To buy or not?
First of all... it is my size... 50cm, 30in standover... having troubles finding that.

Gitane Gran Sport Deluxe converted to single speed with respaced and redished rear wheel.
"NEW HP TIRES, NEW SEAT,POST,AND BAR WRAP. NEW CHAIN AND FREEWHEEL.
FRESH GREASE,BEARINGS,CABLES AND HOUSING."

Asking $150.. would be local pickup, so no shipping charges, no assembly required.

I am looking for a single speed/fixed commuter and play bike. My previous Royce Union find with ultra narrow spacing is proving to be a problem... and yes quite heavy.
Would this Gitane be a lighter bike? Something worth fixing up and making pretty?

Is $150 too much.

$150 seems a bit steep. It will be really heavy until you upgrade those wheels and cranks and even then it will never be particularly light. It's probably all french threaded and sized which can be kind of a hassle, it's not a deal breaker for me but it is something to think about. Why not respace the Royce Union? That would be just as easy as dealing with all that french stuff and would cost $150 less.

These were about 28# so no lightweight. plus the french bits can get expensive unless you're fixing up a top line bike. $150's too much for that model. Probably cost $125 when it was new.

The Royce union is 105 rear drop-out... just about any fixed, free, or flipflop hub I've seen is 120.... seems a little far to me. Yes, some of the hubs are adjustable a little narrower though.

As for wheels, I'm looking at buying now, then if it doesn't work on the Royce... buy a new frame.... or look into BMX hubs. I just thought this bike might've made skipping step one make sense.

Just weighed my other bikes... Bianchi is ~25, Royce Union is ~28, Miyata 710 is ~27. Pretty rough, weighed on analog bathroom scale. Bianchi and Miyata are fully dressed, Royce is bare bones (no tape, coaster brake only, no bottle cages, no computer)

I guess I was really hoping the Gitane would be lighter. Since it's not, and not a great deal, I'll pass ATLEAST until I can try to fit a set of wheels on the Royce. Maybe the guy will relist with a lower price and make it worth it :dunno:

If I got the Gitane, any suggestions on replacing the cranks with lighter ones? My Royce has a set that look very similar (in the arm, the actual spider and ring are completely different).

That's where you'll run into your first french bit, the special threaded bottom bracket cups. Even going lower quality components and lucky you're probably at $50 for BB & crank. Just about any square taper crank will work, just gotta match the spindle length.

Yeah, i knew about the french threaded BB, just didn't know if the cranks were oddities also.
thanks for the quick replies