Oh, BD63. That angle of shot gives an excellent view of the "willow leaf" stay caps. Very handsome, especially compared to the TdF,
which looks crude and lumpish.

You going to paint that red again?

I like the graphics too. Despite them being cheesy foil, I think they have a certain cool.

My '74 PX10LE is one of the models with the steep head tubes. It is very twitchy, and I made it worse when I switched to a stem with less extension for a better fit. A more aggressive rider or a racer might describe it as responsive, but I ride to relax and unwind and it's not conducive to that. The Gitane felt just right to me from day one and it's my favorite ride. I don't ride the PX10 at all anymore. I hang on to it just because it's hard to let go after 39 years.

I didn't read which model of Gitane you had, but the TDF's I've had from 1972-ish were prety slack-angled just like the same-year PX-10 (at least the head angles on all but perhaps the largest frame sizes were).

You're right about the fit issue, with the later PX10 models being slanted toward a "pro" level of aggressiveness.
As an experiment, you could try a foreward saddle position in lieu of the shorter neck. This will shorten up the reach and just might make the bike pleasantly sprightly, at least for the shorter rides on which you can maintain a higher pedaling force. Too many riders, I feel, are locked into a riding position that favors their preferred longer/slower ride length, but I awoke to the possibility of alternately riding different fit setups to suit the "intensity" of the varied rides that I go on and have been pleasantly surprised a how the more-foreward riding position actually opens up the femur-to-spine angle and thus comfortably allows both a faster cruising speed and easier climbing. I only had to dial in the saddle angle a little more carefully to achieve this, which I admit looked funny at first.
I've thus far only increased the stem length on my 57cm PX10LE from 8cm to 10cm, but am looking to sand down a 110-120mm neck to fit the French steerer, move the saddle yet further foreward, and will report back on that. The bike is still twitchy as can be, so 10cm is not quite long enough yet.

Old retyred must have lost his mind! Why would he bump this stale thread to page one?

I love that SC in green, all the others too. They were definitely one of the first bikes I really wanted as a teenager. Here's mine before repaint. I stripped the head foil and sent it to Cyclomondo for a replica to be made but it never came to fruition. Funny story, though. I had found an original unused Gitane foil decal set in combination with a similarly vintage Schwinn Paramount decal set on ebay and had bid on it, waiting to up my bid at the end. I ultimately lost the bid and I messaged the winner to ask if he was more interested in the Paramount set I would buy the Gitane set from him. Turned out that he was Robert Broderick, another of the great GitaneUSA experts who has his own site over at www.velo-pages.com, and his intent was to send the original Gitane decals to Cyclomondo so that the replicas to be made. I, of course, bowed to the greater good! My great respect to Chas Colrich also! The second pic is what became of my SC after repaint.



Jim

UPS delivered a box to my residence today. Anybody know what could be in it?

Tease us why don't ya?

Looking forward to detail pics...

I'm sure a few have figured out the contents. Here are some pics.


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A HA! So, you bought it. Very nice. I love that color.

A little bit of spit & polish, not to mention some tires, and . . .

We'll look forward to your ride report.

It IS a real beauty!

Congrats!

Great bike! Is the whole head tube covered by a foil decal? I wasn't sure from the Ebay pictures whether that was a chrome head tube or a decal.

Yes, entire head tube is wrapped in the foil decal. I thought it was chromevelato when I first saw it on Ebay. It is a fine looking Gitane and the favorable remarks from both the C&V group plus several CR members whetted my appetite and pushed me into "Gotta have it" mode. I don't usually buy from Ebay, preferring Craigslist and face to face transactions.

I'll be riding it as soon as I stick a set of wheels on it. I don't need to buy tubulars as I can borrow a wheelset from another bike.