gitaneusa.com :: View topic - New poster, would appreciate help with ID of bike.

pt3000

Hi,

Greetings from Scotland.

Really pleased to discover your forum as I bought a Gitane bike around two and a half years ago and it's been great.

I bought it on ebay for the princely sum of £50 having missed out on a matching blue one which went for £40.

The bike had obviously been well looked after but I would guess unused for around 10 years. The brakes were broke(n) and everything rattled quite disturbingly.

Having looked at some of the amazing bikes on the forum I slightly regret stripping it down as much as I did but it now cycles perfectly and I have covered several thousand miles and learned a lot about bike maintenance.

I saw the blue one once, chained to a lampost and it had obviously been through the wars but was still going strong. Aside from that I've seen no other Gitanes which piqued my interest and led me to your forum. So to cut to the chase, any info on my bike would be much appreciated. Here's what I can garner myself.

Pivo stem.

Rigida steel rims with lovely butterfly nuts Replaced with Mavic wheels as sadly my local bike shop broke it's tools tring to remove the gears in order to fix a broken spoke. (I kept the original wheels though)

Huret derailleurs. Was a ten speed, now a twelve.

Mafac "Racer" brakes

As you can see it had silver mudguards with gold trim and appears to have been bought in France. The red paint also has gold detailing and looks to be original with a wee bit of chipping. The sticker under the seat says J Labart, though presumably this is just a French bike shop.

If you require any more info, let me know.

Regards,

Peter
Edinburgh
Scotland

verktyg

Greetings and welcome to the Forum.

It looks like you have around a 1974 Gitane Paris-Tours GS/3 model bike.

It was a European model and Gitane made specific models for the domestic French market plus other continental countries. Gitane also made models for the UK.

This link from the 1973 French catalog shows your Paris-Tours GS/3 model with some minor differences. It shows the old pre-1974 foil decals plus there are no "suicide" brake extension levers being another. It also had the same winged nuts holding the wheels in place.

http://www.gitaneusa.com/images/catalog/1973/FR_1973_04.jpg

Here's the 1974 catalog that shows the Paris-Tours GS/3 with the post 1974 decals. It has hex nuts instead of wing nuts.

http://www.gitaneusa.com/images/catalog/1974_pg5.jpg

At the beginning of the US Bike Boom (around 1970) many lower level European bikes came with nutted or wing nut wheels.

Quick release hubs quickly became the sign of better quality bikes so anything but the lowest price entry level models usually came with QRs.

Most bike owners who bought entry level bikes with quick release wheels never took advantages of the feature.

Two observations, the stem is at least 25mm (1") too high. You don't want to experience the thrill of riding down the street holding the unconnected handlebars after the stem broke off in the steering tube because it was TOO high.

Stems and seatposts need to be inserted at least 75mm (2 3/4") into the frame!

Secondly, if that's how high you need the seat, the frame is too small for you. You could probably use a frame at least 5cm (2") larger for best fit.

pt3000

Thank you for your reply, the bottom image of your second link seems to be the best match for my bike, wheelnuts excepted.

Nice to know the age of the bike. I also appreciate the additional info about the stem, that's certainly a thrill I can do without. Similarly, the use of the word 'suicide' in reference to the brakes scares me a little. I actually fitted these myself, are they prone to snapping?

The seat height was something I suspected myself, I actually have it a wee bit lower now but I knew in my heart that the bike is a little small. Was a bit disappointed when I went to collect it as it seemed to have been incorrectly labled on ebay. I scan ebay every week but money's a little tight at the moment. When you say 5cm larger, which measurement are you talking about?

One final question, I find myself lusting after some of the TdF bikes on the forum, would you say the difference between them and my own is night and day or just a bit better. Obviously my bike is pretty heavy but it's served me well.

Thanks again,

Peter

gmany

"When you say 5cm larger, which measurement are you talking about?"

He's referring to the frame size. Gitane measures this from the center of the crank to the top of the horizontal tube. Most bike nakers measure from the center of the crank to the center of the horizontal tube

vanhelmont

The cheap solution for a too small frame is a longer seat tube and stem. Long seat tubes are common. Stems usually just vary in horizontal length, but Nitto technomic, adjustable angle stems that can be cheap but are a little heavy, and mountainbike stems if you can find one that fits your bike, are the common taller ones.

"Suicide levers" don't usually break. The problem is they also don't usually brake. With the usual play in the levers, unless your brakes are perfectly adjusted you don't want to depend on them if you need to stop fast. Also they tended to be found on bikes with steel rims, which were often lacking in braking whichever lever you used.

verktyg

I have 1/2 dozen Nitto stems dating from the late 80s up to the present.

What I discovered was that most of them while marked 22.2mm are actually 22.09mm in diameter.

They will fit into many 22.0mm metric steering tubes (as found on French bikes made prior to the early 80s.

The Nitto Technomic stems come in 3 different quill lengths:

NTC 150 = 150mm
NTC 225 = 225mm
NTC 280 = 280mm

Scroll to bottom of page:

http://www16.ocn.ne.jp/%7Enitto210/sub3.html

pt3000

Thanks to you all for the replies and the link.

My brakes are well adjusted so stop me fine and the suicide levers have come in useful when an unexpected squirrel or cat crossed my path Smile

I'll look into the stem and seat post, have a spare post from a mountain bike so may end up using that.

Cheers.

Peter

mikkla

Nice find!!
Hope you enjoy it.

Noticed that you removed the luggage rack, permanent?
How's the chromework on that one?
I have been looking for one of those for a while now.
I have a rusted one myself so only interested in a nice one Cool

Let me know if you are interested in selling it.
Glad to see you ate all oranges tho Very Happy

pt3000 · Last edited by pt3000 on Tue Feb 08, 2011 7:30 am; edited 1 time in total

(edited as I mistakenly thought mikkla was interested in buying my bike)

mikkla

Hello Peter,

Thanks for your reply but there has been a misunderstanding.
I am not looking for a complete bike, sorry for that.

I was only interested in the luggage rack, real sorry to read that you have (probably) threw it away....since I have been looking for one for some time now. argh argh

This is the project :
http://www.gitaneusa.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1702
One of the few things missing is a nice luggage rack!

Anyway, last week I bought some chrome paintpspray haha, I am aware of the fact that it is impossible to spray chrome, but will see how it turns out.
Probably better then the rust I am sure!
If it turns out bad I will sand blast it again and go from there.

pt3000

No worries, mikkla.

Unfortunately I did throw the luggage rack away, sorry that I can't help you complete your gorgeous tandem project, would have quite happily donated it for free Sad

Having seen some of the lovely bikes on this forum I slightly regret being as ruthless as I was with stripping mine down but it suits my needs this way and I still get quite a few compliments.

Good luck with the chrome (and the luggage rack) I wish you and your family many happy miles on the tandem!

Peter

mikkla

I do worry Peter, I do worry!!
People throwing away perfectly good luggage racks is worrying Laughing

Argh, well, these things happen.

Luckely I just re-read your first post and noticed you probably threw it away 2 years ago.
It some what reduces the feeling.
Can't blame a guy for being tidy, lol!

Have fun with it, as I know we do with the tandem!
Thanks for your wishes, cheers!