tiger1964 

One of the FIVE bikes I intend to rebuild/restore this winter. This one I’ve owned the longest, bought it at age 17 in early 1974 when I found it hanging in the back of a bike shop: just a spray-bombed frame, two wheels and a bag of parts. I have no idea what it originally was (I was told it was a 1961 Gitane, Reynolds straight-gauge main tubes and Durifort stays & forks), so I’ll do what I please. I started working on this 2 years ago and stopped when, yet again, I let a large household project take over my life.

In 2018, I had a frame shop add a pump peg on the top tube, and TWO cable stops on the right chain stay. The latter is so I can use a Simplex 543 rear derailleur. At the time PastorBob helped me out with a narrow-width 6-speed cluster so I am planning on that and a single 50T chainring for a total of six gears, plenty here in central MD but not if I head for hillier terrain. The cranks are the original (?) Stronglight 49’s. The bars and stem I bought here at BF , the bars are Mavic “Compte de Coucy" (I bought just for the cool name) and the stem has no name. I have a nice Ideale saddle and a straight post, and a clamp I made up as a kid, Ideale micro-adjusting and half steel and half alloy because I could never afford the alloy-railed saddles. The wheels will be the one major non-French bit, Campagnolo high-flange Record hubs and 700C rims (I need to go look are the brand); maybe I could paint the hubs’ center clips TriColor to make them look somewhat French?

This one I’ll have a dilemma on concerning decals. (A) I can get Gitane decals but the oldest I’ve found are the early-1970’s foil ones, pretty but age-inappropriate; (B) I could get custom decals from https://doityourselflettering.com and I had one idea — Get decals reading VIEUX CHARLES for the down tubes and the number 54 on the head tube, kinda a tribute bike to the aircraft flown by French ace Georges Guynemer; (C) get custom decals but just reading Gitane.

tkamd73 

Very nice! You must have gotten a deal on some red paint, or you have a lot of it, or you just like red, or lastly the bikes were all red originally.
Tim

tiger1964 

I should have also mentioned - all of these came back from the powder coater today. Yes, I like bright red (my 6th bike is red, my wife’s too, and we have 2-1/2 red cars); the coater gave me a discount for doing all five bikes, and two forks, all the same color. It will take componentry and decals to give each a distinctive appearance.

tiger1964 

Just an in-progress photo, all five bikes are taking a while and I am jumping around between them as I source parts, etc. But as I had the wheels for the Gitane looking better, and with tires on it, I thought I'd post a picture.

tiger1964 

Assembling things finger-tight just to make sure everything fits. Another photo soon-ish.


I think I got lucky with the crankset. Stronglight 49 arms, and I had bought a Velo Orange French sealed BB of 113mm length. Wow, the base of the DS arm near the spindle is super close, but clear. 50T TA ring looks good, using Velo Orange bolts (and I bought the double-chainring set thinking I'd install them even though there's only one ring; unsure about that, adds 31 grams by the way), and by eyeball the chainring is aligned between the 3rd and 4th comes of the 13-24 narrow-6 freewheel, so that seems right. Hmm, I need to check once I tighten things but the Velo Orange-supplied crank-to-spindle bolts might have a thick enough head to keep the Stronglight 93 dust caps I've been saving from threading in 100%. Grinder time!


A couple of years ago before I stopped working on this, I had bought a pair of the Shimano SPD pedals that have SPD attachment on one side and a platform for street shoes on the other. In a topic back then I described flipping the cages and adding half-toe-clips, the idea being "fake toe clips" appearance while still having the clipless feature. Alas, I forgot that the pedals are English thread - luckily, I had ordered a set of taps so I'll correct that problem (what does one use as tapping fluid when working on aluminum?)


Need to rig something to ensure good alignment when I drill the stem for the brake cable.


As you can see in the one photo, I am running 25mm tires but there's a huge amount of room; if I ever become a convert to fat tires I could run at least 30's if not 32's.


