Happy ending... I thought it might turn out to be a real rust-bucket POS, but, no...a '75 job with 531.
BTW, not that they are cheap but robbie fellows makes re-pops of Universals for less than true NOS hoods cost. (his are around $50 a pair and he often has choice of color)

Great story, auchen! Your morning starts about the same as mine. My avatar is eye of my co-pilot, our dearly departed twine handler, Makana. The Gitane looks great, too!

Jim

Thanks non-fixie for the compliment, but you can forgo that evil weed!

Thank you too unworthy1 !

re. the hoods, I have no doubt that he does a first class job, but I am content with leaving these levers bare. (Plus I really don't use hoods much anyway.)

Thank you Jim.
Yeah, those twine handlers are a joy to have at hand. It's a wrench though, losing one.

Wow! As usual, a great job, Auchen! That frame was in amazing shape once you got the crud off. Beautiful bike.

It doesn't add up, dude. Great story, great bike, great pictures, but then there's a cat instead of a dog. Sheesh. What a letdown.

It's so pretty I almost didn't notice the saddle angle.

Great narrative! Although I remember events somewhat differently. Living in the Detroit area, I recall the night that the frame was posted. Due to the over abundance of replies, the owner pulled down the listing early. Auchen was the first to respond, and the rest is history. Great find and even better write-up!

How long do you spend in writing the thread?

Auchen, I have some old Huret downtube shifters you would like. I also have a weird red and white Simplex front derailleur.

There's a member of the Classic Rendezvous group who makes "repop" Universal and Campy brake lever hoods.

His name is Robbie Fellows.

Chas. verktyg

What a nice story, great looking bike, well worth the effort.

Yes (see my reply to unworthy1 above).
And thank you again Chas, for helping me sort this one out. When it comes to these wonderful (and oftentimes mysterious!) French bikes, you d' Man!

Tom - Thank you. - E-Mail sent (to your G-mail account).

Yes - I was very pleased with the paint quality - just a few scratches here and there, and not even a witness from the Pletscher rack (which as everyone knows are the bane of seat stays everywhere.)
+ Thanks for the kudos on the build Roypercy!

What saddle angle?

Thanks holiday!

^ For the most part this one was more fun than effort - (i.e., compared to the more serious POC's I've been doing lately )
-and thanks, Michael.

Hey! You weren't that second caller, were you Bikeman? ()

I dunno. I wrote it up quickly enough, but vetting it was a longer process.

I coveted that frame when you posted it on another thread, but I don't begrudge you a very nice build. 531 Gitanes ARE something special!

Top

Hi Guy...

The main reason why I thought that your green bike was a 1976 TdF was the 3 ring Gitane logo on the top of the seat stay caps. Gitane only used that feature for 1976 (and maybe 1977). Also your Gitane had the 1976 head tube decal which was slightly different than in 1974-75.

Do you remember the seat post size on that bike. Standard Reynolds 531 seat tubes took a 26.4mm seat post and the main tubes had wall thicknesses of 1.0mm in the butted ends and 0.7mm in the thin sections.

Lighter gauge Reynolds tube sets had seat tubes with 0.9mm x 0.6mm or even 0.8mm x 0.5mm. The thinner walled seat tubes used 26.6mm seatposts.

For 1974-75 Gitane cheapened the Tour de France by changing the frame from all Reynolds 531 to only the 3 main tubes like the European model TdFs. In 1974 Gitane importation and distribution changed from long time business partner Mel Pinto Imports to Gitane Pacific in located SoCal. The folks at Gitane Pacific didn't have a clue!

My impression from dealing with them back then was they were a group of folks who weren't knowledgeable about the bike business and were just out to turn a fast buck! They focused on entry level models including some cheap Japanese built bikes and even cheaper Taiwanese made models. All of this was going on in 1974 just as the US bike boom was coming to a screeching halt!

