Bay Area
Under normal circumstances not too many solo riders can push 60/13 gears. With 2 strong riders on a tandem going downhill or with a good tailwind it's not too hard to spin gears that high.

Most average riders don't pedal at a cadence much faster than 50-60 RPM. Many pros and advanced amateurs can run at 120 RPM. I used to run a cadence of 90 RPM when I was in my peak about 30 some years ago. I'm now riding at 60-70 RPM most of the time.

If you are not conditioned to pedal at higher RPMs there is a tendency to bounce on the seat.

One of the purposes of multiple speed derailleur gearing is to maintain an effective cadence over varying terrain and wind conditions. Low gears are designed for climbing so maintaining cadence isn't important when trying to get up a hill.

My buddy was a gear freak. He had a cheat sheet on his stem. I never tried to figure out what he was doing. He would yell shift and that meant let up on pedaling while he was doing his thing. He had Suntour Bar End Shifters. This was way before index shifting and good derailleurs, chains and freewheels.

With today’s freehubs a triple with a 7, 8 or 9 sprocket cassette should eliminate the need for quad chainrings. I wouldn't recommend a 9 or 10 speed chain or 10 speed cassette on a tandem. Strong single riders break these skinny chains regularly. Also, I would only plan on running on 4 or 5 rear cogs with each of the chainrings - avoid extreme crossovers.

I've used 1/2 step gearing with doubles and tripples (1/2 step with a granny gear) on 5 or 6 speed freewheels for many years. Now that I have a few 7 speed freehub and freewheel bikes, I've changed my thinking about that. Blame it on mountain bikes!

My suggestion would be to set your gearing up so that it's easy and enjoyable to use. Don't expect to have every gear combo to work, you will have a lot of overlaps.

I have tripples with 7 speed rears on my 2 old mountain bikes. My old touring bike has a tripple with 1/2 step gearing and a granny gear with a 6 speed freewheel. This past summer I built up a retro road bike with a Shimano Deore XT MTB crankset with 48/38/28 sprockets and a 7 speed 12-28 freehub. I find that I ride on the middle chainring much of the time. I go the the big one for tailwinds or downhill and the granny gear for climbing.

I've found that I can handle bigger jumps at low speeds in low gears. I like closer gearing in the 50-80 inch range and I can handle big jumps at the high end because I'm usually going down hill in those gears.

Chas.
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my new Gitane tandem 
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