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Stony

Happy New Year all.

I'm in the final stages of restoring this Gitane mixte frame tandem, which I bought off craigslist a few years back. I'm not sure the year of production, but looks 70's, or early 80's maybe? There doesn't seem to be a serial number on the frame anywhere - I've checked the bottom brackets and elswhere.

Originally blue, now red, with new decals from Cyclomondo - as seen in the attached pictures - I'm very happy with the new paint!

So - just about ready to reassemble with some original, some acquired parts, and came upon a hitch. When I bought the bike, it looked like the previous owner had home-welded some bosses on the mixte stays to mount a rear centrepull brake (see pic). The bosses were messy, as well as the cable routing awkward, so I didn't like the look of that. The guy who was doing the new paint job was also doing some minor brazing to add bottle cage bosses, so I had him remove the brake bosses before painting. I have a set of Shimano BRZ-64 sidepull brakes, which I was going to mount front and rear. I was planning to mount the rear brake on the bridge between the mixte stays, same place as where the centrepull brake was - and where I had assumed the rear brake was originally located before the previous owner added the bosses. When I went to mount it, I found that the hole in the bridge is too small for the Shimano bolt. I can drill it out no problem, but then got me to thinking that perhaps that wasn't the way the original brake was mounted, and that that bridge wasn't meant to take the stress of the rear brake. The bridge is 10.8 mm wide, though note as can be seen in the photo taken from the underside of the bridge, that there is a seam - its not a simple section of tubing making up the bridge. That also made me wonder a bit about the strength of it to support the load on the brake.

Does anyone have any insight as to how this frame would originally have been configured? Would a single bolt sidepull brake, or single bolt mounting centrepull brake (like Dia Compe) been typical here?

Many thanks for any help.

Best,
Stony

gmany

If the foil decals are correct, then the bike is from the late 60's or early 70's which almost certainly means center-pull brakes.

rear brakes on mixte bikes I've seen are:
1. Attached to a bridge between the two tubes from the head tube to the rear lugs (like yours is pictured) with center-pull brakes.
2a. Attached to a bridge between the upper rear stays. For center pull brakes the cable routing is via a pulley down to the two tubes from the the head tube the rear lugs.
2b. Attached to a bridge between the upper rear stays. For side pull brakes the cable is usually routed via a cable house reverse mounted to the brake that makes a near 180 degree turn to run up the split tubes toward the stem.

In the catalogs I see routing that matches #1 in '70 and before and #2a in '73.

Oh, the chainrings don't seem to be original.

Stony

Thanks for your response Garrett.

Now that I've read Stephan's advice to read BEFORE posting Surprised

, I've checked the catalogues, and my tandem seems to match the Sport 565 model featured in the '68, '69 and '70 catalogues - the position of the downtube shifters matches, as well as the rear brake placement. I do belive the foil decals were original when I acquired it, and have replaced them on the repaint.

The catalogues also mention that the original brakes were Mafac Racer Center Pull, so it looks like the bridge is where they originally were mounted. The hole drilled on the bridge between the upper, rear stays doesn't have the right orientation in any event. So if that's the case, I will likely drill out the hole on the middle rear stays a touch to fit the Shimanos - I realize not correct components from a "restoration" point of view, but as you note, the chainrings/cranks I agree are likely not original either. The shifters, front derailleur and chainrings are Shimano, the rear derailleur is Suntour. It would be interesting to know how it came together that way. At this point, I'm just hoping to have a nice looking tandem in vintage style, if not an authentic restoration.

Thanks again. If others have a view, I'd be happy to hear also.

Best,

Arthur "Stony" Reinstein
Toronto, Ontario

mikkla

Hello,

Here's a pic of my tandem which is around 69 I believe, anyway you can see the centre pull brake.

The middle stay is for the lock

Paint looks nice, maybe you need another decal on the back downtube?
Or was it originally with one?
Mine has one on both downtubes and is still original paint.

Goodluck and enjoy your resto project

Regards,
mikkla