Embarking on two over-the-winter restoration/rehab/upgrade projects for relatives-of-relatives. Both are in decent condition, except a bit dirty, some scratches in paint, probably 50+ year old grease in everything, and both are heavy and I am looking for cost-effective upgrades (my goal is to present the bikes back all done by spring, and gratis).
Went for a short ride with my wife and her cousin as well, and her husband showed up on this Gitane Grand Sport. It does not look abused, but not exactly “cherished” either. I offered to, at the end of the season, to work it over and it just showed up. He said it’s from 1973 (he grew up local to us in the DC area, so one might surmise which shop it came from) but I have yet to explore the serial number. 25-1/4” seat tube c-to-t, and by my scale 30.6LB (someone recently showed a Gitane Catalog page here, and the Grand Sport was 28LB IIRC but that must have been on a small size, so close enough.
Mostly, the components are not much of a surprise. 27” steel rims on Normandy high-flange hubs (but almost unridden Pasela’s, more on that later); steel cottered cranks; Weinmann center pull brakes were probably a Bike-Boom supply-chain choice at the time; steel double-sided pedals with toe clips and straps; straight steel seat post; Pivo (yikes?) alloy stem with steel bars. Shifting is semi-unexpected: Suntour rear derailleur and shifters, and a Huet (likely original) front; well, Suntour might have been a period upgrade. That said, the RD is “locked” fully back, I wonder if the short-cage unit is at or past its max tooth count? If so, a longer cage one — or just a replacement cage — might help. If I found a long-cage Huret Jubilee combo at bargain-basement prices… well, that’s just fantasy.
Paint looks pretty good, and there is one (or more) torn decal, but Cyclomondo has them. After break-down and cleaning, a dunk in the oxalic acid, and Frame Saver, gets it ready for touch-up and then polishing.
Upgrades could really help on getting that weight down, some stuff coming out of my parts stash. I am contributing a set of 700C wheels left over from my Palo Alto, that should help a lot; I also have a set of period-correct Stronglight 93 cranks I have not been using for decades. Swap out the bars, seat post and pedals for something aluminum, I might get the whole thing down to… 28LB?
