Thanks to another forum member this followed me home yesterday for the poultry sum of $125.



Looking at the Gitane Catalogues it seems to be an '84:

https://www.gitaneusa.com/catalogues02.asp

stronglight cranks, simplex Sx/SJ componants, mafac canti's, mavic alloy rims. It's actually in fantastic shape and looks like it's barely been ridden. There are just a few scratches from being moved around the garage.

Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics. When the weather clears up I'll take some better pics, and maybe I'll even fix the stokers bars







bigger pics here.

Any one else have one of these or any experience with them? I can't wait to hook up the kid trailer and get the fiancee on the back and take the entire family for a ride! Just needs some brooks saddles, a taller stem for the captain(me) to make the cockpit fit and I'll probably put flat bars or something on the back.

I'm also considering doing the MS150 with it in a few weeks if I can convince my friend to ride it...

OH and did I mention yesterday was my birthday? It was a good day. Thanks Fender1!

I also forgot to mention it came with a spare set of tubes and tires, and toe clips for both riders.

Nice catch! Yesterday was my b-day too!!

wowza, the front fork crown looks cool. The only thing that seems odd to me is that it doesn't have a tube crossing diagonally to the back like I am used to seeing.

Happy B-day. I always exploit mine by making my wife go on a bike ride! HAHAHA (rubs hands together)

Happy Birthday and you are very welcome. The Lancaster area seems to be rich in used tandems. That is where I picked up my Burley Tandem for $150. Enjoy and I am lookig forward to the pics!

im speechless

Well, don't go counting your chickens......

Seriously, that looks like a cool and fun ride. Enjoy!

My brother (Fender 1) clued me on that one, but sadly I have no one else to ride with. A tandem would quickly land me in divorce court with my wife.

cool bike :-)

that's not exactly chicken feed.

That's a great score, certainly no turkey! I'll bet you were egg-cited to pullet home.


...ducks out before the mood turns fowl...

Very cool two-wheeled divorce machine.

Dan

Gah... you suck. No decent tandem goes for less than $400 'round here. I wanna find this...
-Gene-

Nice score! You might want to rearange the chains and cranks to put the double sided crank in back and the front derailer on the stoker seat tube. You save a couple pounds of chain and idler cog that way.

In theory it'll also improve the shifting.
-Gene-

Don't ride it too hard—I believe these older gitane tandems have a reputation for falling apart. Not necessarily their fault, tandem technology just hadn't progressed to a "pro" level at the time. That big open parallelogram in the frame where the stoker is... It just wants to collapse.

Not to say it's definitely unsafe or anything... just probably better as a cruiser than a serious roadie.

Also, loving the bum bars on the back.

I saw that on CL the other day also. Did the seller know what he had. It was listed as a Citane and he also had it as $125 obo. I just wish I had our mini-van when I saw it, by the afternoon I knew it would be gone.

Good to see a C&V member got it !

Hey, you forgot to wish him a happy birthday!

Happy Birthday & nice score. I've had my eye out for one, but nothing in my area ever pops up.

Glad someone else said this before me.

Nice looking tandem. You know what it needs, so I'll just shut up.

It looks just like my Rallye, purchased new in 1984. It's an interesting mix of appropriate components and cheap crap. The frame is pretty heavy and fairly flexy, but it has oversize fork blades. The headset is a cheap single-bike model (French thread, nach); mine barely lasted one season. I replaced it with a Stronglight Delta, which is still going strong. The tires were cheap, heavy clinchers. Mine didn't even last a month. Replaced with Specialized "Tandem" tires. The rims are nice Mavic alloy rims, with 40h hubs front and rear. The rear hub is an Atom drum brake with an oversize (12mm) axle, and an Atom "Tandem" freewheel (4 pawls instead of the usual 2; French thread again, of course). MAFAC "Tandem" cantilever rim brakes operated by a MAFAC double-pull lever (the drum brake is on the other lever). Cheap Simplex friction down tube shifters; I replaced these with "retrofriction" levers and the improvement was dramatic. Simplex front and rear derailleurs; the rear was a 410SX, IIRC. It worked well for over a decade and then one of the springs broke. I replaced it with a Shimano "Altus" which also worked well until earlier this year when I replaced it with a Campy "Rally" from BF member Pastorbob (thanks!). I really don't recall the seats at all, probably some awful vinyl a$$-hatchet of some kind. The captain's now is an Avocet "Touring" and the stoker's a Brooks B66.

And yes, I did move the drive crank back to the stoker's BB and saved a couple pounds of chain. I had a "kid-back" attachment on it for many years and used it to ride my kids to and from school.

All in all worth the $350 I paid for it back in 1984...

It looks like it came with a stem-mounted bell.

https://www.gitaneusa.com/catalogues02.asp

Everyone else's Gitane tandem is nicer than mine. Mine is a 70s one with steel everything, including cottered cranks.

I'm very jealous!

Don't feel bad, it still has potential!

Got it for $30 at a swap meet. Sank all of $147 into fixing it up.