We routinely removed the "Email Luxe Polymerize" decals as we assembled Gitanes out of the box. They frequently started to peel off by themselves plus in that condition they looked like crap on a new bike in the showroom!

The decals came on the right, left or sometimes both chain stays!

Email Luxe Polymerize translates into Luxury Polymerized Enamel.... NOT! Gitane used lacquer not enamel paint. They used a heavy white filler/primer to cover up the pits in the tubes from sandblasting before painting. The low end models were the worst. Typical Gran Sport dings. Gitane used finer grit sand on their better models.



BTW, just about every Gitanebuilt for the US market during the foil decal era - late 1967-1974 had those "Custom Made" stickers on the seat tube!


At the height of the bike boom, Gitane was shipping bikes out with thin brown paper wrapped around the frames. Many times the wheels were packed loose, rolling around in the boxes! Most of the paint scratches in bike boom Gitanes resulted from poor packing at the factory!

It was so bad that Gitane provided Mel Pinto with touch up paint kits that had little 2 oz. cans of all of the Gitane colors for bike shops to touch up the new bikes. We also received bundles of Gitane foil decals with red or blue seat and down tube panels. (Velocal set)



Replacement decals for the performance models were unavailable. (Cyclomondo set)




We wrote the poor packing off to Gallic disdain for "les Américains".... Of course, "Is it wrong or just French"?


The "Service Course" decals on the right side of the top tubes got chewed up from normal contact and riding. Those decals were only used on the Gitane performance/competition models.




verktyg

Chas.