MagicKnives

Hi everyone. New member here. I joined because I'm trying to find some info on an early 70's Gitane Interclub frame that was given to me. It's in immaculate shape and I hate to see it go to waste, so I really want to try to rebuild it as a very simple single speed for my girlfriend. But I've never dealt with a French bike, and especially a bike this old. I would like to put in a square tapered bottom bracket and a very simple/cheap single speed crank set. I see that Velo Orange makes a French threaded BB for this, but I'm not sure what width spindle I would need. Has anyone done a conversion like this and have any info they could give me on the BB or crank? I also need a set of wheels too. Does anyone know what width wheels would fit this bike, and still have enough room for a single speed cog?

francophile 

The important thing to know about French thru the late 70s/early 80s (which makes it ultra important to correctly nail down the approximate year of your bike!) is it's all metric sized everything, and the cup threading is "backwards" on one side for most brands, depending who you ask.

Outside of that, and the fact it likely uses a 22.0mm quill stem versus the standard 22.2mm, there should be no major surprises. DO NOT try to stuff a standard-sized 22.2 quill stem into that bike, there's nothing more aggravating than having to hammer it out later, destroying the stem and potentially the fork and/or steer tube.

Yes, VO French BB would suit you fine. I'm not super-well-versed in these things, but if going SS/fxed I would suspect you'll want the 110 based on my past experiences, but there are some variables involved to decide what will put you closest to the correct chainline. This is something I expect VO can help you figure out if you give them a call.

As for wheels, ideally you'd want to measure between the dropouts and fork-ends in millimeters to know what the OLD of your wheels is, thus selecting and/or having built a proper wheelset to truly fit the bike.

rustystrings61 

For the wheels issue - measure the inner faces of the rear dropouts. If you get 120 mm, you're in luck. For my first fixed-gear/single-speed conversions of a Gitane from the 1969-73 era, I once used conventional 120 mm OLD 5-speed derailleur bike hubs with the rear hub centered on the axle and re-dishing the rim to make it all work. What worked better for me in later conversions has been to run a dedicated track or flip/flop hub. The bog-standard 120 mm flip/flop hubs or wheelsets used on all sorts of fixed-gears should work nicely. I currently am running an older set of Kogswell hubs on my '71 Gitane TdF, but any of the Surly/Formula/Iro/Origin8 hubsets should work nicely.

EDIT: 110 mm was the standard for single-speed bikes for years, and if you were using vintage hubs and a vintage frameset, those would be the parts to use. Since we are talking about converting an Interclub, though, 120 mm spaced rear hubs are what you seek. If by chance the rear of the bike has been spread to 126 or 130 mm along the way, many vendors will gladly add spacers to the rear hub to enable it to work on your particular frame.

Regarding handlebar stems - many sources talk about sanding down a conventional 22.2 mm stem, but actually CHECK to see if it will fit before doing any sanding. This might include removing the top nut from the headset and checking the stem against the actual steerer itself.

I have been running Nittos without incident on my various metric/French steerer bikes, including Gitanes and Allegros and Peugeots. Sometimes you have to pull the headset top nut and open it out a touch with a Dremel to allow the stem through, in the event the headset top nut constricts the top of the steerer tube opening. I have also found it helpful to run a brake cylinder hone down the steerer to clean it up. Those things done, most Nitto stems (and many others!) can be greased and slid into place without heroics or pain or force.

John E

The best way to do a freewheeling single speed conversion is simply to determine which gear ratio she prefers and shift it into that gear, then tighten down the shift levers. Once she gets into cycling and sees others enjoying the immense benefits of a multigeared bicycle, she will gravitate to using the shift levers. There is absolutely no benefit in wasting time and money on a "conversion," unless you want fixed gear, which she evidently doesn't.

due ruote 

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/singlespeed.html

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/velos.html

Those links might be useful.
I have always just used a standard freewheel hub, and re-spaced and re-dished the wheel. If you don't have wheels, well, yes, then you will be needing some.

steve sumner

the shop I used to work in sold Interclubs until about 1974. it was a very interesting bike.
Gitane referred to it as their entry racing bike. models below were touring/sport general purpose
bikes the two models above were considered "true" racing machines and made of Reynolds 531
double butted tubing. the Interclub was made of "better" tubing meaning they used whatever
the factory had in stock. Usually Durifort or Falk tubing or sometimes Reynolds main tubes with
Durifort stays. This is why the Interclub didn't have a tubing sticker. It is a very nice riding bike.

rustystrings61 

I will mention that even though I have no room for one, even though I have no need or even a dedicated use for one, I keep my eyes peeled for an Interclub in my size at the right price. I have always been intrigued by them, and in hindsight perhaps I should have gotten one way back in the '70s from whatever shop in Roanoke Virginia was selling them - Dixon's, perhaps? If memory serves, EVERYTHING is clamp on, so it would make a very clean fixed-gear/single-speed conversion.

