Originally Posted by Mr. 66

Last years flails, this years success.

I finally got back to the Gitane TdF. Last year I bought this as a bare frame with headset and bb. Supposedly the bb and hs were rebuilt before my purchase from Bikeworks yellow house. That was bs, the bb was borked, and the hs had some new grease put on top of old, lol. That through me for loop, stuff from the yellow house is of better grade and just about always correct to the word, lol. Not a big deal I've got French stuffing.

My build was not successful. Parts hung for visuals. Front wheel is not centered, no biggie, I center it up. I look again. This was not inline with the steertube, in sighting the steertube to the rim valve to the hub and spoke holes on the other side.

A closer check was performed.The steertube was checked for straightness, that was good. The offset were identical but the fork lengths were different one side was about 1/8" longer than the other. With my furniture clamp I was able to lengthen the shorter. This now needed a push forward, that was expected and was attended to.

Again I have parts hung and still that front end is not right. A closer inspection I discovered the headtube was swayed from top to bottom a solid 1/8" in correlation to the seatube. Here I checked the seatube to the bb face, not bad. I set some jigs addressed the sway. Here at this point is where I had trouble finding a freewheel that would clear the claw derailleur and the bike sat, until last week.

I cobbled my brakes together, I set the limits on the derailleurs. My first test is a success and a fail at the same time. My fail, the freewheel skips to the chain installed. The success, it felt right on the handling.

So I go through the stash and pull the rear wheel from the recent built Raleigh and off I go! To the LBS I do for the use of two 9mm for the brake straddles. Brakes now set. My second test I'm just stomping on the pedals testing the chain and freewheel combo, like a champ!

My test ride, 32 miles largely flat in the rolling hills of the Blue Mountains.

My alignment efforts, omg! Absolutely perfect. It rides correct strait hands/no-hands. The turns in-out nice. Speed wobble,none what so ever.

It rode so well I forgot it was French.
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viva la France 🇫🇷