ouch!!!
Hi everyone ,
Made a trip across the Tasman sea to Australia (Brisbane )
While there I purchased a Gitane Criterium just to muck about on while there .
The day before I flew home I was riding uphill when there was reasonable loud clack and the back wheel started wobbling all over the place .
On investigating I found a break as pictured.
What would be involved in fixing?
Does the spear off the dropout have to come out of tubes ? (if you get the drift)
Have stripped the bike of parts and flown home with a very full suitcase.
The frame resides at my mothers place in Brisbane till I figure out what I will do with it .
Thanks in advance for your feedback .
At worst I bought a pile of good parts with a dead frame attached !

A couple of pics of rail trail between kipper- ring and Petrie north of Brisbane also attached .

There are a couple ways you could go about it.

Get a new set of standard dropouts if yours is not. Frame builder can braze the new dropouts on but it will ruin the paint. If you can live with a big splotch of burnt metal on the seat and chainstays you are done. If not you can get the frame painted ($$$$) or powder coated ($$$). Add decals into the mix ($$).

Or get a new frame and move the parts over.

Hmmm.... that's too bad. Must have been a flaw on the dropout forging..... There's a possibility that the dropout can be welded back together but, the break being so close to the brazing on the chainstay, welding heat could damage the brazing, so maybe best to to have the dropout replaced. I'm wondering though if it is easy enough to find the appropriate Vitus(?) dropout to do that.
Definitely worth it to fix that Criterium, but finding the "correct" dropout could be more of the challenge. Maybe you can consider having both replaced by a builder with more common Campy or a Simplex set of dropouts, sourced from dead frames. But are more robust in design and easier to find. Paint damage should not be an 8ssue as the blue paint in the Gitane shouldn't be too hard to match close enough.

Replacing the dropout is a pretty easy job. I still have a few drive-side Simplex dropouts that might do for a reasonable replacement,if you're interested:

I've heard there are a couple of good frame builders around Brisy. One of them can probably repair the dropout.

You have a 55cm 1984 Gitane Criterium. That year, Gitane offered their 4 top models with the same geometry: Criterium, Tour de France, Super Corsa and Team Replica. I have a full house, one each in 55cm. The 55cm frames have 73° head and seat tubes. they are all superb riding and handling bikes.


The Criterium was spec'd out with Super Vitus 983 main tubes similar to Columbus Nivachrome and Vitus 181 which is 4130 chrome-moly tubing. So it's not a slouch. My Criterium has 983 main tubes and Super Vitus 980 forks and stays. The Super Vitus bikes are smoother riding and the Team Replica made of Columbus SL tubing.

Getting back to the OP's problem, those are Vitus dropouts which are designed with more chain clearance for shift up off of the small cogs than standard Campy style dropouts. Something like to old Suntour dropouts from the early 70's. I've never heard of those Vitus dropouts breaking???



I got a frame on eBay and began getting it ready to assemble when I saw what looked like a scratch in the paint on the drive side dropout. I scraped away some of the paint and found a crack developing . It was a Shimano UF vertical dropout and they had a reputation for cracking.



I took it to a frame builder friend and had him run a TIG weld bead around the whole area that was failing. It's probably stronger now than when new.



The problem with the OP broken dropout is that it's right in the brazed area of the chain stay end. Trying to TIG weld an area that has been previously brazed creates a can of worms.



One solution is to use something like Allstate 11 with is a high strength nickel brazing alloy with a medium melting temperature of ~1650° F. The same alloy is available from suppliers around the world.




When TIG welding or butt brazing a crack like that, the ends need to be beveled 30° and then it's easier to build up a strong filet.

Finding a replacement Vitus drive side dropout could be difficult. just replacing the dropout with a Campy style dropout will be a problem too because the seat stays attach to the dropouts further back and are shorter and wider. Another problem is it the seat stays happen to be Super Vitus 980 like on my Criterium, the wall thickness is only 0.6mm thick and de-brazing could be fatal to the tube end.

So for those reasons I'd be reluctant to replace the dropout. Been there - Done that.... (the NSW motto)

verktyg

The OP's Criterium has Vitus dropouts. My 1984 Team Replica has those Simplex dropouts.

The other 1984, 85 & 86 Gitane bikes have Vitus dropouts. I'd heard that Gitane stopped using the Simplex dropouts ~1984 because of breakage problems across the hole for the plastic nut for the adjuster screws??? Looks pretty beefy to me.

Four of my 1980's Peugeots have Simplex dropouts and I've never heard about any problems with breakage problems with them Peugeots.

Most of the actual Gitane Team bike that I've seen or seen pictures of had Campy 1010A or 1010B dropouts.

verktyg

This is a pretty easy repair. Sweat out the dropout pieces. Sandblast. Braze in a new one. I've done it, in the back of a bike shop, which means it can't be too hard. Should be no problem for a framebuilder.

I'm kinda thinking the Simplex dropouts are close enough to work. Thin tubing is a concern, but it's still doable I think. Give the torch holder a heads up.

It's IME the most common failure mode of a traditional steel frame. There aren't that many things that go wrong with steel frames, but this is one of them. It's always on the drive side. Caused by fatigue from the axle flexing on the drive side of a freewheel hub. Usually the dropout snaps, but I've seen chainstays crack near there too.

Never heard of Simplex dropouts cracking either..... must be just marketing blurb to justify one brand from another .....if anything, the Simplex rear DO's look to be more beefy than most other DO's.

^^^This about sums it up.^^^ A freehub axle doesn't feed all of that unwanted flex into the driveside dropout.

Has the rear axle on this bike ever been found to be bent? If so, that is even greater torture on the dropout, but even cyclic elastic flex could alone cause this over enough miles.

On my MTB with nutted 3/8" rear axle and 7s freewheel, The bike's rear axle was bent in shipping, so I uprated the entire axle assembly to 10mm solid while waiting for my warranty replacement wheel.

One of the issues you'll run into is that those Vitus dropouts look HUGE.

I wanted to try installing a vertical dropout on a frame I acquired with a broken dropout. I haven't done it yet, but my vertical dropouts were about 1/2" smaller than the originals. Thus, everything would have to be moved forward and up for it to work. Maybe it would be OK, I'm not sure.

Hi there , thanks to everyone for all the info and input .
Was really enjoying the bike too. Bought it on Saturday ,broke it on Thursday . Was pretty upset at the time but now over it .
It will probably just sit at mums teasing me each time I visit until she gets sick of it and dumps it
Will ruminate some more , but I dont think I will put it back on the road unfortunately .

It came with derailleurs pictured which are quite neat !

Sure, but if you're not a stickler for matchy-matchy, it would at least get the bike back on the road.

Hi there ,

Thank you ! really appreciate the offer .
I do have a bike related contact in Brisbane . He may be able to help .
I just need to figure if I want to fix it .