Definitely a Gitane Tour de France. Mine is the most beat up in my collection, but I think it rides the best of all of them.

The crank, seat post bolt, pedals and possibly the headset are the only original parts I see.

too bad someone thought of 'upgrading'

SJX426; great looking bike!

They do ride very well!! :thumb:

teh only thing i didnt like about how mine rode was the shifting, i wasnt alive when these were the "top of the line"(ten speeds) by the time i started riding bikes they already had the newer style of gear selectors. I'm sure i could learn and may put the rd and fd back on when i get the frame repainted, i was thinking of making it a single speed. The most beat up bike in my small collection is my newest purchase, my yokoto thats half the age of my Gitane! :lol:

Yes, that race sitting on the fork crown with the (it's called the) steer tube going through it is called the crown race, and it is part of the headset. This being an older French frame, you could have problems finding a different one with a different design. Besides, there's nothing wrong with the quality of the Stronglight parts that your bike has now. Unless you've run into some problem?

You want a "cup bearing", but I'm not sure what that is. What you have is the normal design for a threaded headset, French, Italian, Brit, US or whatever. It won't be easy to find anything different, even if you have a correct description of what you want. Gitanes are nice old bikes, but you might be better off hot-rodding a non-French frame. You might be best off rebuilding the existing headset and just going with it.

I believe the OP meant caged bearings as opposed to loose bearings.

You'd probably have difficulty finding a French standard cartridge bearing, as these have different threading and steerer size, but you may find a cage if that's what you want.

[QUOTE=Dirtdrop;9937345]The fork crown on the original poster's fork is a Nervex Pro. The crown on the Motobecane is a Wagner, I forget which model.

These can show up on any number of brands of bikes, Raleigh bought a lot of Wagners at one point, Nexvex Pros were used by many, Peugeot included for a time.

This is the crown most often seen on mid '70s PX10s.

http://inlinethumb04.webshots.com/35...600x600Q85.jpg

Sometimes they would sustitute this awful thing from their low end models.

http://inlinethumb39.webshots.com/41...600x600Q85.jpg

Thanks, Yes it was. Bent up in May. Had it for 36 years!

[QUOTE=repechage;9940480]Thanks for the clarification! I do appreciate it!

not close enough, but thats a Wagner fork crown on my -75 Monark.

Nice bike - beautiful blue colour you've resprayed it. What paint and colour code is that?

From what I understand most Gitane's have that brand forks. My 73 Interclub ( low level bike) came with them.

Oldpedaller; thats 100% original colour! The glossy style was introduced in
-72/73 I believe. The "real" Monarks were always blue; a sort of team colour in the 60´s and 70´s when competing the orange team...the Crescents. Jump over to www.cykelhobby.com and visit my friend Kjell`s nice world of swedish bikes and others.