I have tracked down a French made Gitanes frame set — not a gas pipe Canadian boom bike. It may be late 70's. It is entirely 531: tubes, forks and stays according the badging.

I want to transfer all my stuff from my Trek 560 over to the Gitanes, which is more my size. Impossible? Or because it is a Reynolds frame, would they have used English BB threading, a more standard seat tube diameter and steering tube threads.

You are probably looking French threading. Not at all impossible. Just a matter of getting a French BB and headset. Under normal conditions, I would say with Japan being a hotbed of French cycle fans, you would have no problem finding what you need. Not necessarily cheap, but no dearth of available pieces. But things are still not normal over there. Pics?

Not to change the subject, but how are you doing?

It's Gitane (Gypsy) and a 70's Gitane will have metric-sized Reynolds tubing and French threads. You should read what Sheldon Brown had to say about French bicycles on the Harris Cyclery site. The stem will be 22 mm and it's clamp will probably be 25 mm. The BB and headset will be French. The seatpost will probably be 26.4 mm.

I love riding my Gitane, even though it's a bit too small for me.

i have a hi ten gitane. rides great!

My 531 Gitane Super Corsa is my favorite ride.

Top

Its all French, doesn't matter who supplied the tubing. Headset, stem, bars, bottom bracket are all french. It probably also has oddball threading on the RD braze on. So no, not all of your Trek parts will match.

There is no oddball threading on the derailer hanger. There is no threading at all.

My advice would be to build the Gitane as a second bike - using French parts. There's something absolutely wonderful with a combination of Normandy, Mavic, Stronglight, Simplex or Huret and Mafac parts on that frame. Finding the proper bottom bracket cups and headset isn't all that big a deal. Your biggest potential problem is if you have Simplex dropouts on the rear. It'll mean that installing a non-Simplex derailleur isn't just plug and play. But it's doable, without too much trouble.

No shortage of people here who love their Gitane bikes. I have two, and love them!

Basically +1 to the advice here. Finding parts shouldn't be too difficult, but it's good to know what to look for. French threaded bits show up often. There is also Velo-Orange for modest-cost BB and headset options.

We definitely need photographs. Lots of them.

I also hope you're doing well.

Cheers!

Good point. I spaced the stem and seat post in my response. French stems are getting hard to find. You can get a (gasp) adapter to use a modern stem. Depends on how hung up you are on "originality".

What kind of adapter will allow you to use a modern stem on a French fork?

It just takes about 20 minutes to hand sand a 22.2 mm stem down to 22 mm. If you do it right, the modification is completely invisible.

For upper level NOS French components (Mavic bars, Stems, Cranks, Mafac levers, Stronglight cranks. Spidel crnaks and derailleurs....etc...), it could be a challenge presently as French stuff had escalated like crazy in the past few months. Just check the asking prices at eBay. I'm hoping this price spike does not stick permanently. The stuff is not selling because of the prices, but I don't know why these sellers aren't adjusting their prices. Maybe they are just fishing for suckers during the TDF season hype?

Chombi

I think the cigarette brand is spelled Gitanes, which could explain Lenton's misspelling.

I bet this bike will ride nicely. Send us pictures ASAP!

You can get some French parts through melpintoimports.com. Phil Wood makes French and Swiss rings for bottom brackets. VO quite supplying them I believe.

This

I had one custom turned for my Lejeune tandem. It was 21mm. I guess the steerer is heavier. Also got a regular one just for grins. Nicely done.

First, noglider is right about my misspelling of Gitane. Sometimes I smoked Gitanes in my student days — back in the Cretacious.

Thanks for the careful replies. I'm learning a lot here.

I've got so much to do here, including a build for my son. So now I am dithering because I am taking the sobering advice that I approach this as a separate build as opposed to swapping and mixing stuff from the Trek 560. But the frame is really tempting.

One question: do the Italian threads and dimensions cross over at any point? I must have known this and forgotten.

And CV asks:Thanks very much for asking. I've updated our situation here, and I have included some news about Northern Japan on a thread started by Bianchigirll. My own thread was on a general discussion forum. It seems to have vanished?! I originally updated on a general thread cuz I thought it was off topic. But virtually all my friends in BF are on CV. And so, I have just chosen to tag my latest message to Bianchigirll's thread. Thanks Bianchigirll! You can read here: https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...er-from-SENDAI

That frame has been tempting me as well. You can have it though.

Well, that is good news!

Heh. You can call me the biggest human repository of useless facts. I notice the stupidest little details of life and remember them forever, whether I want to or not. Meanwhile, I can't remember to bill my clients or pay my bills. Oy.

You mean all the specs and not just the BB? Italian specs are a very weird mix of English and metric. There are probably rational reasons for this. For example, if I remember the story correctly, industry -- all industry, not just bikes -- thought it was time to change bearing balls from English to metric. That turned out to be a mistake, because it would be a bad idea to change the sizes, and the exact metric equivalent of the old sizes has too many decimal places. Eventually, the world decided to stick with sizes such as 1/8", 1/4" etc. So maybe the Italian bike industry had a similar reason. So if I remember right, the Italian BB spec is 36mm diameter with 24 threads per inch (tpi). Maybe they didn't want to make new dies for the thread pitch but it was cheap to change diameter. I'm just guessing, but I suspect something like this is (close to) the truth.

The other specs are available online. They're probably on Sheldon Brown's web site, among others. Italian headsets are different from English and French. Stem diameter is the same as English but there are lots of handlebar diameters, so be careful. I think the Italians introduced the 26mm handlebar diameter standard, and it's become common. Unfortunately, there are far too many handlebar diameter standards still in use.

Also, Italian BB width is typically 70mm whereas the rest of the world usually uses 68mm.

as to the dropouts on that particular frame: they look to be Huret (seems like that little half-moon black plastic stop is there in the slot) and the tab is low on the hanger (in the Campy fashion), so I'd bet this has a conventional THREADED RD hanger...if so, it should work with any conventional RD such as the one you pull off a Trek 560. There's a chance that the BB could be Swiss, but might even be BSC since the graphics point to a '78-'79 frame. Best to inquire with the gitaneusa.com folks about the model (oops, you have ID'd it as all-531, so could be this "Nation 1849" https://www.gitaneusa.com/images/catalog/1978_pg4.jpg) and what that threading could be.

Thanks unworthy1. I would like to plug into your head and record all that you must know about French machines — at least Gitane — that I decidedly do not know.

Whether I bite on this one ... or possibly another one like it down the road, I feel that I have to get into a really French machine* — all the way! (Sounds sexy n'est pas?)

This may not be the right time, given recent events around here. But if I don't make this auction, I may try again later. Still, I might bid on the frame. if I win at my budget price, I'll just hang it up for awhile.

Correct me if I am wrong, but French bicycles are a bit daunting — at least to me. The French have traditionally set their own standards. They differ in so many ways by dimension and even in principle design: initiative, bravery, a thick wallet — they all seem to be called for.

BTW — I had this bike down to about '75-'76. I'll definitely put your finger on it ahead of mine. Thanks!

I don't blame the French for doing it their own way. First of all, not only were there various national standards, there were various COMPANY standards. Second of all, metric seemed to be the future. If I had been in their shoes, I would have predicted that the metric system would catch on.

They made dura ace 7200 in french sizes. Headset, Seat post, and bottom bracket are 7200 french. Stem and bars are philippe in french size. Proof: my 531 gitane.

Dan — that is truly gorgeous