Happy Feet

Picked up this Gitane a while ago at a thrift store and with help from members here on the C&V board dated it as a 1969 Gitane Gran Sport. I took it for a country ride and it fits very well so, as a keeper, I considered what to do to it as a project. Born just at the start of the bike boom era, with little value as a classic the components are in remarkably good condition. However, the derailer is a plain jane Simplex and the freewheel skipped because of poor chain lines, and the plastic shift levers (while currently good) would probably break one day. So I decided to scrap the drive train altogether and make a single speed French Rambler, with a nod to the Clubman ethos.

The stem has already been adjusted and has no cracks in it btw.







Anyone who's ever broken a bike down to rebuild appreciates when they fall apart easily and this French beauty did not disappoint! Almost everything came apart easily.




Usually removing a 50 year old freewheel from a rim means destroying it (the freewheel) in the process but with just a bit of convincing this one came off intact. After that I cleaned and re greased the hub and put on the single speed cog. Same treatment for the front. I had a very good condition Huret dork disc so I replaced the generic one with it.




Even the bottom bracket spun off with just a twist of the wrench but it had not seen service in a while with crusted old dirty grease. I cleaned and repacked it.




I plan to swap out the bars as the originals are too narrow for me. Through a magical process I put a little flair in the wider replacements, dirt drop style.




And now I wait for my Newbaum's cotton tape to arrive from amazon. I also picked up some tape to do something with... Maybe dress up these fenders.

aceves 

Looking good Happy Feet! Definitely want to see the end result.

aceves

non-fixie 

Nice bike! I do like the look of that chainset. Looks very useful. 50/36?

abshipp 

Very very cool!

Putting a dork disk on a singlespeed is a cheeky move

Happy Feet

Effronté!

Stymied by the postman it would seem.

I ordered four rolls of Newbaums bar tape (two of blue, two of white) to try my hand at Harlequin wrapping and the package finally arrived yesterday. I was so happy! Inside were three of the four rolls One blue still on back order they say so I put off that idea and washed the frame instead with Dawn dish soap in anticipation of top coating it with boiled linseed oil as a preservative. Before that though, I set about doing something about those fenders.

These aluminum fenders are solid and I want to keep them but they are a bit drab




So while washing the frame I scrubbed them with steel wool to take the oxidation off




But they still need something. So I put a pin stripe of white tape down the center depression




And dressed the ends with French national colours for a little joie de vivre

verktyg 

Worked on hundreds of those bikes BITD.

The BB spindle is toast, the cups probably too.

1 x 9 is the new fixie fad!

Also, I HATE FENDERS! Have since about 1951 or 52 on my 1st bike, a Rollfast like this one:



They shake, they rattle, they come loose, what's to like? My dad got mad at me because I took them off!

I tried some Bluemels back in the 70's. Nothing changed. After one or two rides they were gone!

I'd rather get wet and have a streak of honor up my back than put up with fenders!

verktyg

TenGrainBread 

Install some aluminum Honjos one of these days and your view might change. The mounting hardware is very solid and everything is silent.

Kent T

Finally, something from Huret which actually does it's job. A Huret Dork Disc (Disque de Dorque).

verktyg 

verktyg

Happy Feet

That's why I decided to keep these on the bike (besides already having a fenderless fixed gear). They are quite solid aluminum and mounted with strong stays. No vibration when riding.

Almost from the moment I bought it though I knew I would pinstripe them somehow. Still trimming the flag detail a bit.

My blue bar tape is still on back order with no delivery date (frustrating) so its time to top coat the frame instead.

juvela

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Make sure to find one which will not react with existing finish to create yellowing.

If unsure, test sample in unobtrusive spot...


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Happy Feet

I have used boiled linseed oil before with good results.

After a great ride I came home to some sunshine so I hung the frame and treated it to a top coat of BLO. Pretty anti climactic but it's the last step before reassembly and wrapping the bars (when the errant roll arrives). I still have to rub a little mink oil into the leather saddle I'm adding and after that it's new cables and brake pads and a country ramble test ride.

juvela

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Boiled linseed oil is an interesting idea for paint finishes.

Have always thought of it as a dressing for things like the heavily weathered wooden handles of garden tools.

When it dries/cures on a painted surface what are you left with?

Thanks for the idea.

Looking forward to seeing everything back together - um, well not everything I guess, given your build plan!

The venerable Freres Huret spoke disc Nr. 996 and 998 -




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Happy Feet

You have to let it cure beyond tacky stage and then it gives a clear hard coating that retains some shine. I like it to preserve the patina but inhibit rust.

Over the last few years I've been working on a natural products selection for restoring bikes that involves mink oil for seats, French shellac for bar tape, gun blue acid on bare metal as a colorant instead of paint and BLO as a top coat. I used to use lacquer but found it too fragile and easy to scratch. Sort of how I approach builds now more or less. In this case the paint was good and I just want to keep it as is.

