jj1091

You brake from about the same position as riding on the hoods. You can't brake from the drops. I have them on my PX-50.

Chombi1 

A lot of companies re-branded Vitus 979's as their own, for some years, but I did not know that Benotto did it too......
I could not count anymore how many companies did this, as another one unknown to me keeps popping up, seemingly, ever few months.......

desconhecido 

It's not in my hands yet, but it looks like I am the owner of this Moto currently in transit. Best I can tell from looking at the catalogs from back then, it's probably a 1977. That's based on the crankset, which is not the TA used in earlier years, and the "Olimpic" 64 pedals which for a while I had convinced myself were NR. Atom 700 pedals seemed to be the pedal usually installeded. Based on the saddle and the rest of the bike in general, it doesn't look to me like it's seen a lot of use. Saddle doesn't appear to have dimples and in my experience, a Brooks saddle will dimple up pretty quickly.

Don't know what to say about the replacement derailleur, the stem shifter, and the safety levers other than that the original buyer may have requested those items. Based on the pedal reflectors (left side has both front and rear), I'd guess that those "Olimpic" pedals have never seen toe clips leading me to suspect that it may have been bought by someone not interested in the "sport" nature of the cycle, but who knows. Large freewheel sprocket looks pretty big so I'm suspecting that the NR derailleur was replaced in order to handle a larger cog. Anyway, whether it be French threaded or English threaded, I have a freewheel compatible with a NR derailleur and I have a currently unemployed patent 72 NR to install. For shifters, probably install SunTour barcons though might use some NR DT shifters, also on hand.

It's pretty dirty and, no doubt, needs complete servicing, but that's what it's all about. TA cranks -- the old Park crank tool had a normal end and a TA end -- finally, after about 30 years, I'll get to use the TA end.

Have some MAFAC Racers, and it's tempting.

mackgoo

noglider 

The French had so much more style than Americans in the 50s!

papik

My 1979 GITANE "Trophée"...on the Col d'IZOARD...


*

bikemig 

Cool bike; I'm looking forward to seeing the build pictures. What do you think you are going to do to it?

bikemig 

This is my "new" 1973 Motobecane Grand Record as found in the "wild." I haven't decided yet how I plan to rebuild it. I'm torn between leaving it largely alone or changing out the gearing to make it more "eroica" ready with a long cage RD and later Motos did come with suntour running gear. There are some hilly rides in the driftless region of the midwest that I'd love to take this bike out on. The TA double has real possibilities in terms of gearing and a suntour cyclone would look tasty on this bike (and shift better than the campy RD!).

camjr

Here's my Motobecane. 1974 Grand Touring.

ExPatTyke

Finally back on the bike after my accident - here's my Gitane after its first outing for nearly three months.

jr59

desconhecido 

I'm not real sure about it yet. The stem shifters have to go --will install bar end shifters. Campagnolo had barcons, but my understanding is that they're inferior to the old Sun Tour ratcheting shifters, the new DiaCompe "silver" and the old Shimano spring compensated barcons from the 70s/80s. Probably use some Suntour ones I have on hand, but I also have Campagnolo NR DT shifters so may try those. Been so long since I used them, can't recall how well they worked.

Brakes, I have some MAFAC levers and repro half hoods and am buying some MAFAC Competition calipers and those will go on. They didn't put MAFACS on these bikes, but I like them anyway.

Wheels: depends on the condition of the Normandy Luxe hubs. If they're good, I'll probably just use the 27" wheels with Rigida rims that are on there. Also depends on how ugly the spokes are. I hate to put a lot of effort into a bike and then have nasty galvanized spokes. If I replace the wheels, it will probably be NisiSludi rims and Mavic hubs, but I have some new Sun M13 II rims in 700C that would be ok and 36h for the Normandy Luxe hubs. Who knows. I have this notion banging around in my head that 27" wheels need to be 86'd whenever found, but when I try to rationally justify that prejudice, I can't -- there are decent tire options for 27" and I have Presta Savers.

The "Ben Hur" TA chainset is, according to the catalog for 1977, original to the bike and is 54/40 (or fight). I may replace the sprockets with something smaller as a 54 is sort of big for me. Lots of options there. Currently, the chainset has 4 concentric circles -- two guards and two sprockets. Removing the outer guard and replacing the inner with spacers may be an option. But, the current arrangement is rather startling, and that's not necessarily bad.