Next step might be to disassemble the Simplex 543, it probably has all of 25 miles on it since I got it new-in-box in the 70's, and I presume that any lube inside has ossified.

xiaoman1 

What a "Tease"...color looks great.
Best, Ben

tiger1964 

I don't mean to "tease", I'm just a poor photographer, and an indolent one. More to come!

Yeah, the crank dust caps won't screw in all the way. I measured and the bolts supplied with the Velo Orange BB have a head 7.25mm thick including the integral washer. That seems thick, anyone know of thinner ones?

I looked online and found a forum like this one, but for machinists; a lot of things were recommenced for tapping aluminum, but one I saw pop up a few times is automotive AFT and I have some laying around (we've never had cars w/automatics but at least one car had a manual trans that takes ATF). So, unless there's a better idea, wrap each crank arm in an old rubber inner tube, clamp into a vise, and tap away.

Looking closer at the Simplex 543, it's in really nice shape and some cleaning reveals a full breakdown is not needed IMHO. You can pull the spiral "springy cover" for the actual spring and the plunger shaft, and the latter slides nicely. I think I'll smear some Park grease in the there and proceed. I pulled the pulleys apart as they did need cleaning/repacking and had all the parts loose before noticing that the pulleys are assemetrical -- the flanges on either side are much different in thickness and I do not know why. I am hoping the side with the Simplex text, and the thicker flange, faces out from the bike (or how would you read the text?).

Still thinking over the six don't-do-anything bolts on the chainring; I wish I could think of a way to cut them down in thickness.

tiger1964 

PHOTO BELOW (hey, I told you I was a poor photographer!)

The retapping of the cranks was easier than I thought — once I had the correct tap handle. I ordered one on-line “up to 1/2” when the square shank-end was about 3/8”. Too small, apparently they are talking thread sizes not shank sizes. Two stops at Home Depot and Granger’s were no-go, you’d think no one tapped threads anymore. The next online tap handle, I would think oversized at up to 1”, was just right. And once I was super careful to not cross-thread, and 150% sure I was not putting the LH in the RH crank (poorly marked!), the thread sizes were so close that there was little resistance (presumably, the ATF worked as tapping fluid) and the taps went right through. Now the English thread SPD pedals go right in; with the half toe clips on, they hang down so that I need to install pedal flips.

Not knowing more about the crank bolts, I was looking online and saw chrome Sugino ones for sale, not sure of head thickness, I probably need to contact the selling dealer. I really like the look of the Stronglight 49 cranks with the flush 93 dust caps. I am open to any alternative suggestions! Even the ones that take a big Allen wrench, as long as I can fit them under the dust caps.

Have not ordered handlebar tape and cable yet, my wife is not so sure of my latest idea of “Tri-Color” scheme, with blue tape and housing. And where do I get a white, traditional “shorty” water bottle? Or any traditional-length bottles for that matter? And to get enough white to offset the red and the blue, would a white frame pump look right?

The drivetrain is more of less on. However, there seems a lot of “drag” somewhere. The hubs are very smooth and spin, the freewheel is a fresh PastorBob special and is smooth, and of course the Velo Orange sealed bearing bottom bracket. By themselves, each component has little friction. Together, once the new KMC chain is on, just drags a bit. Why? Chainline still looks fine to my eye with the chainring aimed between rear cogs 3 & 4 of the Compact 6 speed. What gives? Oh, I did find one thing: a little grinding sound it took a while to locate. On the Simplex 543, overall it looks nice but the bolt to secure the “hook” hanger to the dropout was not pretty, so I stole one off a Huret Luxe Competition, nice and shiny. Apparently it was just long enough that the end of the bolt, that stuck through the nut, was slightly contacting the last cog on the freewheel! I need to grind a bit; these components were never meant to go together. And because I have not installed cables, all of my installation fiddling has been on the largest cog — backwards from my usual experience; I am guessing on things like chain length and also the setting of the adjustable cage-tension spring (any Simplex 543 experts out there?) Oh, and apparently I was correct about the pulley orientation, per earlier post; the pulleys and chain are centered in the cage.

