72 Gitane mini restoration
 

Just sharing a little bit of a project i've been working on.

Picked up this old beast, and ended up stripping everything down completely, polishing out all the aluminium and chrome, removed lots and lots of rust from the frame, and ended up repainting and rebuilding it.

Changed the 27" wheels that were on it for some 700's, tapped the cranks to accept modern pedals, replaced the original brakes with a modern one, hunted down a retired old LBS owner to help me dial in the friction shifting, and overall, it rides pretty good now.

Here is a pciture of it when i picked it up:
http://i.imgur.com/gzYLaH7.jpg

honestly it looks better in the pic than it did in person, lots of rust, aluminium was all oxidized, but the frame was straight so it was worth a shot.

http://i.imgur.com/3DGqwun.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/YZ5C3ur.jpg
not bad for spray paint, easy to get good results if you know proper technique.
I really wanted to get it powder coated, but the cost was more than what I was willing to spend.

http://i.imgur.com/psCaWU6.jpg
all nice and polished

http://i.imgur.com/bvmyu1z.jpg
it makes a great little bike, and while my other two bikes are much nicer, i do like the idea of having an old steel bike to toot around on and lock up and not have to worry about it getting damaged or stolen.

That looks great, are you going to add new decals?

There is a guy who makes replica decals, but i'll probably just make some at home until i get the frame powder coated, the spray paint is mostly just temporary, then i'll put on the replicas.

Good looking job; I'll bet the bike rides great.