Hey folks:

I'm the happy owner of a 1987 Schwinn Super Sport but I have a hankering to get another French bike. I saw this one on Craigslist - advertised as a Grand Jubile, but I think in fact it's a 75-76 Grand Record with the decals worn off and a fair number of eccentric (let's say) replacement components. The guy is asking top dollar for it, and the location isn't terribly convenient, so I was iffy about even checking it out given how much I'd then put into upgrading the components, but I noticed something in the listing and wanted to see if I'm right to think it's a cause for concern.

If you look at the 10th picture in the listing, there's a very straight seam of rust right across the headtube; it lines up with the edges of the head lugs on either side. It looks rather deep. Anybody ever seen something like this? It's a weird place to have naturally worn a groove in the paint. I'm thinking an old repair that has started to rust out, any other thoughts?

Not a life and death situation, I'm just curious what people think this could be.

here's the link:

https://newyork.craigslist.org/que/b...310800104.html

That was most likely caused by a removable front basket. Similar to a Wald 3133. Some had a wire support that just nestled against the headtube. The upper of the basket is attached to the handlebars and the support just drags across the headtube.

bike jousting battle scar??

I would guess it's 531 instead of Vitus

I think that headbadge started in 1976, I had a 75 Grand Jubilee and it has the older flat aluminum "M" headbadge.
The problem is that all the best parts are gone. That mark is likely just a wear mark from a bag bracket or basket but I did see a GJ crack around the top lug once, but the crack followed the outline of the lug and the bike had a ton of miles on it by the time it failed.
Price wise I think its way high, between the unknown of that rusty mark and the missing original parts, I'd say $200 tops if you really have to have it.
Someone probably sold off the original parts on fleabay years ago and sold what was left locally.

curious - what RD is installed there, that appears to work with the Huret pattern der mount?

FWIW, in NYC this month, $350 is the often the asking price of a hi-ten frame with stamped dropouts and fitted with stem shifters. and some sellers seem to be getting it.

I think you're right that this is a Grand Record, probably from 1975-ish. This Flickr user has a couple of Moto catalogs available, and you can see that the 75 GR has the Nervex lugs, the three-arm TA crank, and the matching seat tube and head tube Moto branding.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/strong...57602014094812

The 1978 catalog from the same Flickr user (go to "Albums List") shows a Grand Jubile with the same color scheme, but the lugs are plain, the seat tube logo does not match, and the seat stay caps are black instead of red.

I can't see any top tube model logo, nor any legible tubing decals; if you're going to be choosy about whether the bike has Vitus (as seller states in the description) or Reynolds, then I wouldn't get involved with it. It looks like a nice frameset, on the whole, though hardly anything on it is original equipment, except perhaps the Stronglight headset; whether it's worth $350 in NYC (where I am too) well . . . there's always negotiation. BTW, we have one 1977 Grand Jubilée here (spouse's), Vitus tubeset, and it's quite light, lighter I daresay than it would be in R531.

The frame looks just like the mid-70's GR I used to own, so that's what I'd say it is. GJs of the same vintage were silver w/red. Too bad about the original graphics - they were paint, not decals. In this part of the world, $350 for an all-original GR is a better-than-fair price, but with the non-original derailleurs and cosmetic damage, it'd be an OK but not great price.

Thanks for the replies, all. As far as I can tell the brakes and derailleurs look pretty undistinguished, the TA cranks are original minus the decals, and there's no telling what wheels are on it. I notice the bike shop invoice mentions trading the original Campagnolo pedals for those janky-looking Lyotard rattraps that are mounted now, I wonder if the bike shop "graciously" relieved him of any other original equipment?

It's true, $350 seems to be the default price for pretty much everything in Brooklyn right now, but in my mind that's a lot for a cosmetically-challenged bike-hard to tell from the pics, but I think I can see some other rust spots here and there- plus the added cost of bringing the components up to par. For $200 I'd take it on as a project, but even if the guy went down to $300 I'd want a prettier example.

My previous bike was a full Vitus 172 GJ from 1981, and it was a great ride and very light; the frame ultimately developed a stress fracture on the seat tube but only after I'd put thousands of miles on it. I like Vitus tubing a lot.