Still looking for a nice non-Allen seat post bolt for the bike (and a few other bikes, these seem hard to find), so the one in the photo is a placeholder. As I destroyed the original (?) post getting it out of the frame a couple of years back, I needed a new one. Spent a lot of time with the micrometer, going around and around the opening and of course getting slightly different readings. Settled on 25.8mm. A straight alloy post in that size was available, SunRace brand via Amazon, and seems like a great fit but quite long at 350mm, might need cutting down. It’s holding up the Ideale model 45 saddle I got here on BF a couple of years back, and I have the half-alloy micro-adjusting clamp on but the little adjusting bolts are part of a batch of parts at the chrome shop — I hope, or I’ve lost them!

Any opinion on the “the six don't-do-anything bolts on the chainring; I wish I could think of a way to cut them down in thickness” or does the bike look OK with six empty holes in the chainring?

markk900

I think it looks fine; factory even; with the holes. Lovely job!

Markeologist

I've been using Elite's vintage-style short water bottles...I have been very happy with them. Look around, I think they have solid color models as well.

Ex Pres 

Though not period, I'd try red (to match paint) or white (to match your planned pump) bolts to fill the holes. Or maybe even blue to match the planned bar tape. I'm a little goofy that way. But they're fine as-is.

tiger1964 

Thanks. From a distance I agree, from close up you can see counterbores in the holes, clearly for fitting some kind of bolt, I am less certain. The good news is I can readily change my mind on this at any time!

~Did not know about that brand, I've been searching online for the Elite brand now, not finding blank ones yet but I'll keep looking! As I don't participate in L'eroica, I don't really want a bottle that says that. Blank, or a brand of bike I have, or a brand of component I have, that's fine.

Had not thought about that; interesting if I found the correct bolts. And I do have exact match paint, both touch-up bottle and spray bomb, in the correct red.

tiger1964 

I cannot find them on Elite's website, but if they do custom imprints, they must have blank bottles, eh? I finally found an e-mail address today and sent them a message. I had been looking online, I see various sellers have the white bottle with black checks; it looks OK and found sellers as low as $3.99 (!) but shipping of over $20 (!!!!)


Meanwhile, doing other stuff, I have one order weather-delayed with the matching handlebar tape and cable housing, so the next photo might have more to look at..


Grinding the protruding bolt down means it no longer contacts the freewheel's 6th cog, so at least that grinding sound is gone.


Had a setback on the stem (first, I measured and the stem is 21.9mm in diameter and the inside of the steerer is 22.1mm... close enough?) I was planning on drilling the stem in lieu of a housing stop for the front brake in the headset stack. However, I was predrilling the hole with a small-diameter 1/16" pilot drill, and about 1/8" broke off deep inside. I cannot seem to bore past it. Perhaps I should have started out full-diameter. I briefly thought of those tubular screw-remover extracting bits, but I think those are for wood only. So I may have to backfill the tiny hole and go with a hanging housing stop. NOT HAPPY. Might need to fill the hole w/liquid aluminum and polish it flat.


So many sellers out of things. I was planning on a small order of MKS pedal flips, thinner-head crankset bolts (as I mentioned, I saw some Sugino's on a website) and perhaps a white bottle, even if it does have imprint. But so many things are out of stock that I'd be placing three different orders and shipping on each... frustrating, even though the cases are obvious.

tiger1964 

Uh, no, they replied and do not offer plain bottles. You'd think there was a viable market, eh?

Handlebar tape looks great IMHO (photo coming), from a few feet away the tape looks cloth-is, but it's Velo Orange "Foamy" tape in blue and the cable housing matches nicely. Hmm, I was measuring and this is interesting. I had a brazed-on arch type housing stop added to the frame for the rear brake; the inside diameter of the braze-on is about 7.62 mm (30-caliber if I was making machine gun bullets, eh?) but the ferrule on the housing is 2mm smaller... is there a ferrule to span the difference?

