Tiger1964, yes, Ford-France imported and promoted Fords in France including the Mustang. The Mustang was a huge hit in France in large part because of Ford-France's very active promotion including links to professional cycling. Not only did they sponsor the Ford-France cycling team, they also entered a team of Mustangs in various races and rallies including putting their star cyclist Anquetil and their directeur sportif Geminiani in a Mustang in the 1965 Monte Carlo Rally.

Addam, Ford could have used your 63 in this promotion for Team Sky...doesn't look like a 60s-era Gitane, Anquetil, or Geminiani in the photo. At least their heart was in the right place.

Curious -- is there a timetable on that? I've received almost all the decals I need for my project(s) and some supplies I figure I should have are arriving or will soon (I got some 1/8" masking tape and ordered a felt squeegee, etc.) The foil Gitane decals look good, but perhaps the "correct" 61's would be nice too.

I think you said your bike was not at same level as Addam's (in hierarchy w/ Addam's being near if not at the top)...if it is a tier or two done and thus much less rare, restore/restomod as you see fit! Would look great in any 60s-era livery mounted on a trunk-top rack attached to a Tiger!!!

I agree 100%, my Gitane is perhaps not bottom rung but you can see the bottom rung from there! It's "restoration-mod" anyway, wrong year for a Simplex 543 and 1x6 set-ups did not exist then. but, I'd be kicking myself if it turned out a, say, 2-week wait would change my options on decals. Sounds like I'll likely end up installing the foils.

By the way, that Mustang photo, that's a lot of lead balancing weights on the right front wheel! One wonders if it was a junk wheel, or junk tire, or...???

The Tiger is the only car we have with no rack for bikes, we have those on the Honda S2000 and the Porsche Boxster. That said, if an over-the-counter 1-1/4" hitch was make to bolt up (the only Tiger I know of w/a hitch was hand made) I would not mind having one, for a plug-in bike rack or to tow the kayak trailer.

I am a bit late to the party here, but thought it worthwhile to add a bit on decals in case anybody is still interested. The down tube decals on addamsmith's bike do not look like anything I have seen on a 1960s Gitane so may be replacements or specials.

Anquetil's 1963 bike had the odd rectilinear script decal in white with, as far as I can tell, a black outline, as shown on the Rebour drawing. And in 1964 went to the foil downtube decal. The head tube decal and seat tube decal were the same in both cases - again as far as I can tell from photographs.

The good news is that I am about to complete the artwork for both the 1963 and 1964 decal styles, which will be printed by BicycleDecals.Net and the 1964s will be on the correct metallic foil. If all goes well,, these will be available in a few weeks.

If you’d like to see some Ford France cars (especially the mustang) then check out the French movie A Man and a Women. Ford France should have gotten a Caesar for best supporting actor….

Thanks for the insight! These earlier bikes are quite poorly documented, even here in France.

I have an Anquetil-era equivalent of an Olympic, for which I'll need transfer-type replacements for lost frame graphics. I believe my bike to be c1958, so I assume that the Rebour illustrations could indicate what would have been on the frame originally.

I'd really appreciate any further thoughts.

Best file I have so far.

Sounds like this might be what you have in mind.

My own early Gitane.

rmfrance - I really have no idea what is on a 1958 Gitane. I have an earlier Gitane -probably early 1950s and all the decals are gone, though I think it is still the original paint: According to information I have found on Tonton Velo, the decals would have been completely different. I do not know when the decal style changed and whether there was a style between the early style and the 1962/63 Stablinski/Anquetil style. I am hoping to get reproductions of the 1963 and 1964 styles and eventually the early 1950s style shown here too;
I haven't posted enough to be able to post links and photos but you can go here to see photos of the bike and, at the end, what I think the down tube decals should be:
classiclightweights.net/france/gitane/1950s-gitane/

Very interesting - mine has the enamelled head badge, too.

The most obvious differences on the frame which I can see are:
The style of the lugs
The curved brake bridge
The rear dropouts - particularly the grear hanger, which might be Simplex Tour de France.

Also, I've never seen the final decal graphic style before.

I haven't made enough posts to attach photographs or links, so I will do me best without doing so. Because I am in the process of creating a replica of Jacques Anquetil's 1964 Gitane team bike, I have been working on the artwork for reproduction decals because I haven't been able to find any suitable ones available. That work is now completed and the decals are in production at bicycledecals.net. The head tube decal is as on Addamsmith's bike, printed on metallic foil, and the down and seat tube decals are as on the 1964 team bikes. I think this style was in production until later in the 1960s when Gitane went to their all-foil decals which continued into the 1970s (1973?). While I was about it, I created artwork for the down tube decals on the 1963 bikes and these are about to go into production. The head tube and seat tube decals are the same for 1963 and 1964. Some production bikes in these years had larger seat tube decals with white panels. If there is a demand for them, I will do the artwork if someone can give me enough information to do so - ideally detailed pictures and dimensions because I haven't found enough information on the internet. The 1964 decals are Gitane Set 640 on bicycledecals.net/collections/gitane and the 1963 decals will eventually be Gitane Set 630 in the same place

I should have pointed out that the 1962 Gitane team bike decals are the same as 1963 except for the one on the head tube. I haven.t found any good photographs of the 1962 head tube decal, but note that it includes a lot of gold colour which isn't on the later decals, and it says "Machecoul" whereas the place name on the later ones is Nantes If anybody can provide me with good pics, I would like to recreate the artwork for those decals. Strictly speaking I have retired from doing this stuff, but I will still do artwork for decals I need and for anything that interests me.
I think the down tube decals on Addamsmith's bike are the same style as used on some earlier bikes and maybe some other 1963 models as well. So they are genuine Gitane decals, but possibly not current in 1963, so presumably fitted by special request. Production versions of his bike would have had the rectangular style script of the 1962/3 team bikes that bicycledecals.net will be producing soon

These are the 1964 Gitane decals now in production - Set 640 at https://bicycledecals.net/collections/gitane . They are printed on foil, though that only really shows on the round head tube decal, as on the original decals. I think these decals ran for a few years until the all-foil decals of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The seat tube decal is unusual in that it is applied diagonally to the tube, as can be seen on many of the racing photographs of that time.

The 1963 team bikes had similar head and seat tube decals, but completely different down tube decals. Bicycle Decals is in the process of making those available - I am not sure of the timing, but should be quite soon.

As far as I can make out 1962 is the same as 1963 except for the different head tube decal. Before 1962 is still a slight mystery to me. I am reasonably sure that the down tube style is similar to addamsmith's bike. Possibly with a head badge in place of a decal. And anybody's guess what is on the seat tube. Unfortunately Gitane decals just don't seem very durable and I am having a hard time finding pictures. The decals are even often damaged and incomplete in contemporary racing photos. If anybody can supply me with photos and information, I would be really grateful.