gitaneusa.com :: View topic - Is this a Gitane? Nope => Univega perhaps

cyclopathic · Last edited by cyclopathic on Wed Sep 06, 2006 5:10 pm; edited 1 time in total

I read many posts last night and learned a great deal about older Gitane bikes. My interest is due to a bike I bought off of craigslist a couple weeks ago. I want to identify this bike and at this point I think it is a Gitane or Motobecane. It has been repainted dark blue. The front forks used to be all crome but they have been painted the dark blue as well. It has Shimano brakes, crank, headset, Suntour Cyclone pedals and Dura Ace derailers front and rear.

I am a neophyte bicyclist with casual riding of my mountain bike over the past ten years. I recently went on a 33 mile organized tour and want to start riding more events. I purchased this bike for my 11 mile commute to and from work and plan to get a more current bike for events.

I am interested in restoring this bike if it did not come from the factory like this. I found a link to some decals and would like to apply them if they would be the correct ones for this bike.

Here are some pics, when you open them I mention details to look for, thanks for your help.

Paul Wiseman

Hi and welcome Cyclopathic,

It's a bit hard to tell from your photos. The things that give it away, are the design of the lugs, tips, and the style and placement of cable bosses etc. What you can do is go through all the bike in the catalogues on this website and zoom in on the pictures to see if you can find something that matches. By the look of the rear tips and the seat lug on your bike, I would look around the late 80's - early 90's. The way the seat lug is cut into a "V" at the back is a bit of a modern thing for mass produced frames. Also look for any brands stamped into tips, lugs ot fork crown. Another clue is weight. If you strip the bike completely, you'll find that the higher quality frames weigh somewhere around the 1.8 - 2.0 kg without the fork, but this is really rough guestimation. If you frame weighs more than 2.3 kg, look at the cheaper bikes in the catalogues. Enen if it turns out that this bike is not a gitane, you'll have hours of fun looking at photos of gitanes and learning many many usless bits of information relating to them. Hope you enjoy!

cyclopathic

Thanks Paul, sorry about your fellow Aussie getting too close to that stingray.

All the lugs have a diamond cutout in them. I looked at some Nervex lugs that were used on Motobecanes but I haven't seen the diamond cutouts yet. The front derailler is shimmed so does that say these components were added later? I looked at the catalogs and the 1988 looked close but none were 58cm, they were all odd numbers. Then they then skipped to 1995 which does have even numbers for frame size. I think mine is a 90 due to the S/N, P610190 but I don't know yet. I looked closely at the forks and all other lugs but I cannot see any other markings.

yeah, I am learning about vintage bikes, kind of fun. Thanks

Paul Wiseman

Not sure about diamonds cut into the lugs...... Has anyone seen a gitane styled like that? Keep searching though, one thing is for certain with gitane........ you never know what to expect. As for Steve Irwin, thanks for the thought, but I really didn't know him. I never even saw his movie. As tragic as it must be for his family, it gives me the s...ts that they're now talking about state funerals!!!!! He's an entertainer, not a nobel prize winner. Anyway, that make no difference to his family I'm sure.

Shannon

Hello!

Is it possible that it is a Univega? I don't know anything about Univega, so I don't know if the components match up.

Here are some pics with lug details. This guy's site is pretty interesting- if you go to the main page you can click on one of many bikes and see detailed photos.

http://chuck.kichline.com/bikes/univega/default.htm

I took a look at my motobecane, and jeunet too just for fun, and their lugs are not similiar to your bike, but I have a very low end models, and I don't know if their lugs varied by model. But the diamond seems pretty unique, so I'd place my money on Univega.

Shannon

cyclopathic

Thanks so much Shannon. Those lugs and the rear upright finish are identical. Also the brake cable mounts are identical. I will start looking at the Univega bikes. I was impressed with the Gitane bikes, I will keep them in mind.

Thanks again, Jon

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Shannon

You're welcome Jon,
Good luck in narrowing down your identification- I've discovered that it's really easy to get to a deadend in your search, or at least has been the case with my jeunet. I found my gitane in the catalogues page on this website though! I like this site a lot. It has a lot of great information (useless and otherwise Wink

) on it.

If your forks used to be chrome, then it probably isn't the lowest end model- or at least this is what I think I've discovered when researching my three vintage bikes- someone please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!
~Shannon