Speaking of Velo Orange, I got one of their clamp-on housing stops for the front brake - but the diameter demands that it clamps to the steerer tube, not the stem's vertical shaft. As I already have a stack-height problem, that's no-go. So I need to root around and hope I have a hanger that displaces the headset washer.

i heard back from a seller of some alternative crank bolts. "The bolt head is 5mm thick and the washer is 1.8mm thick" on some Sugino bolts for a toal of 6.8mm, not a big change in thickness and I really need room under the Stronglight 93 dust caps get them to fit flush. I guess I could start grinding...

Markeologist

[QUOTE=tiger1964;21944302]Uh, no, they replied and do not offer plain bottles. You'd think there was a viable market, eh?
You would think so! I got a pair at Eroica Calif a few years back, the plastic they use is not only BPA free but it is very flexible...you can really squeeze the beejesus out of these bottles. I liked them so much I bought a few of the "Fly" models in solid red that my wife and I now use on our XO-1s. I like both models, maybe you can live with the slightly less retro Fly model as they do come in a small/short size.
​... And solid colors

tiger1964 

Yeah, Fly is my fallback. Ugh. I'll keep looking. I'd think just the members here at C&V BF would buy 100's. I wouldn't even mind imprints, if they were germane... but most of my bikes are brands I won't find on a bottle (found MASI on eBay but Gran Criterium not Gran Corse, so...) and components I own/use would be OK, I have aCAmpy bottle here but over the decades the logo wore off. I wouldn't mind Simplex, Mafac, Stronglight, etc... but I figured blank would be easiest to find. So far -- frustration.

Markeologist

...I'll have to dig out my "Gitane" water bottle and post a pic...its not the later all lower case script models which are re-popped but is vintage and uses the same script that came out in foil era in second half of 60s and ran into early 70s...like what you put on your Gitane. Its going on my 66/67 CdM when I get back to that project.

tiger1964 

I guess the correct response to that is Well, anyway, I promised a photo so here's one as I get closer:

Markeologist

As promised, vintage Gitane water bottle plus a contemporaneous cap too.

tiger1964 

(LATEST PHOTOS INCLUDED BELOW)

Well, I contacted the frame builder that had added “brazed-on arch type housing stop” for the rear brake, about what ferrule to use; he replied back “you do realize it’s threaded for a 5mm adjuster barrel, right?” Uh, no, I had not looked. He was right, so I got one and threaded it in, so I have some adjustment there now.

With the wrong front cable hanger ordered from Velo Orange, I went to get one that displaces the washer in the headset; VO was out of stock. So I ordered online via Amazon a Sunlite one, plain design and no name on it, this a simple adjusting barrel. Alas, pretty picture of a silver one and did not notice buried in the description: “black”. Aargh! Contacted vendor, they were cool about it and simply refunded my money, they say Amazon controls content (???) Well, until I find one in silver, the black one is in place (ugh!)

Still tinkering with the shifting, it did not want to drop into 6th. Plus, not all that quiet when pedaling on the stand, chain noise. I should have looked earlier — derailleur cage not vertical! The derailleur itself looks straight, hard to tell if it’s the “claw” or the (stamped) dropout. So I tried bending-by-eye, but stopped when I might have been making it worse… although, now it is tentatively dropping into 6th (Still a good chance this will become the world’s first Simplex 6543 derailleur)! So, I stopped on that, and decided to spend yet more money, and ordered a pair of dropout alignment tools/gauges. Trying to save money, instead of Park I got another brand, but ordered from BikeInn before I realized they would be shipping from Spain… so I wait. They got it to the US in a couple of days, USPS covered the last couple of hundred miles either by ox sledge, or perhaps waiting for plate tectonics to get me and the package closer together. And then, I opened the box and only half the tool inside; having an infuriating time to get the seller to acknowledge the problem. Therefore the bike is not quite 100% ready.

