gitaneusa.com Forum Index » Vintage Gitane » My Gitane TdF!    View previous topic :: View next topic  My Gitane TdF!   Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 6:05 pm the70sbike Joined: 10 Apr 2007 Posts: 46 Location: San Diego, CA Hello, I just discovered the forums here. My thanks to Gitane USA for making this possible. I have a '73 (I think) Gitane Tour de France that I picked up a year or so ago on Ebay. I have long had an affection for Gitanes, as I worked in a shop that sold them as a teenager. I assembled lots Gitanes and did a lot of repair and maintenance, as well as selling a few. My TdF was in pretty good original shape with about 400 miles registered on the Lucas odometer. I cleaned and repacked everything, set aside the original tubular wheelset (with the Tipo upgrade) and built a set of clinchers with Tipo hubs. The bar tape is original, too. I love the special feel of the Gitane and enjoy riding it as often as I can. The TdF is the bike I would have bought back in the day if I could have.   Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 9:46 pm verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area Nice bike. I've never seen a metalic blue Gitane before 1975. Chas.   Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 6:52 am sandranian Site Admin Joined: 27 Feb 2006 Posts: 2701 Location: Southern California Very nice bike. It looks almost new in the picture. Hopefully you will be a regular contributor to the site! _________________ Stephan Andranian Costa Mesa, CA www.gitaneusa.com   Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 7:01 pm the70sbike Joined: 10 Apr 2007 Posts: 46 Location: San Diego, CA verktyg wrote: Nice bike. I've never seen a metalic blue Gitane before 1975. Chas. Thanks! It isn't really metallic, more like a candy apple type of finish. They used the same color on Gran Sport Deluxes back in my bike shop days and I always loved the color. It is faded just a bit but doesn't look too bad for being 30+ years old. I purchased it on Ebay with a local pickup here in San Diego. For some reason it had a Simplex Prestige red label derailleur on it rather than the appropriate Simplex Criterium. I found a replacement for that pretty quickly and am amazed how well old Delrin can shift. It also came with some odd Shimano barcon shifters, but one was missing a very odd screw so I replaced them with SunTours. I have since found the screw and will eventually put them back on. I have also found a used Super LJ derailleur, but will likely stick with the Criterium for now.   Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 7:04 pm the70sbike Joined: 10 Apr 2007 Posts: 46 Location: San Diego, CA sandranian wrote: Very nice bike. It looks almost new in the picture. Hopefully you will be a regular contributor to the site! Thank you! I suspect I will be learning more than I can contribute, but it is nice to be among Gitane afficianados. Lots of folks assume that French bikes are just Motos and Peugeots. Truth be told, I didn't even know what one was until I got the bike shop job. The owner started out selling Follis and then switched to Gitane.   Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 11:19 pm verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area the70sbike wrote: Truth be told, I didn't even know what one was until I got the bike shop job. The owner started out selling Follis and then switched to Gitane. My first modern 10 speed was an orange Gran Sport. Within 6 months I bought a 1971 Super Corsa that was too big for me. I paid about $150 for it. I later traded it in for 1972 Super Corsa that was my size. The 1972 was candy apple gold, a rare Gitane color. I took off all of the foil stickers except for the Gitane head and downtube logos. It was a clean machine. I started working at a bike shop when I was going to school in 1973. Within in a year I was running another shop. We sold Gitanes plus a lot of other obscure French makes like Stella, Liberia, VeloSolex and Andre Bertin bikes. One of the guys at our shop modified the Simplex dropout on his TdF to take a Campy rear derailleur. I think he ended up switching back to a Simplex Criterium because it shifted better. Simplex RDs would handle a 28T freewheel without any problems - in some cases even a 30T. They shifted pretty good if you kept them well oiled. The front derailleurs sucked. I had a way of bending the cages to get them to shift but they were always flaky. Simplex had a very rare front derailleur that the Super LJ models were patterned after. They worked well. BTW, most of the Follis bikes I saw were pretty nice.   Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 7:47 am the70sbike Joined: 10 Apr 2007 Posts: 46 Location: San Diego, CA I remember that candy apple gold color. We sold this couple a his and hers pair of Gitanes in that color. I think the Simplex Criterium shifts better than the Campy NR, too. I do have a Super LJ that I am going to try, but will probably stick with the Criterium.   Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 1:30 pm verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area the70sbike wrote: I remember that candy apple gold color. We sold this couple a his and hers pair of Gitanes in that color. I think the Simplex Criterium shifts better than the Campy NR, too. I do have a Super LJ that I am going to try, but will probably stick with the Criterium. The few gold Gitanes that I've seen had a bright yellow cast. Mine had a slightly greenish tinge like they were shooting turquoise just before and didn’t clean the gun out real good. After cleaning off most of the garish foil decals, it looked really great with light blue bar tape, cable housing, toe straps and matching Silca pump. I think that you will really like the SLJ derailleur. They shift like butter, especially with the Simplex Retro-Friction shift levers. Most of the time they will handle up to a 30T rear sprocket. Best part is there is no loud clunk like you get when you shift a Campy RDs to smaller sprockets. Chas.   Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 6:19 pm the70sbike Joined: 10 Apr 2007 Posts: 46 Location: San Diego, CA I don't have any Simplex Retrofriction shifters, but the TdF came with Shimano bar end shifters that had the counter spring in them like the Retrofriction shifters. I could not use them due to a missing screw, an odd thread pitch. I have since found a screw and will put them on and give them a try. I had seen plenty of different barcon shifters, but never these. 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