Plan on using a NR rear derailleur, currently the bike has what appears to be Suntour VX GT. Depending on the rear hub (English or French) I may use a Suntour ultra 6 13-24 freewheel or an Atom 13-21: thus the temptation for finding smaller rings for the front. Or, I may try the long cage mod that Soma sells and see how the NR RD shifts with 28 or larger rear.

So, my plans are mostly to make few changes except for the brakes and shifters and RD, clean, service, and upgrade/repair as necessary. Best I can tell, the paint and chrome are decent and no decal replacement or refinishing should be necessary. Some parts need OA, but that's typical.

noglider 

@desconhecido, don't be hasty in removing the stem shifters. Those are very good shifters. Campy bar end shifters (the old friction type) get bad reviews a lot. @ascherer tried them recently and said they suck. Back in the 70s and 80s, stem shifters came only on bikes up to a certain point in the lineup, just below the midpoint. We associated them with crappy bikes. But they work well. If you can over having the doofy look of them, you might like them. Then again, SunTour ratcheting bar end shifters are also very good.

ollo_ollo

+1 on that noglider. When I overhauled my Grand Jubile Mixte, was going to swap stem shifters to for some SunTour Barcons I had, but after riding it a few times with stems, found they work just fine, so decided to just keep it that way. Bike will eventually end up with 1 of my grand daughters and ladies seem to like stem shifters. Don

ascherer 

I did? I don't think I've ever used Campy barcons.

noglider 

Oh. Which were the ones you tried and didn't like? Were they Simplex?

PilotFishBob 

I put Campy bar end shifters on a bike with some hesitation - I really expected to have issues with them especially considering the number of bikes I have equipped with the Suntour variants. Pleasantly surprised though, they've been no problem and work well for me, not really better or worse than Suntour, just different. But that's me. I also have a set of Simplex barcons I got from a forum member waiting for just the right bike - one day soon I'll find out how those behave.

unterhausen

I probably posted this before photobucket ate the web. Never did figure out who made this frame.

ascherer 

I have a set of Simplex barcons that I put on my International, yes. I'd used them on a MTB > drop bar conversion some years back. They work just fine, although I had the impression that they took an extra bit of trimming with a 7-speed freewheel. I changed to downtube shifters on the International mostly for aesthetics.

noglider 

They say that as we get older, the memory is the second thing to go.

ascherer 

To go? No, I'll eat here.

1simplexnut

another red vitus

desconhecido 

From the seller's pictures, I thought the shifters were Huret. But, when the bike arrived today and I looked, I discovered they are a Suntour variant I was not familiar with. All the old bikes I've encountered with Suntour stem shifters were the Power Shifters on a stem mount. These are massive straight friction and they don't work any better than other old simple friction shifters like the Campagnolo DT shifters and the Huret DT and stem mount or the Simplex (except the retrofriction). So, I have the Suntour barcons cleaned and polished and ready to install.

Other things I've learned in the hour that I've had the bike: the freewheel has a skip tooth 16t big sprocket and 13t 4th. It's a Shimano of some sort but doesn't use the typical Park FR 1, but I've found one that will work on the Bikesmiths site. The seatpost looked in the photos to be rusty steel, but it's an alloy SR with rust colored dried grease on it. Stem and seatpost are free and moving. The Brooks saddle appears almost unused but is very dry and hard. I think I need to go neat hunting. The catalog specs list Rigida rims and there are some that had an oval sticker like the Super Champions so I thought they would be Rigida. But, they are in fact Super Champion -- model 58, I guess. So, 27" Panaracers and Presta Savers are in my future.

The bike is in much better shape than I thought it would be, under 40 years of grime. The chrome socks on the fork have a bit of freckling, but I think it will clean up ok. Decals are mostly ok except the frame 531 sticker.

mountaindave 

motapro

I've always really liked the ornate Nervex lugs. They make Prugnat lugs look so plain. Let's face it. Most French bike boom bikes were rubbish. An old frame builder did a repaint and restore on a 72 Gitane TDF for me. He laughed about how they were made by 13 year old French kids in a dank factory in Nantes, and sprayed in about 10 minutes flat. He shook his head and said " They may look rough, but go like stink and for lots of us, the first real road bike we rode". Bear in mind that it was the late sixties when they were built, and there were much worse bikes on the market. I love seeing these survivors, even have a few myself; GitaneTeam Pro, Gitane Super Corsa, Gitane Club racer, Bertin Vitus, Folis, a Motobecane Team Champion, and two Peugeot PX 10s. Yup, they all "go like stink".