This was recently discovered locally on CL:



Seller IDs it as a 1974 Gitane Super Corsa. It has Huret "honeycomb" rear dropouts. There appears to be a small additional 1/2" tab sticking out the back of the drive side dropout around where an adjusting screw would be.

Note the extremely short top tube, strange stem and weird angle of the seat tube. In fact, the entire frame seems to have shrunk in the wash, but the reason it looks so weird is this:



Anybody ever see a Gitane (no matter the model) with this configuration? Note the seat tube is swaged at the lug.

A couple more pics:





Seller believes the bike to be worth between $1300-$3000. Ummm, okay - good luck to him But let's just forget that - I'm going crazy wanting to know what this is and what the heck is going on here!

Is this perhaps one of those funky Junior-sized road bikes?

DD

Ahhh.. FOUND IT!!!!

The key was looking up "Huret honeycomb dropouts"

gitaneusa.com :: View topic - Huret honeycomb dropouts

"There's an attachment that fit on the back for the chain to hook over when the rear wheel was removed on the Gitane Traveler or Get-Away folding bikes."

So, looking up, Gitane Traveler, what does one find, but this gem
Bikeville thoughts: For Sale- Gitane Traveler bike with bag, NOS

And more notes here:
https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...-traveler.html

I presume the super-short wheelbase was designed to make the bike easier to pack Perhaps there was a special dimension that Gitane wanted to achieve.

Those rarer than a needle in a haystack bikes are always hard to attach a price to. But here are some historical ads:

Bikeville (March 22, 2012), asking $400
NOS bike, Dec 11, 2011, Oakland, OR, Asking $880
E-Bay, Buy-it-now, Nov 12, 2013, $269+$55.09 (had been listed as auction a few times for $199 and hadn't been sold).
E-Bay, Oct 12, 2016, $299 + $150. Unsold

The current Craigslist ad in Seattle
1974 Gitane Super Corsa - $1049 (Seattle)

This is a tough one. Anything is worth two things... what a buyer is willing to pay, and of course having a potential buyer actually FIND it.

Based on previous sales history, I'd probably put the value at somewhere between about $200 and $400. That bike looks nice, but it does have some deep rust through the chrome on the bottom bracket.

Is that a crimp in the seat tube just above the lug connecting the seat and downtubes?

It's not so rare that I haven't seen one here before.

Hideous!

NOT a Super Corsa and a "rare" Gitane but with a very specialized and limited appeal...so the asking price of $1049 is way over-inflated, and the bike is mis-identified, IMO.

So is this akin to rinko?

What is with the chain guard on the inner ring?

Yes, that's what I was meaning when I wrote "swaged". Crimped is a much better description.

DD

Thanks tons! I was looking online for "Gitane Super Corsa 1974" and variations of that but couldn't find a thing. You have some mad internet-ing skills, my man

Mystery is solved, and that means I'll not have to go look at it now. Which is a good thing, because why waste gas to look at something I was never gonna buy anyway? I just wanted to satisfy my curiosity.

I'm going to let the guy know what he has. Maybe someone is looking for one but isn't noting his ad because of the inaccurate title.

DD

I think swaged is the correct term, and is used say on the ends of conduit tubing to allow one tube to be inserted in the next without using couplings.

I'm not quite sure why that would have been needed to be done at that particular spot. Several of the lugs had to be made specifically for this bike, including the bottom bracket lug without a seat tube connection.

Standard tubing sizes, of course, vary between tubes. Perhaps someone ordered custom made lugs the wrong size

I was thinking the same. You'd think that would be a custom lug and would fit both tubes without any mod. Strange - but it's French, so...

I note in the ad pics there's a kickstand. It appears to be mounted directly to the underside of the BB shell. I wonder how they accomplished that? The CL guy's bike doesn't have this feature.

DD

It's kinda like Sasquatch in that way, huh? Scary, ugly, smelly - but apparently plenty of people want to find one

DD

Thinking of lugs. It is possible that the builders found a stock seat tube lug, uncut, that could be modified to fit in that location.

Looking at the Columbus SL tubing set on Nova,
ST 28.6, DT 28.6, TT 25.4

So, using the Seat tube lug, the DT would fit where the ST would go, and then the ST would have to be swaged to fit where the TT normally would fit.

It may well have saved quite a bit to use an existing lug rather than having one made custom.

Are there any track/time trial bikes with that lug configuration?
One never knows that one wants something until one knows it exists

Oh, the dangers of BikeForums

It might be a unique bike to purchase if the seller came down to say $200.

Send the seller the list of previous ads and sales that I found above.

IIRC, the down tube on most vintage steel tube sets had the largest diameter, so I don't believe that could be a re-purposed seat lug. But then again, it's French, so...

I think the guy who sold the NOS with bag (I actually believe it's the bike's travel bag) is closer to the correct price. One in this condition, with non-original parts, maybe a couple hundred for the funky-factor. Of course, a fan of one of these (there were people asking about availability in both the ad and BF thread you posted) might certainly pay more.

I let the dude know what he had. His response was a short and sweet "thanks". Maybe he'll change his ad copy, maybe he won't. Seems he is holding out against hope for a big payday - must be worth a lot because it's chrome, you know?

DD

Wait - [MENTION=168558]Drillium Dude[/MENTION] was contemplating looking at something French. Stop the presses.

You seem to have a big influence on him.

The bottom bracket photo showed up after you first started communicating with him.

The add today lists it as:

rare find, 1974 Gitane Traveller - $949 (Seattle)

So, down by $100, and lists "Traveller" as the model. I'm not sure how the age was determined, but it is probably close. Hmmm, I'm not sure if it is supposed to have 1 or 2 letters L in the word.

Perhaps in a year or two the price will come down to something reasonable

I see the ad came down.

Did Drillium Dude buy it?

Hopefully the seller (and buyer) got a good deal on the bike.

I smiled a little smile at this (wasn't me, tho) as I think you and I have to take a little credit if in fact it sold. You found the correct model and approximate value; I passed that info along and the seller updated his ad. Cool!

I'm hopeful he found that one in a million buyer looking for a Traveler. Who knows, maybe he got a good chunk of change and the buyer feels he got a good buy

DD

I can't take all the credit. I did notice something was strange about the dropouts, but I think you identified them as the "Huret honeycomb dropouts" which made all the difference in the world for the bike ID.

There are people who will buy a bike for the unique interesting qualities. Or, perhaps it will get a chance to fly as a "traveller" once again.

I found a very good review of this bicycle in Velo-pages.com. It was written in 1974 by an airline pilot who wanted a bike he could travel with. I also attached an advertisement from 1973, also found it in velo-pages.