gitaneusa.com :: View topic - Help ID a frame

steelnutcase

I picked up a frame last Friday and have a few clues as to ID. It is a French frame (French threads on HS and BB, tubing is French dimensions) and it takes a 24 mm seat post. However, it has been repainted, I can't find a serial number, etc. The front dropouts are Simplex (single eyelet) while the rear are Suntour Superbe (no eyelet). It has canti braze-ons, top tube cable guides, downtube shifter braze-ons, water bottle mounts, and under-BB tubular braze-on derailleur cable guides. Front fork crown looks like a Nervex Tourist but that's a wild guess.

I think its a Gitane solely because the brake cable carrier looks like one I saw on a Gitane on eBay this morning. Sort of a flat metal bridge across the stays with a central hole where the actual cable carrier must bolt on.

Its a 60cm frame but the chainstays are not super long (43.2cm) and the wheelbase is "only" 103 cm. Oddly enough, it has a 115mm rear spacing. I am new to these posts - I will try to attach some pictures but am not sure exactly how yet on this site. I'm hoping to determine maker, possible tubing type, and maybe model before I start building it up. Probably will need to coldset the rear but we will see.

[/img]

verktyg

Greetings and welcome to the forum.

Sorry you've been ignored for so long... Confused

Here's my guess:

For starters, all of the braze-ons were probably added by whoever painted the bike - the shift lever bosses, cantilever brake bosses, brake cable guides and derailleur cable guides under the bottom bracket plus the "diver's helmet" under the right chainstay.

It sort of looks like a Gitane except for the lugs. Between the mid 60s and the end of the 70s Gitane used Prugnat and Bocama lugs. Those don't look like any lugs I've seen on a Gitane before.

The other thing, most better quality bikes had a curve in the tubing and lug at the top of the seat tube.

Here's a late 60s Tour de France that has a similar swagging style done to the top of the seat stays. Also notice the long point Prugnat Type "S" Italian style lugs on this bike.

The Campy style rear dropouts don't match the squared off seat lug top. They could have been added too.

A French Reynolds 531 frame with a 28mm metric diameter seat tube would normally take a 24.4mm seat post.

A 24mm seatpost is awful small. Except for some Peugeots that used a sleeve in the seat tube, most French bikes with standard steel tubing used 25mm or 25.8mm seat tubes.

The Nervex Dubois fork crown didn't come into common use until the early 70s. Someone could have replaced the original fork with a Gitane fork???

Maybe it's a genuine "Batard" (one of unknown parentage). Wink

It could also be a Dutch or Belgian cyclocross frame...

steelnutcase

Thanks for your in-depth analysis. You are definitely right about the quality of the seat stay brazing - my Motobecane LeChampion is far more "polished". In fact, the mystery frame seems to have generally poor brazing.

I suspect you are right about its parentage. There seem to be so many things that don't fit (I could have mismeasured the seat tube though with my calipers) that it would be hard to imagine that someone actually designed it that way.

Regardless, the frame (62cm) is too big for me so I'm putting it aside in case my 17 year old gets big enough for it.

Thanks again