fenester

When I was a kid (around '79) my Dad got me a used road bike. Original tangerine-ish paint, no front derailleur, rear derailleur w/ a 3-speed cassette and a shifter on the down tube. It was small enough for an average/large 9 year old boy.
I've been trying for days to figure out what kind of bike it was (I have no recollection). All of my searches here and on the net at large return pages referring to the more common 3-speed planetary hubs.

Does anyone have any leads for me? (a possible model/brand or another site to search)

Thanks in advance for any help!

-fen.

MnHPVA Guy

Many french manufacturers made mini "10 Speeds" back in the 70s with 3 speed freewheels, not cassettes. Motobecane and Gitane come to mind. Usually with 500A (ETRTO 440-37) tires. Sometimes 450A or 550A

Here's my youngest, Eli now 33 years old, on our 500A wheeled Gitane.



Over the years we would loan it out or sell it and it always came back to me. One owner was Steve Flagg, who later founded QPB. One of his daughters still rides with Eli. At least 10 kids rode it till they grew out of it. It must have been a good experience as most of them grew up to be cyclists. It would really turn heads when people would see a 6 year old hammering along on an adult club ride.

A few years ago a couple of young roadies bought it, one had a 5y/o and a 1y/o and the other had a 3y/o. They had me build up a super light set of 451 recumbent wheels, spread the frame to take a 6 speed freewheel, shorten an alloy crank and replace all the steel bits with alloy. The final bike weighed 14 lbs. The stock bike, with everything steel but the brakes and levers only weighed 20 lbs despite thick, plain gauge frame tubes.

Rabid Koala

Gitane.

We had one in the LBS I worked in. It got a lot of attention but no one bought it. 3 speed freewheel with Huret Svelto derailleur. The catalog picture linked below shows a model with 24" wheels but they made one with 20" wheels. I think they called it the "Midget Racer"

https://www.gitaneusa.com/images/catalog/1970_pg9.jpg

bikejunkie

A while ago I posted about about a 20" wheeled road bike I was fixing up for my kids. It was a Free Spirit Pinnacle a friend brought back from California when he worked at a shop out there. It was in pretty bad shape but it had a cool lugged frame. It came with steel wheels, 5 spd derailleur, cottered cranks and cheap steel brakes and levers. The first thing I did was build up a set of Alex 390 mini rims to Shimano hubs and a 13-30 7 spd cassette. I installed a sealed B/B and 140 mm aluminum Bulletproof cranks with a 36 tooth chainring. The brakes are old Tourney with Exage levers and Tektro interrupters. The shifter is an old Altus indexed 7 spd. I added a set of 20 x 1 3/8 tires and a new seat ( it didn't have one). The paint is rough in some places but I'm not sure if I'm Going to paint it yet. My kids are still a little too young to ride it yet but we sure had fun riding it around the shop. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

fenester

That's definitely it. Great photo and story. I grew up in the L.A. area and used to ride mine w/ my parents up the beach bike path from Torrance up to Marina del Rey. Good times. Thanks again for helping me figure it out folks.
Bikejunkie, that's a sweet little ride!

MnHPVA Guy

When we bought ours, the salesman grilled us for 5 minutes, before he would take it out of the front window, to make sure we were serious customers. He said he was sick of wasting time showing it to people who were merely curious, but not ready to spend almost $100 on a kids bike.

ShellShock

Hello all....im new here and i just found this thread and thought it interesting to let fenester know that i actually have that exact same bike that was pictured. Mine is a gold color with the 20" rims. Im 33 now and i used to ride it when i was about 7 or 8. When i was riding it one time the fork stem broke and it laid in a pile for years after. I just recently got the forks welded back together, bought new cables, new seat post, had the rims cleaned and straightened and many other small things. I will give a link to a site where there is alot of interesting things about Gitane bikes. I also posted some pics of the bike i have in parts. I do not have a pic of it all together yet but maybe this will help shed some light on the bike you had too.

https://www.gitaneusa.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=372