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Calling all Gitane Interclub afficianados.

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Calling all Gitane Interclub afficianados.

Old 07-21-20, 05:57 PM
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Calling all Gitane Interclub afficianados.

UPDATE: I looked, I grimaced and I said "No thanks" without even making an offer. It was a lot worse than it looked in the pictures, it just didn't "grab" me and he was pretty proud of it so I left it there.

I'm going later this week to check out a Gitane Interclub if it hasn't sold. From old posts here I believe it is a 1973. The wheels in the pictures appear to be clinchers and if I read correctly this should have tubular wheels. I can't tell for sure but I think the RD has been changed as well. It's rough but it's close, my size and just odd ball enough to pique my interest. Anything anyone could tell me would be greatly appreciated. If I buy it I'll just do a preservation on the paint and decals and a mechanical overhaul. I see it does still have the plastic Simplex shift levers so I might convert it to Suntour barcons, I had my fill of Simplex plastic shift levers back in 1973.


Seller's pictures not mine.




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Old 07-21-20, 07:04 PM
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Falcon SS derailleur (2nd style)
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Old 07-22-20, 12:09 AM
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I found my 1983 Interclub around 15 years ago while donating stuff to a local charity resale shop. I paid $10 for it and hung it on the wall, intending to sell it or trade it. Fast forward 14 years and I decided build it up as an Eroica bike, so I did a complete refurb on it. The bike didn't have a lot of mechanical wear, but the paint was weirdly faded and beat up by being tossed around in the PO's garage. It wasn't worth the cost of a respray, so I removed any rust and touched up the paint, getting fairly close to the shade of yellow/orange/red in any particular area. I swapped out the rear derailleur for a Suntour GT Luxe, which will handle seriously low gears. It has the original Simplex SJ shifters and A102 front derailleur, and the original Nervar crankset. The original wheels have their original spokes (!!) and just needed new bearings, a good polish, and a slight truing. Being an entry level race bike, I didn't expect much, but it rides beautifully.

As found:


The funky fading and paint condition:



The finished product:
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Old 07-22-20, 08:52 AM
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Originally Posted by dedhed
Yeah, the more I look the more inclined I am to believe it's chances of joining the fleet are diminishing. It has less and less going for it.
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Old 07-22-20, 12:33 PM
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Looks like it has the later, cotter less crank which is a definite plus. These bikes have a nice ride and the lighter wheels take them a step up from the Grand Sport and Peugeot UO-X series IMO. If you do end up buying this and want to revert to tubulars, I have a set of the Normandy/Mavic sports that came off an Interclub that I'm not going to be using. Also a claw Simplex RD.
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Old 07-22-20, 01:23 PM
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Gitanes from this era have a habit of being nice-riding bikes. Very nice. Just so you know.
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Old 07-22-20, 01:27 PM
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Originally Posted by TrboDieselPwrd
If you do end up buying this and want to revert to tubulars, I have a set of the Normandy/Mavic sports that came off an Interclub that I'm not going to be using. Also a claw Simplex RD.
Thanks, I'll keep the wheels in mind but I have a feeling the seller and I are going to be too far apart on price. Found out it's a "collectibles" shop that has it.
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Old 07-22-20, 11:28 PM
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-----

pedals not original either

they appear they could be Wellgo, CECOR, Union or WECO

cannot see them well enough in the images provided to narrow it down...

-----
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Old 07-23-20, 05:24 AM
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Originally Posted by juvela
-----

pedals not original either

they appear they could be Wellgo, CECOR, Union or WECO

cannot see them well enough in the images provided to narrow it down...

