Hello all,

I am working in Hanoi at the moment and managed to pick up this old bike for about $40. I know next to nothing about bikes but after finding that Gitane was respected company my curiosity was sparked.

I have read up a wee bit on frame sizing this one is 18 1/2" measured center of crank to center of top tube (19 1/2 measured to very top of tube.)
The wheel base is 41 1/2"

I will try to measure angles later...

Although the decals are very faded I can just make out the letters "olympe" on the top tube, but it doesn't look like any of the Olympic medal bikes I have seen discussed on here!!

I got it with shimano deore rear derailleur which i replaced because it was knackered, and deore lx cantilever brakes which i swapped for linear pull because the traffic here is pretty wild...

As you see it has a fair bit of rust, though it doesn't seem very serious.

The wheels are a bit out of true, and maybe worn, and the rear derailleur hanger is a bit bent and has a messy thread.

Basically, I was wondering if it will get me to india... Will i need to treat the rust and re paint it? Will I need to have a welder put some extra attachment points on the frame for bottles and front rack? will i need new wheels? Lots of questions really. I hope you can help.

Are you planning to ride this bike from Vietnam to India? Are you riding alone? I used to live in Asia, and I heard that it's a really dangerous thing to do because people have been attacked and killed.

If you changed the brakes from Canti to V-brake without changing the levers, the ratios are likely to be wrong. How do they work now? Cantis can be very powerful, they are a bit of a pain to set up though.

From Hanoi to India is more than 1,300 miles in straight line, you ain't gonna make it on that bike pal, like Tiny said, your personel welfare will be definitely in hot water.

Well, it's not a rock solid plan yet, and I don't hold any illusions as to the safety of riding alone but plenty of people do trips like this and I am probably at much greater risk as i stumble home from the latest party at 4am. Wouldn't carry much worth killing for anyway.

Was confused about this brake issue also because the levers on the bike say "shimano V-brake" in fact the new ones work bloody well, I followed all the instructions found on this site for setting up both sets so I reckon that wasn't the problem, with the cantis I had to grip like a mad ape to slow the bike, now I just need to use my index finger. Maybe the last owner had v-brakes swapped to cantis....

So anyway, if I do go ahead, I guess I will need a new set of strong wheels at the least. Racks I can try to fabricate using readily available materials, but other than that is there any point in adapting the frame like i mentioned? It has quite a long wheel
base and feels pretty comfy and stable so it's just about the best bike I can hope to get my hands on out here.

Opinions and advice welcome, hopefully some positive ones to balance it out!

Haha, well it got nicked the other day. Maybe I'll find one with fewer holes in the paint next time...