Also, due to my marginal mastery of the Simplex 543’s adjustment methods, and the fact that if I bend it the derailleur is priceless, I seriously am considering a “spoke protector”, or Frisbee, or “dork disc” - choose the name you are most familiar with. Furthermore, if you have one underfoot, please let me know… it can be a small one as the big cog is only 26T. I have not had one on a bike in almost 50 years.

On another topic, it was recommended that the Huret (not Simplex, sorry) downtube cable guide’s tubular guide be filled with housing liner — so I got some and it fits perfectly and does not seem to want to slide out. The remaining 3.9 feet of the four-foot package might be used in other projects.

While searching for an appropriate ”vintage-look" water bottle, I got an Elite “Fly” in white, at least it’s the correct size, and minimal imprint. So, it’s white, and to complete the white part of the red-white-blue color motif, I added: (a) jeirvine here at BF supplied a correct length pump, but it had been painted yellow, so I resprayed it white and I apparently need to wait 30 days before a coat of protective wax; the chromed-plastic pump head cleaned up nicely with Novus plastic polish like I use on our cars’ headlights, and (b) I found this small white leather underseat bag on Etsy, shipped from the UK.

Finally, I found someone with the salmon Kool-Stop pads for Mafacs in stock, so I do not have to ride on rock hard black pads whose age I cannot even estimate. For some reason, much easier to pry out the old pads than on the last set of Campys that I swapped pads on. Brakes are about ready to go except that, after stretching, I’ll want to adjust the cable tension at the straddle hanger, and my particular “Fourth Hand” does not clear any crimped-on aluminum tip, so I left those off for now - that’s cheaper than going and buying a whole new tool.

pastorbobnlnh 

Better late than never (to a thread)!

What a great project and your Gitane looks so sweet!

tiger1964 

And STILL tinkering.
(A) the "claw" seemed to be clinging the derailleur priorly on two axis. So, I fabricated a hanger-bender from another topic on BF by another member, utilizing angle iron and 5/16 bolts/nuts. It was out rather a lot, so I got it as close as I could in the vertical and horizontal planes. Derailleur still looked off in the vertical compared to the sprockets, and also looking at the chain coming back from the chainring on the lower side, it engaged the sprockets at an angle. SO, I decided to re-bend the claw looking for correct results there instead of "vertical". Now, much better in those two areas but I might bend it even more.

(B) Now I really, really cannot get it to drop into the 6th cog. Theoretically a narrow-6 is the same width as a normal 5, so with the derailleur set on "5" it should span enough. And I am puzzled.

(C) Chain is a wee bit slack in all gears. Lower pivot is adjustable but even one "notch" on the adjustment brings the upper pulley high enough so the chain is contacting the bully and 5th sprocket at the same time on the same link, cluck-clunk-clunk. Upper pivot tension change seems the answer, see the instruction sheet below section "E", but there's a keyed stop-plate, washer with tang, to prevent turning it enough, and I see it's not even shown on the instruction sheet so I wonder if I should remove it, but then bolt tension on the claw is the only thing preventing the derailleur rotating forward. Anyone have ideas?

tiger1964 

And I think it looks a bit better with my eBay purchase of a very old but NOS-in-bag white water bottle with red and blue trim:

daka

(B) Now I really, really cannot get it to drop into the 6th cog. Theoretically a narrow-6 is the same width as a normal 5, so with the derailleur set on "5" it should span enough. And I am puzzled.

While the Ultra-6 FITS in nominally the same space as a five speed, I think it is actually a little wider. The outside cog on the Ultra-6 is an "S" cog whereas the five speed takes an "E" cog. On the "E" cog the teeth are centered, on the "S" they are offset. So, if the derailleur's transverse range was just barely adequate for a five it may not be enough for Ultra-6.

tiger1964 

Well, thanks! And I wonder what you think of the comment below?

I had not known that. While it's an awkward place to make such a measurement, I tried to make a centerline-to-centerline measurement on the freewheel, it looks like 26mm from 1st to 6th. Does that sound about right?