-----

Thanks. I'm guessing this bike has had a lot changed on it over the year. "IF" I get it bought, I think I'll forget about originality and just make it period correct. I have a clapped out Lambert that's several sizes too small that is in a similar state of "non-originality" but it has a good set of period wheels, saddle, Suntour barcons, etc. I could move those things over to the Gitane and have a neat old bike to buzz around on. It wouldn't be original but at least faithful to the period.
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Old 07-23-20, 06:45 AM
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I bought an Interclub new back late '72- early '73 as my first 10 speed.
Yes, they were factory equipped with sew-ups, if you wanted them. But many, like mine, were sold to buyers that didn't understand sew-ups and were familiar with regular old tubed tires, so clincher rims were a "normal" substitution. So mine had the awful grooved Rigida steel rims. I shouldn't have done it .
Mine had that same cotterless crank. The brochure at the time showed cottered. Mine also came with Simplex Prestige gearing. It wasn't long before mine broke and was replaced with a Suntour (V model, maybe?). Seems like that cost like $8?. I also crashed and bent the front fork, so I "upgraded" to a 531 TdF fork for IIRC $25.
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Old 07-23-20, 08:25 AM
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Mine is a 72 Interclub, it has a very elegant Durax crankset and a nicely sculpted Pivo stem. It currently has the original tubs but if I rode it more I'd probably switch to higher volume clinchers. The Interclub was Gitanes entry level poor boy racer but still a very solid good handling bike.
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Old 07-23-20, 08:45 AM
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Originally Posted by Ex Pres
I bought an Interclub new back late '72- early '73 as my first 10 speed.
Yes, they were factory equipped with sew-ups, if you wanted them. But many, like mine, were sold to buyers that didn't understand sew-ups and were familiar with regular old tubed tires, so clincher rims were a "normal" substitution. So mine had the awful grooved Rigida steel rims. I shouldn't have done it .
Mine had that same cotterless crank. The brochure at the time showed cottered. Mine also came with Simplex Prestige gearing. It wasn't long before mine broke and was replaced with a Suntour (V model, maybe?). Seems like that cost like $8?. I also crashed and bent the front fork, so I "upgraded" to a 531 TdF fork for IIRC $25.
Good to know about the wheels substitution. I suspect that may have been the case here as the wheels on it do have high flange hubs suggesting they're of similar vintage.. I'm still going to use the missing tubular wheels as bargaining leverage though. Thanks. 🖒
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Old 07-25-20, 03:34 PM
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In case you missed my edit above:

I looked, I grimaced and I said "No thanks" without even making an offer. It was a lot worse than it looked in the pictures, it just didn't "grab" me and he was pretty proud of it so I left it there.
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Old 07-25-20, 03:49 PM
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Originally Posted by Murray Missile
In case you missed my edit above:

I looked, I grimaced and I said "No thanks" without even making an offer. It was a lot worse than it looked in the pictures, it ust didn't "grab" me and he was pretty proud of it so I left it there.
-----

+1

And a most excellent decision it are!

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Old 07-25-20, 04:27 PM
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Originally Posted by dedhed
You nailed it, it was indeed a Falcon.
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Old 08-04-20, 10:16 AM
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I weakened, I sent them a message and pointed out the negatives and asked what rock bottom is. With any luck they won't answer LOL. Would putting a Campy Nuovo Record RD on it earn me "honorable mention" in the Spanish Inquisition thread?

Oops, they came down enough. Looks like I own a raggedy old Gitane.

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Old 08-04-20, 11:26 AM
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Congratulations! For no good reason at all, I still keep my eyes open for a 60 cm Gitane Interclub from before the Huret honeycomb dropouts era at a price I can stand. I'm intrigued by the geometry and the knowledge that they're not name brand tubing, but not quite gaspipe either. I keep hoping I will score one - then I will grapple with running it with fourth-tier kit and tubulars or converting to fixed.

FWIW, my clunker challenge bike a couple of years back was also in the category of French, not-quite-gaspipe, not-a-name-brand-tubing bike with zippier than usual angles, an old Liberia. I still need to put some better tires on that bike, it rides ridiculously well for what was a $100 campus bike in 1972. If I ran tubulars on it, it would be almost as cool as your Interclub ... almost.