Mel Pinto on the other hand had the 1969 to 1973 US TdF models built differently with half chrome rear stays and all Reynolds 531 frames. He also standardized on Simplex Criterium derailleurs whereas some European TdFs from that era came with Huret Svelto derailleurs that mounted on proprietary Huret dropouts.

The Super Corsas were only made for the US market and the model was discontinued at the end of 1973. The French market equivalent of the Super Corsa was the all Campy Olympic and Super Olympic models.

From 1974 through 1976 most Gitane performance models came with Huret honeycomb rear dropouts. The US TdF was dumbed down while the Interclub was upgraded in a number of ways. I've seen a few Interclubs that even had TdF 3 main tube Reynolds frames that were found on 1974-75 TdFs.

The big problem was that in 1974-76 both TdFs and Interclubs were very hard to get from Gitane Pacific! In addition, they were drastically overpriced when compared to comparable models from Peugeot, Motobecane and Raleigh - the last large European makers with a nationwide presence in the US during those years. We brought in a few TdFs and Interclubs during those three years but ended up selling them at about our cost to clear them out.

So, back to auchencrow's bike, its a 1974 Champion du Monde model. I wasn't aware of the CdM model until I bought a 1974 bare frame a few years back.

The reason why its a 1974 is the old style Reynolds decals. At the end of 1973 Reynolds introduced new decals with a gold "address" block at the bottom of the frame decals and top of the fork decals. There were probably some of the old style decals left over a were used through maybe mid 1974. After that all of the French Reynolds bikes had he new decals.

I'd never seen any US listing or advertisements for the Olympic and Super Olympic models. Gitane Pacific may have brought a few into the country as special orders. Others could have been imported by individuals. Same goes for the Champion du Monde.

The Olympic (MAFAC brakes) and Super Olympic (Campy brakes) used lighter gage Reynolds tubing and 26.6mm seat posts. The Champion du Monde used the same frame except with a short stack 33mm Stronglight P3 headset. The Olympic models had 41mm high Campy headsets. The Campy headset on auchencrow's bike is missing the spacer/washer plus font brakes cable hanger. It also may be only locking on to a few turns of threads on the steerer.

BTW, auchencrow, nice job.... ;-)

Chas. verktyg

Addendum: Entry level bikes were still being sold after the bike boom ended in 1974 but not like the truck loads full during the boom. Shops couldn't put them together fast enough between 1970 and 73!

After 1974 the market changed. Many folks were buying their 2nd derailleur bike and were looking for better models. Also many US buyers had become more sophisticated due to the number of books and buyer's guides written during the bike boom. Mid range models in the $150-$250 range became more popular.

In addition by the mid 70s Japanese bikes were taking a bigger market share due to improved cosmetics and better components than comparable models from the big 4 - Raleigh, Peugeot, Motobecane and Gitane. This forced Raleigh and Motobecane to start supplying bikes for the US market with Japanese components.

I don't know which are better, your writing skills or your polishing and cleaning skills. Very impressive to see that sad neglected frame turn into such a lovely bike.

I'm so glad it's not my size so I don't feel jealous. Fine bike. The Svelto against the Huret drop-outs is a fabulous look. And the right Stronglight crank, although keep your eyes out for the drilled bis rings.

When it comes to brakes and levers, I'm good with vintage-looking modern. Comfort for the hands, and stopping power for my added weight!

Nice story, too.

:-)

Thank you Italuminum, and LeicaLad!

It's wonderful to restore a bike and to be able to present it to guys like you, in such a hospitable and appreciative forum.

Sometimes I get the idea though, that what we're really doing here is encouraging one another's obsession, and part of the reason why we build these bikes is just to show them - not because we actually need them.... Nah!

Thanks Chas, for even more salient information on my CdM. It's kind'a cool to know it's a relatively rare and distinct model.

The Campy headset is fully engaged on the steerer though, and so I am pretty certain it is original to the bike.

I even had to ADD a spacer to keep the top nut from bottoming on the tube. Based on your remark about short-stacks being used on the CdM, I have to wonder if my Gitane is an Olympic.