gitaneusa.com Forum Index » Owner Gallery » Stephan's 1976    View previous topic :: View next topic  Stephan's 1976   Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 3:44 pm sandranian Site Admin Joined: 27 Feb 2006 Posts: 2701 Location: Southern California Thanks Wisey! Courtesy of our friend in Australia...now in the USA. Last edited by sandranian on Mon May 04, 2009 11:34 am; edited 1 time in total _________________ Stephan Andranian Costa Mesa, CA www.gitaneusa.com Sewups   Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 10:20 pm verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area Stephan, I see that you have some REAL tires on this one.... Chas.   Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 2:14 am Gtane Joined: 14 Sep 2007 Posts: 681 Location: UK I really like this machine Stephan. So stylish. It's the long stem and shallow drop bars that really set it off. What a find. _________________ Everything has a cycle Re: Stephan's 1976   Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 6:15 pm edorwart Joined: 23 Sep 2009 Posts: 50 Location: Bucks County, PA sandranian wrote: Thanks Wisey! Courtesy of our friend in Australia...now in the USA. Any chance you can post a few more pictures of this bike? Thanks! Re: Stephan's 1976   Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 7:58 pm verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area edorwart wrote: Any chance you can post a few more pictures of this bike? I'm the current owner of this frame. When I get it built back up - all French - I'll post pictures. Chas. Re: Stephan's 1976   Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 4:56 am edorwart Joined: 23 Sep 2009 Posts: 50 Location: Bucks County, PA verktyg wrote: edorwart wrote: Any chance you can post a few more pictures of this bike? I'm the current owner of this frame. When I get it built back up - all French - I'll post pictures. Chas. Hi Chas, Does this bike have "cut out" lugs like my frame and does it have the "trademark" Reynolds decals of the older style like mine? Thanks, Erik Re: Stephan's 1976   Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 11:40 am verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area edorwart wrote: Hi Chas, Does this bike have "cut out" lugs like my frame and does it have the "trademark" Reynolds decals of the older style like mine? Erik, The 1974-75 Tour de France frame that I got from Stephan has long point Prugnat "S" type lugs with factory stamped cutouts. Lug manufacturers were just starting to provide pre-cutout lugs about 1974-75. Initially they were only used on top of the line bikes because the cutouts can create problems during the brazing operations (the points of the lugs get hotter than the rest of the area and tend to lift off the tubes). Cutting out lugs by hand is a tedious job that's usually only done by custom builders not production manufacturers. The US frame builder Albert Eisentraut had a small press built to stamp out the cutouts in his lugs. Only the 3 main tubes on this frame are made of Reynolds 531 tubing as indicated by the decal "3 TUBES RENFORCES". Reynolds started providing decals with the words "REYNOLDS TUBE CO. LTD" in the gold box in 1974. After carefully going over the older French catalogs and other info I think that your frame is most likely a 1974 European model CHAMPION DU MONDE rather than an OLYMPIC or SUPER OLYMPIC model. The main reasons for this conclusion, is that it came with Stronglight 93 cranks and a Stronglight P3 headset. The OLYMPIC or SUPER OLYMPIC models used Campagnolo headsets which have a stack height of 43mm versus the Stronglight P3 at 33mm so your steering tube is 10mm shorter. So while the frames are probably identical between these 3 models, the CHAMPION DU MONDE used a different fork. My shop experience with Gitanes lasted from 1973 until about 1977. By mid 1975 we pretty much stopped dealing with Gitane Pacific because they only offered a few models plus they had poor inventory (also they were priced out of the market). The 1970 US Gitane catalog (in the catalog section of the website) was current until mid 1974 and featured most of the foil decal models that were imported into the US during those years. Mel Pinto was the Gitane importer at that time. Until I discovered this website I wasn't aware of the details of any non US Gitane models from that era. I remember the 1975 and 1976 brochures. They had very reduced offerings. The 1975 brochure focused on entry level models while the 1976 brochure showed the Interclub as the top model (plus the made in Taiwan 38 Lbs. Gypsy Sport). I recall seeing 1 page flyers for the Tour de France models. In 1975 and 76 we brought in a few TdFs plus an Interclub or two. Gitane Pacific could have offered a few different models in the California market but they weren't wide spread or promoted. The lugs on you bike are Bocama Professional Long Point Lugs with mechanically stamped cutouts. Your frame had very rare, intact pre 1974 Reynolds 531 water slide decals. In 1974 Gitane started putting the frame decals on the down tube instead of the top of the seat tube where they frequently got damaged from bike stands. They also started using the new style decals that Reynolds provided which were considered very ugly in those days. In a private email you sent me some info on Reynolds decals that someone from Reynolds sent you. As I mentioned in my email back to you, "whoever sent that junks was probably at best, 'Pissin' in Pampers' (or 'nappys' as the Brits would say) if they were even more than a gleam in their daddy's eye when those 70s era decals were in use!" Here's a link to some of the many variations of Reynolds decals plus lots of Reynolds literature. It's pretty accurate time wise except for the 1974 Interclub which shoudl be labeled 1976: http://www.ece.ubc.ca/~gillies/reynolds/ I think that many of the currently available reproduction Reynolds decals and made from previous reproductions not originals. Have fun with your restoration. Chas. Stephan's 1976     gitaneusa.com Forum Index » Owner Gallery You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum All times are GMT - 8 Hours   Page 1 of 1   All Posts1 Day7 Days2 Weeks1 Month3 Months6 Months1 Year Oldest FirstNewest First  Select a forum Gitane USA----------------Vintage GitaneGitane RacingModern GitanePro Racing - Classics/Giro/Tour....Owner Gallery   Powered by phpBB © 2001-2004 phpBB Group Designed for Trushkin.net | Themes Database.