In 2008 while my wife was in Ghana bringing home our newly adopted daughter I got the hankering to buy another bike to put on the indoor winter trainer. I had just gotten back into cycling pretty hard that year, after a few off, and didn't want to abuse my only road bike year round.

I stopped by a bike shop 50 miles from my house while working one day and my eyes instantly went to a blue and yellow Gitane. I knew it was a decent bike, but wasn't real familiar with the brand. I had another appointment so I took a couple of photos and posted them here on C&V with a request for some input. 45 minutes later I headed back to the shop. The shop guys told me a man in his 70's had traded the bike and two vintage Bianchis (they were gone quickly) in for a hybrid at his wife's urging. His wife supposedly made him get rid of the bikes.

The price was $199 but would include a quick tune up and a new spoke for the rear wheel. I agreed to come back 5 days later to pick it up. I waited impatiently to say the least. The bike also had two sets of bars - the old "one piece" huge triathlon/aero style bars and regular drop bars. The shop would switch those for me.

When I showed up the following week the shop manager says "I told you $150, right". "Um, yeah" was my reply. I was a little disappointed to get home and realize they didn't fix the spoke and the Simplex SX 630 rear derailleur had a broken jockey wheel - but those were easily fixed.

The bike rode fantastically and started my love affair with French bikes all over again and accelerated my descent into the black hole known as C&V.



I put almost 1400 miles on the bike in 2009. The bike is now sporting tubular Mavic set up to save some weight and the original Module E's are hanging in the shop. It rides even better now.