Classic & Vintage - Gitane mixte 10 speed w/ cottered cranks

Picked up another thrift shop bike tonight on the way home, I'll post some pics tomorrow or later tonight. Details and questions:

Cottered cranks
Suntour (I think) rear derailleur
Front derailleur says Simplex on the cage and is the old single push rod style instead of a parallelogram style (whatever the proper term for it is)
27" steel rims with ancient tires
What look like original Mafac plastic brake levers, and which are probably impossible to find replacements if they ever break.
Centerpull brakes.
An aftermarket upright handlebar with some newer thumb style shifter levers.
Looks like it originally had downtube shifters which thankfully it looks like whoever did the conversion they left the original bits in place and just removed the levers by themselves.
A few scrapes in the green paint but most or all the stickers look in excellent condition as far as I can tell so far.

I'll post the model name and better specifics later. I'll also be searching the site here to try and figure out what the original handlebar and seat looked like.

If anybody has any blind guesses of how old this one might be until pics are posted feel free to blindly speculate. Also please let me know about the brake levers and front derailleur so I know how fragile and common or rare they might be, I don't want to blindly start replacing things for durability if I don't have to.

Walked out to the car while posting this. The model name is Grand Sport Delux. The brake arms say Mafac Racer.

Edit to add: forgot to mention the bike also has the old long arm wingnuts for axle nuts, all four there with no broken off wings. Sure hope I'm not the first one to break a wingnut arm while trying to get them tight enough.

I just fixed one up, gents model. Early 70's. The classic french "bike boom" bike. Mixte models were really nice. And the colors were bright and 70's-ish.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b9d732b3127ccef84ebfcf55da00000040O08UcN27Zs3B7efCA/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

Early 70s, maybe older with that push rod FD. Can you say French sizing? FD clamp is an odd size, ditto seat post, bb, headset, and stem as I recall. Reuse everything you can, or find a replacement spindle to update the crank. A good donor RD and alloy wheelset will really improve the bike if you are going to keep it.

I have a UJ10 (juvenile version of the Peugeot U08) with those axle wingnuts. Pretty common on low end bikes from that era.

A couple quick night pics

looking at http://www.gitaneusa.com/catalogues01.asp it appears that the 1968 model was called a Grand Sport Luxe and a 1970 model was simply a Grand Sport, so I don't know when the "De" was put into the name.

http://www.gitaneusa.com/images/catalog/1970_pg2.jpg

http://www.gitaneusa.com/images/catalog/1968/1968_pg2.jpg

Doesn't look bad with the swept back handlebars, full fenders, and a lighter seat. Gives me something to build towards.

The bike cleaned up fairly well. Swapped out the handlebars for some that looked better on it. I left the big old sprung seat on it but swapped out the seat post for one that fit the tube better. New tires and tubes. 50cm seat tube so too small for me. Just thought some might like to see the final pics of it.

And it turns out someone just cut the shifter levers off and left the body of them so they could use the assembly as cable stops. I just left it as is since many folks seem to like the shifters up on top.

Looks really appealing cleaned up and photographed like that. I bet it would be a quick sale on CL in a major city or college town like, say, Madison...

That's a creative reuse of the Simplex shifters. As much as I love downtube shifters with drop bars, I admit they work less well with upright bars.

You might be amused at the bike I saw on Chicago CL today, another example of what could be done with a pretty green French mixte:
Beautiful Single Speed/Fixed Gear Peugeot Mixtee 52cm - $420 (Bucktown - Western Blue Line Stop)

Date: 2009-09-21, 5:58PM CDT
Reply to: see below

Beautiful Single Speed/Fixed Gear Peugeot Mixtee 52cm $420

Bike can be customized as you like, handle bars, wheels, seat/saddle, grips/bartape, racks, baskets etc. Be Creative!!!

Color is a Beautiful Emerald Green

Bike has been completely rebuilt with all new bearings.

Bottom Bracket has been replace with a sealed cartridge unit (yes, sealed cartridge in a French Bike, I came across a few)

Crankset is original crank to the bike. It is nice, straight, strong and light.

Wheels are New Handbuilt (not factory laced) Black Weinmann DP18 laced with DT 2.0 Silver Spokes to Silver Formula Hubs. Very Strong Wheels!

Tires are Kenda Kontender 700 x 23 tires with a nice thick riding surface. New Tubes and Rim Strip Tape as well.

Bars are currently a very nice French Style Cruiser Bar which I will gladly change out for you, I love them.

Brakes are a strong Tektro Long Reach Dual Pivot Brake with Cane Creek Grey Matter Brake Pads. Stopping Power.

Saddle is currently a rare Brooks B15 in Brown, it is part of my collection, I will not part with it. But we can come up with something, maybe a B17 or a B72.