Also, FWIW, the geometry of these is pretty close to the geometry of the Tour de France model. For several years now, my battered '71 Gitane TdF fixed-gear conversion has gotten the lion's share of my mileage, eclipsing a whole bunch of other very lovely bikes with nice rides. Gitanes, especially this geometry around 60 cm, are special. Period.

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Old 08-05-20, 09:56 AM
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our shop sold Gitanes from 1970 to 74. I sold a fair amount of Interclubs.what was so interesting about them was
you didn't know what the tubing was was bike to bike. Gitane described the model as having "better" tubing
meaning they used what was on hand. some were Durifort,some were Falk,some had 531 main tubes and any combo
of mixed mains and stays was acceptable.
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Old 08-05-20, 10:38 AM
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Can't pick it up until this weekend. My intent is to keep it functional and period correct as much as possible. Any replacement parts will be typical of what was available as an upgrade when the bike was still fairly new. The Campy Nuovo Record RD I recently rescued from a grungy old Schwinn Traveler is going on it for starters to replace the Falcon replacement RD. Somwhere I have a decent set of vintage Huret DT shifters to replace the plastic Simplex shifters. The saddle is begging for replacement as well but I don't foresee too many other replacements for now.
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Old 08-08-20, 03:29 PM
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It's home. I like the way it rides but I didn't go far. It was one of those supposed "completely gone through, needs nothing" pitches. I knew better from one look. They pumped up the tires and gave it a quick rinse and that was it. The RD is out of adjustment, won't hit all 5 cogs and smart money says the brake pads and cables are the originals because the brakes are next to non-existent. It's greasy, the paint and decals are in really bad shape, it's a hodge podge of replacement parts but I love it. I'm going to have a lot of fun with it and I don't have to worry about scratching it either because nobody would be able to tell LOL. I wonder how hard Mafac brake lever hoods are to find? Unfortunately someone put a cheap kickstand on it and over tightened it so the chainstays are distorted. The first thing I did when I unloaded it was to yank the kickstand and pitch it.




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Old 10-07-20, 05:31 AM
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After long and disjointed thought I think this is going to be my "patina" bike since the paint and decals are so bad and the bottoms of the chainstays are FUBAR. What I thought was a Falcon RD is some Chinese zinc plated atrocity that starts with an "X". I picked up an early long cage Suntour VxGT long cage RD for parts and the only thing wrong with it was the 5mm adjustable cable stop ferrulle was missing so I'll use it. The 5mm ferrulle is on it's way. The Simplex FD was replaced with a Suntour Vx years ago, it just needs a bath. I'll replace the Simplex DT shifters with a set of appropriately "distressed" Suntour barcons. The frame and fork will get cleaned and then clear coated to preserve what original paint and decals are left. The current drop bars are sagging so it may get moustache bars. Beyond that I'll just wing it.
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Old 10-07-20, 05:43 AM
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The decal on the fork is the one used on the Super Corsa(top of the line for the models sold in the U.S.). The fork may have been replaced with a better one.
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Old 10-07-20, 06:15 AM
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Originally Posted by Sierra
The decal on the fork is the one used on the Super Corsa(top of the line for the models sold in the U.S.). The fork may have been replaced with a better one.
I've seen that fork decal in pictures of other Interclubs of the same vintage. The paint and weathering are a perfect match to the frame and what would the odds be of finding a Super Corsa fork the same color with a long steerer tube?. I'm inclined to believe it's the original fork.
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Old 10-07-20, 07:38 AM
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Good points on the color & patina.
I've just never seen that decal on an Interclub before.
All that I've seen look like the one that peter_d posted above.
Waiting for our resident Gitane guru @verktyg to weigh in on this.
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Old 10-07-20, 07:53 AM
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Originally Posted by Sierra
Good points on the color & patina.
I've just never seen that decal on an Interclub before.
All that I've seen look like the one that peter_d posted above.
Waiting for our resident Gitane guru @verktyg to weigh in on this.
Going back to look I can't find another Interclub picture with that decal. You may very well be right. 🤔
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