One of my winter projects will be refinishing my Apollo fixed gear and that will be a from the bare metal up process using those products.



The colour on this bike is gun blue acid, not paint. But I top coated it with epoxy at the time as I hadn't learned about linseed oil yet.




This frame also is blued (except the graphics) but top coated with lacquer.




and another blued but epoxy topcoated

Happy Feet

Looks like I have the more cosmopolitan 998

juvela

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Do you filter the water for the washing machine or is that for the utility sink only?

Curious to see the "Atlantic" marque.

Cesare Rizzato had an economy marque called "Atlantica" that he used to let dealers of Atala and Lygie bicycles have an economy model to compete with the chain stores...

AFAIK we have never had one come up here on the forum.


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Happy Feet

The filter is for a salt water aquarium.

The Atlantic wasn't all that exotic. It was actually a department store "Woodwards" brand model. What was fun was learning about the Resilion kick back 2 speed hub it has. I kept the original paint on the lugs and parts where the graphics were.

Before




After

sykerocker 

My apologies on hijacking the subject, but thank you for that picture. I'm currently working on a girl's model of either the same bike, or one that damned close to it. The front fender is completely a mass of rust, and I wasn't sure if the trailing edge is supposed to be like that, or it had just gotten abused into that shape, but you've just provided me with some answers.

I've got a feeling mine might be just a bit older because it's got a couple of curved bits of bar stock fancying up the front fork going from the base of the head tube to the axle. Sorta makes it look like a springer fork on a motorcycle, although they're rigid. And the fender has a big, clunky headlight mounted on the leading edge of the fender.

verktyg 

My maroon and ivory sleek beauty came with a horn case too. It went along with the fenders. My first adventure in hot rodding.

verktyg

ryansu

Oooh la la nice Tricolor touch, Vive la France!!

juvela

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Thanks very much for the response.

Have you been able to date the Atlantic?

I tend to think of Resilion products as ending somewhere around 1960.

Does the hub exhibit a date mark?

Have you been able to research the actual manufacturer of the bicycle? Wondering of CA or UK.

Hydration station appears achieved with pop-rivet type fasteners.

"Salt water aquarium" - I are a fellow aquarist.

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Happy Feet

No idea of the manufacturer. It has bolt on seat stays and pressed dropouts so not that fancy. As you note, the Resilion hubs stopped being produced in 1961 so I guess around that time. No date stamp.

Before my current career I was self employed as an Aquarium installer and maintainer; sort of a niche business and expensive hobby number 2 out of 5 (climbing, aquariums, diving, photography/videography, cycling). So far biking has been the relatively cheapest

A couple of my previous tanks. My current tank is planted using the Walstad method and still under development:

Happy Feet

After a bit of a delay I finally received my wayward roll of blue Newbaums Tape from Amazon this week so the bar fight was on! And I'm not kidding...

My goal was to try my hand at harlequin wrapping.. I'm mean, how hard could it be? I watched this video for inspiration

and set myself up for a relaxing morning enjoying my hobby. Some herbal tea.. a little mood music...



I marked the position I wanted the brakes to be in and cleaned the bars so the tape would stick.




Things began well enough. I marked the initial spacing with the Newbaums labels and started wrapping but made a false start when I realized the diamond pattern needed to begin sooner on the flats to fit the spacing. Oh well, one glitch wouldn't be so bad...




I found out that by adding some twist ties to the rolls they would not unspool so bad.




and added and wrapped the brake attachments in place.




This all took a lot of time as I wrapped and re wrapped and re wrapped numerous times trying to get the diamonds somewhat lined up.
I'd planned to shoot a step by step tutorial but that went out the window pretty early on as I became embroiled in vicious hand to hand combat. The bends of the bar made the trajectory of the tape go out of whack and then lining up the passes became more complicated.

Then I made my big mistake! I decided to take a break for lunch with one lower grip to go and when I resumed had somehow forgotten the whole layering process. Even when I watched the video to review I couldn't make the tape do what it was supposed to do. This shot mirrors my mental confusion.




Eventually I figured it out and finished the job. There were casualties.

Now I have to hunt down some clear shellac as all I have is amber flavoured French shellac which will ruin the look of the white tape. However, having just narrowly escaped with my sanity intact I decided to go for a ride today first before entering the ring again to put the finishing touches on the build.

Happy Feet

Put the finishing touches on the bike... for now.

My initial vision for this build was a day rambler for the French countryside. I'm pretty bored with stock bike boom 10 speed rebuilds but the paint and graphics were good enough that I didn't want to mess with them. Still need to shellac the cotton tape, when I find clear shellac, and I wound up taking off the French colours tape on the leading edge of the front fender in favour of "less is more" and just left the tape where the mud flaps would go. In the future I will try my hand at resurfacing the vinyl seat with leather and adding a wicker creel to the front with a hole in the lid for the wine bottle to stick out of.

bikemig 

I'm planning on using Huret derailleurs when I build up my Libertas,