Cycles Gitane on Mpls CL $95, high end model?
 

This beauty showed up, looks like a 58 my size! It appears to be a high end model, maybe someone can ID it?


Sadly it's in Albert Lea, almost 2hrs from my house.



https://minneapolis.craigslist.org/d...944222604.html

A very nice looking Gitane! If you do get it keep us updated.

Not high end with the stamped rear drops. Good looking bike.

Agreed, both observations.

I was simply going to "like" this post, but to honor the wishes of the poster...
Cheers, Eric

Thanks for the keen observations. I saw the steel lugged frame and what appears to be gummed brake levers and the 3 piece crankset.

I thought it was high end with hard (for me) to I'd sacs/ mallard/ simplex components.

Cheers!

If it fits and you like it, and at that price, what are you waiting for?

It IS a nice bike. I'd say it was worth the price, as long as it fits. A two hour drive is a very long way to go. That's four hours of driving and another $30-$40 in gasoline.

For me, it's not worth it. For you,... well, you decide if the time is worth it. Is there nothing comparable closer to you?

Nice looking but nothing special, as others have observed. But at $95, it's a pretty good deal.

Looks bigger than 58.

I do see a Vitus Tubing decal between the shifters, but don't see notes of butting.

At least the bike has the very rare 26.5" wheels!!!

Rare 26.5" wheels? Rare= impossible, difficult and expensive to replace tires. Maybe I'm dodging a bullet?

Yes, maybe it is a 59 or 60. I took a good look at the rear dropout, it has a built in RD hanger/ claw, is the poster sure it is a stamped piece?

Might be the middle one
http://www.gitaneusa.com/images/catalog/1985_pg3.jpg

It looks stamped to me too.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7beccdc4ae.jpg

Not a bad stamping, but not as good as the cast/forged ones that Campagnolo, Zeus, Simplex, and several other manufactures were making.

Also note, there are NO HOODS.
That looks like a Weinmann Brake Lever, designed for use without hoods. The factory drilling, and lack of auxiliary brake levers indicates a bit higher quality.

The fork crown also appears to be pressed steel rather than cast, although many were.

Edit:
There do seem to be Weinmann hoods, but most of the brake levers that style that I've seen don't have hoods.

Thanks for pulling that up. The middle bike has "Camus Cr Mo", whatever that is. The CL bike has a "Super Vitus" sticker near the shifters.

Good analysis. The devil is in the details. The hanger built into the dropout is deceptive- makes it appear to be HQ, as are the levers that appeared to be missing the gummed hoods.

I concede. It is mid range, perhaps similar to the infamous UO8.

how about this one

http://www.gitaneusa.com/images/cata...986French3.jpg

Sure looks like the one on top! Color me impressed! Nice find.

-John

Someone was joking -the wheels are almost certainly 27" which was the standard road bike size for the bike boom years in the US, look for a stamp in the rim near the value stem hole. CL postings are notoriously misinformed on wheel size, brake type, bike type frame size etc. I usually take the description with a giant grain of salt and focus on what I can see from pics.

27" tires are ABUNDANT btw despite what some people might say, just do a search online for 27" bike tires.

I would say without knowing your market that if you are in the Twin cities you can find a comparable bike/price that is not 2 hours away with a little time and patience looking, or maybe you'll pay $20 more and save a 4 hour round trip and a tank of gas. YMMV

I have owned and wrenched on 30+ bikes and have had quite a few w/ 27x1.25 rims.

Funny about the 26.5 rims, reminds me of when I was in high school, the first year. Everybody would ask where is the pool? The joke was there was no pool. Ha ha.

I have never owned a French bike. I have been reading with great interest about the quixotic parts, threading and agravation associated. So, naturally I assumed that 26 1/2 was a French standard. Thank you for straightening that out!

I drove thru Albert Lea today, but had only seen the reference to the Minneapolis listing and thought it was there. Probably a good thing as the car is full of bikes and framesets.

Sheldon Brown has a good article about French bikes and what to watch for, they can have their quirks although by the mid 80s some of the threading and sizing had moved to a more normal standard, they do have a nice ride though. I really like how my 78 Motobecane rides and I have ridden bike boom UO-8 Peugeot's that ride nice despite their humble entry level status. I think so long as you get a complete bike and know about some of the quirks going in you should be fine especially if you have wrenched on that many bikes.