MagicKnives

Thanks everyone. That definitely helps. I just need to go out and get some decent measurements and start looking around for the crankset I want to go with. I guess that will help determine the BB spindle length as well? Luckily this frame came with the stem and original handlebars already. So that's one less thing to have to look for.

francophile 

Just remember: Adapting vintage to vintage using measurements and thought is usually far cheaper than buying a modern solution.

What you'll spend on VO will be instantaneous to get what you need, but at a potentially exponential premium. Understanding what measurements you need or even straight-up borrowing from someone else's work tends to be hella cheaper.

Steel Charlie

In addition what you plan will not be cheap and there are a bazillion SS bikes out there on craigslist and others for peanuts. You seem to be on a path to make an old bike worthless, perhaps unridable, and likely unsalable.

I know the plague is boring but ...............

rustystrings61 

As I read this you have frame, fork, headset, stem and bars, yes? Do you have the stock French BB cups present? If so, I would pick a crank and go get a spindle that works with that crank and be done with it. The V/O BB is nice and all that, but people rode loose ball BBs for decades and were fine, and I've got that set up on the majority of the bikes in my stable. If you DON'T have the stock French BB cups, you can buy those and a spindle and loose balls on Amazon and come out much cheaper than the V/O unit.

I keep running into ads for Aventon, and while I have zero interest in their ebikes, they DO have a deal on a single-ring crankset for a square taper 103 mm BB. The hitch - the 44T ring is for 1/8-in chain, not 3/32-in. If you had the cups and could find a 103 mm loose spindle, Bob's yer uncle. If you went that route, you would probably want a 20T single speed freewheel, which would yield something around 60 gear inches. That was the recommended gear for single-speed bikes for ladies back when H.H. England was writing The Cycling Manual, probably between the wars (I have been falsely attributing that gear recommendation to F.J. Camm, but I recently double-checked it!). England also recommended 65 gear inches for a gentleman's single-speed freewheeling bike, but that's another tale.

If you wanted to just buy some wheels and be done, I would point you towards velomine - they usually have decently priced wheels involving high-flange Formula sealed-bearing flip/flop hubs and Sun rims. If you would prefer to build from scratch, you can do that, too - I did on my last fixed conversion, getting lightly used Surly hubs on the 'Bay and waiting for a sale on Sun CR-18s and buying some ACI/Alpina spokes online from a U.K. vendor. Or maybe you'll score a deal on CL or FB marketplace or something.

I must gently disagree with Steel Charlie here - you're working with little more than a bare frame, so you're hardly making a nice old bike worthless, unrideable or unsalable. You could perhaps sell this frame as-is, depending on your geographic location, or how much more someone is willing to pay to have it shipped to them, but right now it sounds like it's a frame taking up space.

hen you are done, you will have a single-speed that will arguably ride better than the vast majority of the current crop of single-speeds, probably with a nice springy ride to it, and since you aren't talking about cutting anything OFF the frame ('cause that era Gitane everything clamped on), you could at any time build it up with period or later multi-speed kit and ride it that way, as well.

francophile 

Ditto this. Most ideal recent example I could share is greg3rd48 and his Gitane SC fixed: '71ish Gitane Super Corsa frame question prior to build.

You may also find some details in his thread you'll find helpful to build the same for your SO. Give it a look. Greg does really awesome work and is super helpful.

And, for the record, as much as I'm not a fan of fixed gear bikes for riding, I think the 70s Gitane and Libertas frames really look tasteful FG/SS and you won't find much more comfortable frames out there. Gitane's offerings are grossly underrated.

rustystrings61 

Just for fun, here is a pic of the bike that has gotten the most of my miles for at least five years now - this c.1971 Gitane TdF came to me as a frame, fork, headset and Stronglight BB for $50 after it had spent more than a decade hanging that way on a hook in a basement in the Pacific Northwest. It's a total melange of parts that somehow just exquisitely works in ways I cannot truly describe, though I think metric-gauge 51 tubing and Gitane's geometry for 60 cm frames is a lot of it.

rustystrings61 

Oh, and what francophile said - Gitane's offerings ARE grossly underrated. But those of us who know, know and seek them out.