I bought years ago with intentions?!?

loosing interest in non-touring French bikes.

I could never find info on this odd configuration or why they did this.

anyone?

Cable stop for front derailleur? Tiny ones could be for lighting wires.

I've never seen a seat tube butt into the downtube like that. Rear tire clearance I'd guess, but strange.

For thirty bucks, anyone can purchase Gitane decals.
Bettin' the owner slapped those on to stop the incessant questioning.

This is an underrated comment!

Who knows if it’s a Gitane or not, but it is interesting. The back of the junction of the ST and DT seems sloppier than a Gotane I would think…even if during happy hour on a Friday.

French threads?

Of course after I posted, I google imaged until eyes crossed and found it. It is genuine. It is the Gitane Traveler.

Here is the official ad:

I'm take a SWAG (Scientific Wild A*s Guess) at it. It is to get a shorter wheelbase. Yea, that is weird but I guess there is no progress without trying out weird ideas.

Opps, I was late on the the reply. Interesting.

never seen one o' them before!
When was that ad run?
the decals on the OP's "Get Away" frame are a style Gitane used later (maybe early '80s?) than the logo in the magazine ad
Correction: that style gitane logo (all lower case ) was used from mid 1970s thru 1977 according to what I read, the logo in the ad with globe and stripes just preceded it

I'll clean it up and post much better pictures. But it does need to go to a new home at some point.

What an odd-ball. The way Gitane talks, you'd think it folds or something instead of just the wheels come off and the fork turns inward.

Gitane Cycles - weird chrome bike & frame - bike boom maybe? Help identify... - Traveler thread. No surprises that it's Verktyg's post #7 with the good info (mentions '73 & '74)
https://www.velo-pages.com/main.php?g2_itemId=14246 - review

When I first looked at it, I thought the weird downtube placement had something to do with the frame articulating or folding, but nope. How very French. Seems like this setup doesn't add much to just removing the wheels and turning the handlebars of a normal bike. Still interesting though.

Haha when I saw the ad I thought, gee, you could have at least mentioned it was collapsible! But no, it's not that at all.

I took about 5 minutes trying to figure out how it was an advantage in travel…couldn’t find one.

it is very cool despite that though. Slightly shorter wheelbase I’d think?

Since when do the French need to have reasons for anything they do mechanically? This is basically the French version of rinko, I think. Pointless, but kind of cool, somehow.

France....amiright?

More pics

Waffle cone drops for the win! My attic-bound Gitane has them. Verktyg figured around 74-75. I love those things!

That looks big…or just the shape…? Do you have to measure seat tube around a corner? Haha

I'd ride that over any other folding/collapsible/compact bike I've seen. OK, partly because it's a Gitane...

Pretty interesting frame. What is the “size”? In other words, along the imaginary seat tube that goes from the seat cluster to the bottom bracket center. The massive head tube must deceive a bit given the fork angle. I’d also be curious about wheelbase.

Did you have it built up and have you ridden it? Any word on its handling?

What a cool curiosity regardless.

Ok
measurements:

this was odd because I’m used to measuring a seat tube, but the seat tube is Ford of the bottom bracket.

center of bottom bracket to center of seat tube/top tube junction: 60cm

center of seat/top junction to center of head/top: 49cm

there are numbers on the bottom!!

Bettter pic of drop out

5 min with a scrubby pad and some WD 40 and she cleans up nicely

it answers the trivia pub quiz stumper, "name all the Gitane models that used the "honeycomb Huret" dropouts"...
now I might get 3 of them, but probably not good enough to win a beer!

well, this oddity is now posted to the for sale section.

Darn French.