Here's a picture of my 1970s Gitane Team that I got a few years ago. I collected parts for years and finally got a nice frame. Since this is bicyclelog, I thought I'd focus on bikes for a while. I've been nostalgic about cycling in Missoula and a simpler time in my life, when most summer days were spent riding my Stella 10 speed. I don't ride this Gitane very often but it's always a pleasure when I do. I'm going to have to take this bike to Missoula and go for a ride I guess.***
I've been calling this a Gitane Team as it has a decal that says Racing Team on the chain stay. Clearly the bike came equipped with campy record as the frame came with a campy bottom bracket and also a campy headset. Also I could tell that it had the campy top tube cable clips as the paint was slightly faded in those spots, and so I put the exact same clips back on. Also has a campy end bolt. But back in the early 70s the Gitane lineup was from Grand Sport, Interclub, Tour de France and the top of the line campy record equipped bike was the Super Corsa. And of course they had some bikes below the Grand Sport too.
Anyway, this bike is a mid 70s and I suspect that even though this bike had full campy, it would probably be called a Tour de France, or a Team not a Super Corsa. It does not have campy dropouts on it. It has the funky honey comb rear dropouts that I used to think were so cool.
4 comments:
I like this color alot. You would look really nice on this bike. :)
Thanks Jules! I always liked gold bikes but Gitane had some nice paint colors including this red.
I like that color too! It's pretty much the same color as my car.
I know you know I'm shopping for a new bike - maybe you can blog about what are good things to look for? I feel really intimidated when it comes to bicycle shopping. It feels like there are so many things to think about and look out for!
Part of what makes a new bike fun is how pretty the paint is on them.
I'll make a post about what I'd look for in a new bike. Of course it would be different from person to person.
The main things I guess would be, that a new bike fits your body, and your needs first, and then of course your budget. With entry level road bikes starting around $1000, the budget might be the hardest thing to fit.
When I bought my last road bike I took the cost and divided it per mile. The first mile cost me $1700. After the second mile the cost was down to $850 per mile and so on. So the more you ride, the better the value they are and the more you can justify an expensive bike :)
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