davbiken You have an early 70's bike boom era Gitane Gran Sport Deluxe which was the upgraded version of the entry level Gran Sport model. Gitane used the Gran Sport model name from the late 60's until about 1976.
We assembled 100's of Gran Sport/Grand Sport Deluxe bikes BITD. They were poorly packed. Your bike looks better than many of the bikes we pulled out of the shipping boxes.
In Europe, 100mm became the de facto standard front hub width except for France where the standard width was 96mm up into the early 80's. Better quality French bikes indiscriminately came in either width:
"Is it wrong or just French"...
The wheel centering problem was common, even on new bikes out of the box. It could be as
bikemig mentioned, the front wheel needs to be dished but more likely, the fork is misaligned.
If you're lucky, the dropouts are misaligned and that's and easy adjustment. This video shows you how to make and use inexpensive dropout/fork end alignment tools. Start at 1:26 minutes in the video:
Frequently the fork blades themselves were not accurately brazed into the fork crown and are not aligned with the steerer tube. That's more work and can turn into a can of worms!
Fortunately, the fork blades are made of soft steel tubing that can be easily bent (a few times but as the steel gets work hardened from repeated bending it gets stronger and harder to bend).
On a bike like yours, you can cheat a little - when you get the alignment close, use a round file to deepen the slot a little - (1-2mm) in the offending fork end.
IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTE!!! Change those plastic brake levers to metal ones. They easily broke when new! DON'T TRUST 50 YEAR OLD PLASTIC BRAKE (BREAK) LEVERS!!!
Gitane Mixtes came in 3 sizes: 50cm, 54cm and 57cm seat tube heights. Yours looks to be the rarer 57cm size, measured from the center of the BB spindle to the top of the tube.
les spécifications sont sujettes à modification sans préavis - Specifications Subject To Change without notice.... and they did...
Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.(component wise until you opened the box)
Oh, just one more thing.... Remove the brake pad holders and sand at least 1mm off of the rubber faces of the pads. 50 year old rubber doesn't stop well.
Enjoy!
verktyg
