gitaneusa.com :: View topic

lofter

here it is , i need a wolber 650c tubular for the front if anybody knows where one is at.

notice how when they made this into a show bike that they molded the piece that attaches the wing to the piece that attaches to the fork.

this is a unmolded piece im refering to

trois tubes

That's very cool !!!

gmany

I don't think I've seen pics of a chromed delta before. Seems to have always been the painted ones, though I think I've mostly seen pics of the road bikes, not track bikes.

Do you think this one was painted before and was chromed to become, as you put it, a show bike or do you think it was always chromed? Chroming would take a ton of work after the fact.

lofter

heres my guess and just a guess no facts for sure to back it up , when i bought this bike the guy i bought it from said his dad owned it , ran a bike shop , a gitane dealer, he said (the dad)that this bike had a record or a medal associated to it . ive researched it alot . looked thru all the records and worlds and olympics. the only thing i came up with was the 84 olympics. the pics kinda do a diservice to it , its bronze chrome. in the olympics that year france won a bronze on the track in the 1000 m timetrial. fabrice colas .
ive never seen where the track bikes were availible to the public . we've seen the road version in a catalog but not the track version. this frame has a serial # on the bb , and also the number 103 stamped on the bb too . i was playing around with it and took the front rim off of it and on the underside of the fork was the #103 stamped again . im hoping its the bronze medal bike . why would they chrome bronze a reg bike to show? this bike was stashed away for 20 plus years at his shop. the bike frabrice rode , ive seen a pic ,was the team gitane blue .but after he won the bronze did they make a show bike out of it? it was frances only medal in cycling that olympics.
for me i would have kept the bike original , but thats me. so i dont have a answer for you . i too think they put a ton of work into it . frabrice had a facebook account so i emailed him , no reply then the account was taken down , theres another but no pic like the first account had. atheletes usually dont get to keep bikes of this statue , the sponsors get them to "show" off pun intended. the decals are not original to it you can see where there are faded traces of where the original bubble decals of 83-84 are at . they slapped these decals on it . its definately a one of a kind. i chased this bike for five years .

adam_b83

its was well worth the chase. what a find!

Frenchbuilt

What an exciting bike!

No stickers, no thick high tech tubes, just simple.

Believe it of not, some of my designers are working for Cycleurope and on Gitane projects (electric). I have sent them the pictures of your bike for
"inspiration"

Nice house and cat.

Dan