spider-man

Anyone remember the shop? I have been restoring an early '70s Raleigh Sports three-speed with a friend, and it has all its decals, including a sticker from the shop that sold it. "Your granddaddy bought his Tulane bicycle at Gus Betat," it says.

The company had a number of stores in the New Orleans area and in Baton Rouge, but the original one opened in 1886 in the Big Easy, just around the corner from my house. When it closed a few years ago, it was the oldest bike shop in the country.

Someone locally has what is described as a '50s Tulane brand cruiser for sale on craigslist. (Asking far too much, I believe.) Probably sold by Betat, I would venture. Anybody remember the bikes or the shop?

phoebeisis

Spiderman-boy do I ever remember Betat's-on Broad St not so far from the Schwegmans.It was THE shop in NO.I bought my Mercian frame there and a fair number of oddball Hi E parts.They had rows of high end frames in there during the 70's-real eye candy!!I special ordered the Mercian frame-tooks months-4-6 maybe-to come in.I remember checking the exchange rate to get an idea if it was going to increase in price.When it finally came in he ran a special tap thru the BB installed the headset,and I took it home like a new baby.
Greg Gulotta was the owner-mgr-during the 70's-nice guy.He died suddenly-late 70's early 80's at a young-under 40-age.
They also had a high end shop on Vets that Glen Gulotta ran for quite a while.
Memories.Thanks.Charlie

Kommisar89

Just ran across this old thread - I remember Gus Betat on Causeway Blvd. in Metairie across from Lakeside Shopping Center in the 70's. Never made it to the Broad St. store. I bought my original Bottecchia there in 1974. I loved that place. I think it's a vet clinic or something now. In the 90's Glen Gulotta had a small shop about a block north of there, also on Causeway Blvd. It was gone when I last visited in 2004 or so.

bo pro

I'm also discovering this thread late! Out of curiosity I Googled Gus Betat today after a ride on the Bottecchia Pro I bought there as a student in 1973. Back then I had just come to New Orleans from a small southern town where the lawn mower store was where you bought bikes and Gus Betat's was Heaven. Sorry to hear about Greg's passing, I have the receipt for the bike to this day which he signed. Until not too long ago still had a Gus Betat jersey too (wool). That was a boom time for bikes, I read that the price of energy is creating another bike boom today. Bike Forums looks like a pretty amazing board, looking forward to reading more.

frameteam2003

A few years ago I got the pleasure of meeting Buddy Gulotta at the louisiana bicycle festival(and his wife)
Betat's bicycle also was the distributor for most bicycle parts sold in the South West--if a local bike shop in San antonio had a part --most likely it came tru Betat's.

Kommisar89

Welcome to Bike Forums, it really is a great place for cycling info. Just curious, how much much was a Pro back then? The Bottecchia Special was more in my price range at the time: $175. Betat's was a great shop. Can you post some pics of your Professional?

bo pro

It was $360 for the Bottecchia Pro back in '73. I think I got a club discount of 10% on that.

I'll post a photo when I get a moment, bike (blue) is in pretty good shape but few
vintage components on it. Hope I still have the originals in a packing box somewhere.


Lived in manhattan a while which makes for painful choices about storage.

Kommisar89

Thanks! This is more or less what my Giro d'Italia looks like right now except for the rear derailleur which I recently swapped for a Campagnolo Rally long cage derailleur and wide range freewheel. Not original are the rims/tires (the original Fiamme Red labels/tubulars have been swapped for Rigida AL1622 clincher rims/tires), the seatpost which is now 3TTT and of course the Look pedals.

Kommisar89

Team photos circa 1972 and 1986 from the New Orleans Bicycle Club website https://www.neworleansbicycleclub.org/nobchist.htm:

Edblanco

I worked at Betat's from '70 to '72 when I finished at UNO. I had the time of my life working there and bought a Giro Bottechia athat lasted a long time. Did not know that Greg had passed. Really sorry to hear that. I worked in the mai building on Broad st and he ran the tenspeed shop. I use to assemble bike there with Henry and other great guys I have the fondest memories of.

bikethom

Gus Betat's was one of the places I always visited in the 80s, along with that shop that I can't remember the name of that was located on (or near, I think) the corner of Clairborne and Napoleon (is my geography way off?) when I was a young bike racer from Mississippi. N.O. was the big city for me. Never bought a bike there, but both had lots of bits and pieces that were mighty nice.

The city has always been a bike-friendly place, in my memory, and when I return.

bikemig 

I grew up in New Orleans and knew Glen Gulotta. I worked at the Bikesmith in New Orleans when I was in college, raced a bit, and rode a lot. So I even recognize some of the faces in those pics . . .

jjhabbs 

Not trying to be gross. but this bike made me mess myself. wow. so cool

Kommisar89

It is purdy ain't it? Currently it wears white bar tape and a 3TTT Record stem. I'm considering putting the original Stronglight 49D crank back on to allow more flexibility with gearing. It turns out, it's actually a '73 Gran Turismo rather than a '72 Giro d'Italia as I originally thought. Prior to '73 the Gran Turismo model was a hi-tensile steel frame similar to the Special model but in '73 it was changed to use the same Columbus frame as the Giro and the Professional, hence the original confusion.

Catnap 

classy build!!! i like everything about it. nice execution, it's got shiny bits in all the right places.

Kommisar89

Thanks. It's also evolved to be a very functional bike. I first built it with tubulars and a Nuovo Record RD and 14-28 freewheel and single bottle cage. It was light and fast but flatted often and didn't have the gearing to handle to big hills on longer rides so made some subtle changes to fix that without significantly changing the look and style. I swapped the tubulars for clinchers and mounted up Panaracer Pasela TG 700x28s which are close to bullet proof, swapped out the RD for a first gen. Rally RD and 14-34 freewheel, and located a matching handlebar mount REG bottle cage for extra fluid capacity. In the picture it's sort of half way there but doesn't have the Rally yet. I also wanted to use the stem for my Special model build so I swapped that out for the 3TTT Record. The changes made it a much more practical ride but added some weight (2.5-lbs) and slowed the steering and acceleration a bit. The wheels/tires are the main culprit with all of that as they weigh 420gr. each (alnost a pound each!) more than the tubulars they replaced. Adding that weight and a little extra pneumatic trail was quite noticeable at first but I've since gotten used to it. I'd love to get my other two Bottecchias on the rode too but other priorities have left them sitting in the garage for the past couple of years.

Kommisar89

I'm resurrecting this old thread to keep all the info in one place. I recently ran across this update on the old Gus Betat shop that I thought some of you might find interesting: https://neworleansbicycleclub.org/archives/Gus_Betat.htm.

Globallyoff

I actually ordered a custom Gus Betat frameset back in the early 1970's. After a fairly long wait, I got it. As I remember, it was 531 throughout. It was one of their early frames. The geometry was not so good, so I sold it when I lived in Austin, and got a Grandis frameset. Still have the Grandis. I'm pretty sure the frames were built in house.