gitaneusa.com Forum Index » Owner Gallery » '72 TdF Gitane    View previous topic :: View next topic    Rust bucket or Potential Diamond(small one) rust bucket  0%  [ 0 ] potential diamond(a small one)  100%  [ 5 ] Total Votes : 5 '72 TdF Gitane   Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2008 2:22 pm Squadra1 Joined: 28 Sep 2008 Posts: 5 Location: Washington State Glad I (my wife) found this forum. I feel welcome already. From reading yur posts I feel at home with my bike brother nerds. Good to be with you all. I found this '72? TdF on Sunday for $20. I'm including a lot of pics for your info and to establish myself and machine. I am a bike tech by profession but restoring/preserving an old machine is new to me so I need some help. This bike was made before I was born. I would like help mainly with finding new old parts and preserving the metals. Solutions, sprays, tricks you all know, I would like to hear it. I've wiped down the frame and wheels loosly and need to inhibit the rust to the best of my ability. The RD pulleys have grown brittle and shattered(see pic). The FD is new era shimano. I would like to find Simplex replacements to match the era. Replacing the pulleys with modern compatible ones is a possibility. I would like to switch the stem with a longer one. I don't need original just the same era all the way around. My goal is to preserve and ride it on nice days to stay in touch with the past so I will appreciate the continued evolution of the industry. And for a personal tribute to the country that is so pivotal in the history of the machines we love and adore. Sorry, to sentimental for a newcomer. Check out the pics and share your opinions. I think it is a 1972 because of the stamp on the head tube, left side. I don't know the code for the numbers on the left rear dropout. The RD has a stamp of 72 on it as well though I've learned that won't necessarily correspond with the production year of the bike. Any tricks for preserving the paint? Click pics to enlarge. Thanks bike brothers. Diamond in the not so rough   Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2008 9:12 pm verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area Squadra1 Welcome to the group. Nice find. I paid $200 for a similar late 60s Tour de France last December. It looks just about all original except for the old Wright leather seat, Shimano front derailleur and more modern stem which appears to be a Cinelli. Judging from the Bocama lugs and Sugino Mighty Competition crankset your bike is probably a 1972 or 73 model. Earlier models had Prugant long point lugs and Stronglight 93 cranksets. Prugnat Lugs Stronglight 93 cranks The 72 stamped into the top head tube lug designates the head angle not the year of manufacturer. You'll probably find another 72 stamped into the seat tube lug and also a 61 or similar number stamped into the bottom head tube lug. The serial numbers used by Gitane seem to be randomly generated so they're of little help in identifying anything related to these bikes. Almost everything on your bike was built with obsolete French (metric) dimensions (funny almost every other mechanical thing in the world has been moving to metric sizes - don't get me started). The quills on metric stems (the part that goes into the steering tube) were 21.9mm or 22mm. From the 1980s most sporting bikes used British standard 22.2mm (7/8") diameter quills. Here's an excerpt from Sheldon Brown RIP on dealing with the problem: Quote: "French stems are .2mm narrower where they fit into the steering column. A standard 7/8" / 22.2mm stem won't usually fit. In many cases, the limiting factor for fitting the stem in will be the headset locknut, rather than the steerer itself. Try removing the locknut before sanding down a stem. If the headset locknut is slightly tighter than the steerer, it can be enlarged easily with a small grinding wheel. In cases where the stem really won't fit into the steerer, a few minutes work on the stem with sandpaper will usually do the trick. Wrap the sandpaper around the stem, grip it with your hand, and turn the stem round and round until it fits. You only need to remove 0.1 mm, which is 1/250", not much at all!" Also the bars are probably 25mm. Modern bars are 25.4mm, 25.8mm or 26mm so you will probably need to get a new set of bars to go along with a longer stem. DON'T I repeat DON'T try to crush a modern 26mm stem down to fit a 25mm bars. Someday you might feel funny riding down the street with the unattached bars in your hands. There are still some Nitto stems available that fit 25.4mm bars which a not that too hard to find. Rust: Get some super fine 0000 or fine 000 steel wool plus some 0 or 1 steel wool to clean up rust from any chrome plated steel parts. It works very quickly on most corrosion plus the fine or super fine steel wool works great on aluminum (use care on the Sugino cranks, they are anodized). You can also remove some of the rust from painted areas with fine or super fine steel wool. Automotive rubbing compound or wax with a cleaner will do wonders. You can get touch-up paint in a small metal container with a brush inside that you can use to "hide" scratches. A little bit goes a long way. If you can't see the imperfection from 5 feet no one else will either. Your Simplex rear derailleur has the ball bearing jockey wheels which were expensive and pretty rare. You can probably find some standard replacement non-index jockey wheels that will work fine. Search eBay for Simplex Criterium front dérailleurs. They are regularly up for auction bet tend to be a little spendy. The standard Prestige front dérailleurs are usually a lot less money. Good luck, Chas.   Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 12:56 pm sandranian Site Admin Joined: 27 Feb 2006 Posts: 2701 Location: Southern California Welcome to the forum and WOW. $20??? I am still waiting to find my garage sale diamond for $20.... _________________ Stephan Andranian Costa Mesa, CA www.gitaneusa.com Thank you   Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 8:45 am Squadra1 Joined: 28 Sep 2008 Posts: 5 Location: Washington State Thanks for the info. And the time to respond. What was the common bar tape type in 72, 73? Leather or cloth? How about the seat? The catalogues don't have a listing for this year except in French. I'll try to translate... Thanks again for the posts. What is the pronunciation of 'Gitane' anyway? Tape color & seat   Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 12:18 pm verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area White Tour de France bikes from that era came with either white or light blue cloth tape. The seats were Torquemada "ass hatchets" designed to inflict the most amount of pain to the smallest most sensitive area of the groinal region! Most TdF owners switched to Ideale or Brooks leather saddles or Cinelli plastic Unicanitor saddles. There wasn't much of a choice in those days. Gitane is pronounced jza-tawn or jzee-tawn. Chas. Last edited by verktyg on Thu Oct 02, 2008 9:29 pm; edited 1 time in total   Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 12:20 pm sandranian Site Admin Joined: 27 Feb 2006 Posts: 2701 Location: Southern California Gitane is pronounced (by me): "Jzi-tan" [short "i" and "a"] _________________ Stephan Andranian Costa Mesa, CA www.gitaneusa.com   Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 9:28 pm verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area sandranian wrote: Gitane is pronounced (by me): "Jzi-tan" [short "i" and "a"] You Say Potatoe, I Say Potato Let's let Nicholas settle it.... Chas. Great find!   Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 9:32 pm vanhelmont Joined: 11 Dec 2007 Posts: 242 Location: Florida I paid $92 (including shipping) for just a frame, in worse shape than yours. For a first try on cleaning chrome or alloy, you can use aluminum foil. Although the fine steel wool Chas suggests is pretty safe, the aluminum foil should be even safer. Velo Orange is a good source for French/metric size parts. They also have sealed bearing pulleys with a variety of shims so they can fit Simplex, among many other derailleurs, for about what you paid for the bike! Dave Tampa   Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 12:33 am Gtane Joined: 14 Sep 2007 Posts: 681 Location: UK Squadra1, You have yourself a great bike at an amazing price. It's really good to see that bikes are still able to be purchased, with a keen eye, for not a lot. Although not common occurrences, these right place right time buys really do yield some terrific opportunities. The bike is clearly in great original condition. Frame fit pumps just make my toes curl. They work perfectly well for pumping up tyres but are not ideal to store on a bike. It's the way they wear away the paint over time to small rusty patches at the points of contact with the frame which will eventually need touching up. I'd avoid using it on the frame and go for a modern pocket pump in a jersey pocket. Your saddle looks like it needs some food. Cover the top of the saddle liberally in Brooks' Proofhide and let it sit for at least a couple of weeks. Repeat if necessary. How does it ride? Thanks for posting. Tim _________________ Everything has a cycle   Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 11:07 am verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area Gtane wrote: You have yourself a great bike at an amazing price. It's really good to see that bikes are still able to be purchased, with a keen eye, for not a lot. Although not common occurrences, these right place right time buys really do yield some terrific opportunities. ...and I was feeling smug about the late 60s PX-10 and TdF I got for $200 apiece last Winter. Chas.   Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 11:47 am Gtane Joined: 14 Sep 2007 Posts: 681 Location: UK ...and so you should feel smug Chas. They're still great buys at those prices, as you know. Tim _________________ Everything has a cycle   Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 3:54 pm geekrunner Joined: 15 Dec 2008 Posts: 6 Location: Indianapolis Very nice find! My find was a bare frame/fork/BB for $20. And I sold a set of Nisi tubulars laced to Specialized hubs this past summer I wish I still had Now I have to hunt down a headset, stem, bars and crank. geek _________________ This is my signature. 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