This bike rides beautiful. Will make one hell of a Grocery Getter or a nice Weekend Cruiser. You can turn it into a speedy Fixed Ride if you like, but.....

Call 773 507 5796

http://i872.photobucket.com/albums/ab282/readytoridebikes/Bicycles/Peugeot%20Mixtee%20-%20Emerald%20Green%20-%2052cm%20Single%20Speed/th_PeugeotMixtee-EmeraldGreen-52cmS-7.jpg (http://s872.photobucket.com/albums/ab282/readytoridebikes/Bicycles/Peugeot%20Mixtee%20-%20Emerald%20Green%20-%2052cm%20Single%20Speed/?action=view&current=PeugeotMixtee-EmeraldGreen-52cmS-7.jpg) http://i872.photobucket.com/albums/ab282/readytoridebikes/Bicycles/Peugeot%20Mixtee%20-%20Emerald%20Green%20-%2052cm%20Single%20Speed/th_PeugeotMixtee-EmeraldGreen-52cmS-6.jpg (http://s872.photobucket.com/albums/ab282/readytoridebikes/Bicycles/Peugeot%20Mixtee%20-%20Emerald%20Green%20-%2052cm%20Single%20Speed/?action=view&current=PeugeotMixtee-EmeraldGreen-52cmS-6.jpg) http://i872.photobucket.com/albums/ab282/readytoridebikes/Bicycles/Peugeot%20Mixtee%20-%20Emerald%20Green%20-%2052cm%20Single%20Speed/th_PeugeotMixtee-EmeraldGreen-52cmS-5.jpg (http://s872.photobucket.com/albums/ab282/readytoridebikes/Bicycles/Peugeot%20Mixtee%20-%20Emerald%20Green%20-%2052cm%20Single%20Speed/?action=view&current=PeugeotMixtee-EmeraldGreen-52cmS-5.jpg) http://i872.photobucket.com/albums/ab282/readytoridebikes/Bicycles/Peugeot%20Mixtee%20-%20Emerald%20Green%20-%2052cm%20Single%20Speed/th_PeugeotMixtee-EmeraldGreen-52cmS-4.jpg (http://s872.photobucket.com/albums/ab282/readytoridebikes/Bicycles/Peugeot%20Mixtee%20-%20Emerald%20Green%20-%2052cm%20Single%20Speed/?action=view&current=PeugeotMixtee-EmeraldGreen-52cmS-4.jpg) http://i872.photobucket.com/albums/ab282/readytoridebikes/Bicycles/Peugeot%20Mixtee%20-%20Emerald%20Green%20-%2052cm%20Single%20Speed/th_PeugeotMixtee-EmeraldGreen-52cmS-3.jpg (http://s872.photobucket.com/albums/ab282/readytoridebikes/Bicycles/Peugeot%20Mixtee%20-%20Emerald%20Green%20-%2052cm%20Single%20Speed/?action=view&current=PeugeotMixtee-EmeraldGreen-52cmS-3.jpg) http://i872.photobucket.com/albums/ab282/readytoridebikes/Bicycles/Peugeot%20Mixtee%20-%20Emerald%20Green%20-%2052cm%20Single%20Speed/th_PeugeotMixtee-EmeraldGreen-52cmS-2.jpg (http://s872.photobucket.com/albums/ab282/readytoridebikes/Bicycles/Peugeot%20Mixtee%20-%20Emerald%20Green%20-%2052cm%20Single%20Speed/?action=view&current=PeugeotMixtee-EmeraldGreen-52cmS-2.jpg) http://i872.photobucket.com/albums/ab282/readytoridebikes/Bicycles/Peugeot%20Mixtee%20-%20Emerald%20Green%20-%2052cm%20Single%20Speed/th_PeugeotMixtee-EmeraldGreen-52cmS-1.jpg (http://s872.photobucket.com/albums/ab282/readytoridebikes/Bicycles/Peugeot%20Mixtee%20-%20Emerald%20Green%20-%2052cm%20Single%20Speed/?action=view&current=PeugeotMixtee-EmeraldGreen-52cmS-1.jpg) http://i872.photobucket.com/albums/ab282/readytoridebikes/Bicycles/Peugeot%20Mixtee%20-%20Emerald%20Green%20-%2052cm%20Single%20Speed/th_PeugeotMixtee-EmeraldGreen-52cmSing.jpg (http://s872.photobucket.com/albums/ab282/readytoridebikes/Bicycles/Peugeot%20Mixtee%20-%20Emerald%20Green%20-%2052cm%20Single%20Speed/?action=view&current=PeugeotMixtee-EmeraldGreen-52cmSing.jpg)