Albertc80, if you haven't encountered tubular tires before, be warned that they can be tricky to deal with. Best to do some research about their care and feeding (e.g., gluing them to the rim; carrying a pre-glued tire as a spare, folded to keep the tread on the outside of each fold; buying appropriate spare tires and glue (or double-sided pre-glued tape), etc., etc.

Well, it's my only option right? Or can these wheels accept standard tube and tire combination? Maybe I'm thinking modern times, but I assumed tubular was my only opinion w these wheels...

You won’t be able to put clincher type tires with tubes on rims designed for tubular tires. There is no way for a bead to seat on tubular rims, they were designed for the tires to be glued (or taped) down.

Your bike cleaned up nicely. You could try to source a Simplex SLJ rear derailleur, which is basically an all metal version of the Simplex Criterium you currently have on the bike. They are expensive, but do not require any mods to install.

If the rear derailleur is working (and it likely is), I'd leave it alone. The plastic/delrin front derailleurs (and yours has been replaced) have a bad reputation but the rears tend to work. I'd ride it before thinking about replacing it.

If you want/need to fiddle with the rear derailleur, this blog post will give you a few options:

https://www.redclovercomponents.com/blog/1

You could track down a set of 120 OLD 700c alloy wheels to get that bike on the road. The easiest solution may be to learn how to deal with tubulars. They ride great but they can be a pain to deal with.

You did a great job of cleaning up the bike but you will want to overhaul it and replace the consumables before doing much riding on it.

Yeah, I was thinking of going with the taped version of tubular tires. That option seems significantly easier than dealing with glue. With regards to the derailleur, if it works, I'll leave it alone, I have road bikes I ride regularly, so I don't need this for anything more than the occasional ride. She may need cables eventually, but everything else looks good still. A ride will tell me more. The one think I def need is a real saddle, this piece of plastic, looks uncomfortable at best.

I'm surprised the paint was in such good condition, I will pull her out and see how that sun shine interacts w the paint. Pics to come.

You can still get tubulars. They must be glued to the rim. No, not compatible with anything else.

If you wanted to run clinchers, like most bikes, the best thing to do would be to get some other wheels, and hang these up, or trade them. Probably hang them up, since as long as you have them, the bike is "original." As for getting more, you have fortunately walked into a vibrant vintage-bike community spanning four or five forums that loves this stuff, and French bikes of this era are not rare. So if you walk over to the "wanted / for trade" thread you will surely find someone.

Most clincher wheels of this era are "27 inch." and a wheel set should be easy to find. There are not many premium tires still offered this size. The fast tires we like are called "Pasela" and are fairly lightweight but only barely armored. Plenty of "keep it running" grade tires, though.

Changing it to the modern tire size, which is slightly smaller, is possible but more of a project

3 pack for $85 is a reasonable deal on tubulars: https://www.yellowjersey.org/tt.html

The rear derailleur will work fine, it's typically the front plastic/delrin derailleur that's the problem after 40-50 years.

+1 on tubular tires for the existing wheels. This will be your lowest cost option to get it on the road.

27" clinchers will be too big for the front brakes on a TdF. If you go the clincher route, use 700c wheels. The rear will be 120mm OLD.

If the first three numbers are 131, then that SSN was likely issued in Upstate NY. I have had several bikes from the 70s with SSN engraved on the BB. It was a fad at the time to go to the police station, and use a diamond tip engraver to put your SSN on bikes, stereos, etc. Completely different view on identity theft back then. I have one of those engravers, and have not used it since 1973. They are rough.

Ha! Yeah, this gentleman was (is) from NY, transplanted to California in the 80s. He told me they would ride centuries from long island to NJ back around to NYC... He must have been in quite good shape, then again, mostly flats I think...

When folks want to date their Gitanes, as we all learned from Chas, a key element to photo for the peanut gallery is the seat cluster to see both the seat stay finish and presence of brake bridge…lots of photos here but not one close up of this key area….zooming in, certainly a cut and squashed swagged finish as opposed to the Carre-like willow leaf cap from this bike boom-era of Gitane…and no brake bridge. Both the willow leaf cap and brake brake bridge were gone by 1971…the Nervex Dubois fork crown as opposed to earlier Nervex Pro crown places this bike at 1972 or later.

Many people on this site are old enough to remember that social security cards said "“For Social Security and Tax Purposes -- Not For Identification" because people back then did not want centralized control over their ID and financial affairs.

That statement is off-topic, of course, but: the "Not For Identification" wording was more likely a legal disclaimer intended to absolve the Federal government of responsibility if you found yourself defrauded as a result of providing your SSN to a crook as a means of identification.

The disclaimer was removed from the card (in 1972, I just read; it had first appeared there in 1946) because an overwhelming number of non-governmental businesses and agencies had come to use it as a de facto means of identification over the years.

This was the engraver we used in the shop I worked in. Early 70s. Park stand, Suntour two prong removers (many), etc were taken before the Sheriff came. Partners got into a dispute. Rent was not paid. Left us teenagers to run the shop. Wish i could have scored a Gitane TDF instead.

Cleaned up really nice! Great find, too!

Yes indeed! Thanks, I def got lucky!

You may need fork tip alignment.

Gosh your stem looks high, if so that could lead to some issue

Fork is straight and when the wheel is on the fork without QR tension it is perfectly centered, the issue happens when I flip the lever up to tighten. I want to say a few years back I had this same issue w some carbon wheels and I believe it was bearing play in the wheel, new bearings solved the issue.. do these things take regular ol run of the mill bearings or do I need fancy French ones? 😆

Somebody will snap it up for three bills. And for my sanity, please replace the bar tape. Looking at it gives me the creeps.
Use process of elimination to figure out your front wheel alignment. May flip the wheel around, try another skewer, and try another wheel.
Never heard of wheel bearings causing it to go out of whack.

This thread needs Vertyg contribution. He would remind us all about the proper stem height, at the very least. He's missed.

haha!!! It's the way she was last ridden 40+ years ago, just trying to persevere, although I would agree some nice white bar tape would look and feel nice! $300!, That's it? Well I would just hang her up in my garage if that's all this is worth...

Your pics do not show a centre-pull rear brake housing bridge/stop.

The very similar Tdf (esp same crankset, so that dates it) I worked on a while ago had had such a bridge, which had been removed:




That got tidied up before the new paint etc, and a proper french crank:

This?