Let’s take a deep dive into my 1971 Gitane Tour De France bike. In this video, we’ll discuss the history of this bicycle as it relates to the bike boom of the 1970s.
hey guys welcome to my channel this is Johnny in this channel we discuss everything bike skateboard mountain bike paddle board Surf and rad related so I delve into topics that I’m familiar with that have a little bit of uh background and experience on and one of the things I did for many years was buy and sell vintage bicycles and I remember a time where some of these bikes that I currently own today were complete unobtainium in the market if if an example existed out there it was usually in a really bad condition um in need of a lot of restoration and so a few years ago I did due just that I actually took some of these bikes that were in bad shape and restored them and resold them and at the time uh it was it wasn’t a very profitable Venture but it was profitable enough um uh and so we’re going to discuss sort of how the market has turned lately uh what you can find now and in the condition you can find it where never before did we ever see bikes in such great condition uh as we do today uh we’re going to be discussing the bike behind me and uh learning more about it and uh take a deep depth into that and it’s significance and and what this bike would have sold for a couple years ago and what it’s selling selling for today all right come with me and let’s take a dive so here we have a 1971 Jatan or Jatan uh however you want to say it I think down here in Texas you’re going to hear a lot of jattin with that with that twang at the end of the word uh and this is a tour the France model so you have the tour the France um model and right there on the fork crown and so this bike is already over 50 years old but it’s got a nice still plush Brook saddle very comfortable and the Derlin plastic Simplex derailers are mostly there I had to replace a a jockey pulley on this derailer but I mean other than that it was intact completely the front derailer is still shifting and the bike is in what I would call Time Capsule condition now some could debate that some would say well yeah it does need a little bit of restoration here and there but when you put into the context of how old this bike is this bike is over 50 years old 1971 was over 50 years ago and look at the condition that it’s in today so it’s got the campag noo hubs um it’s got the mafac competition breaks and it’s got the Sugino Super Mighty crank set I’ve never seen one of these in person and they only came on high-end bikes that I do know because I’ve never seen a Sugino supermax in person uh and so something interesting about uh French bikes of this era is that they were non-standard diameters and sizes all throughout the bike so I would imagine for instance this suino Super Maxi was made into a French bottom bracket I know for a fact that the rear Dropout here is a Simplex Dropout that would not accommodate a modern derailer without major Maj alterations or modifications to it and uh I know the seat post diameter is not standard size maybe the quill stem is um however uh this just the the the approach the French took to making this bike was very non-standard because the standards did not really exist on road bikes until the 1980s that’s when we started seeing the seat post diameter standardized to 27.2 that’s when we started to see most um makers of bikes use 68 mm bottom brackets and that’s when most uh bike manufacturers started making uh bikes to accommodate 700c Wheels um prior to that it was the wild west and this bike is from that era and so that’s what makes it special uh the fact that it even has the Sila pump that it came with originally uh those little details make that all the more special so this is you know when I look a bike at at a bike like this um even how preserved the tires are I see this as a rolling piece of art is this a bike that I would pound out on a group ride that I would you know do a 60m ride on absolutely not um maybe this bike would be something I would you know go with my kids to the park with or uh do some kind of casual writing some kind of short commute around the neighborhood um and if I had a place to commute to this would maybe be a commuter a bicycle but as far as uh anything beyond that um I would not use it for those purposes now you can tell by that seat post height that this bike is too big for me uh I’ve got barely any seat post sticking out of there and it is about a 60 62 maybe CM frame uh so why even hold on to this uh well you know I haven’t decided yet I might end up selling this bike I might end up keeping this bike uh right now with the state of the market a it’s not looking like I’m going to sell it anytime soon just because prices are not where they need to be uh so this bike was being that it was one of the first imported bicycles to come from France and Europe uh to compete with Schwin at the time which you know before that it was either beach cruisers or it was old swim varsities that weighed 40 lbs this B bike weighs 25 lbs by the way in a size 60 62 frame uh so that’s very reasonably uh basic it’s it’s basically a really reasonable weight for the time period that this bike came out uh so this would have been the cats meow and orange M molteni colors like the colors that Eddie MKS rode in the 70s uh this would have been the bike that everybody would have wanted so if you go back to uh people who uh wrote articles about this bike Sheldon brown for instance he wrote an a little article about the Jatan tour to France bike or or or about what the most coveted and desirable models of this bike boom era were and so this bike comes out on top uh so being that it has that meaning and value to collectors um I would not sell it at this time knowing that I could probably maybe get more for it down the road uh right now simply not a good time to sell bikes uh if that if I absolutely had to get rid of it I I of course would um but it’s something to hold on to as a collector’s item and as an investment how much did I pay for this bike uh this bike was $40 it cost me $40 on offer up and um you know this is what I got for $40 uh basically a bicycle with no rust with all its decals intact you can even see has uh the rolds Reynolds 531 sticker on there even has an old um Texas A&M University license back when they required those for bicycles during the 70s um and believe it or not you know it’s something hard to Fathom but at one point in the US bicycles became so popular especially during the oil crisis of the 1970s that they actually registered them with licenses as Vehicles now that registration process is no longer around uh and bicycles are are seen uh strictly as recreational uh use um vehicles I guess you you want to call them but but uh they were so and so popular that they needed a registration system just for the bicycles and so a lot of cool little um details about this bike that point out its history may point out a little bit about the original owner who owned the bike and um for those reasons it has historical value that cannot be easily parted with and this has been the bike sh on the Jaton 1971 model tour the France I hope you enjoyed it I will keep putting more content out like this uh I will go into deep Dives more on the history of cycling or the current state of cycling as we encounter it today and I’ll keep putting other content as it relates to uh the hobbies that I have you can see in the background I’ve got skateboards and uh we’ll keep it putting out more content thanks again for watching
8 Comments
I have also such a bike, agree, very beautiful bike, has a soul.
In Holland such bike costs 120-250 Euro. In average 150 euro.
That is a nice bike, but it's not a race bike. Those would have had tubular tires (always called sew-ups then in the midwest). Another 531 sticker on the fork would indicate that the forks and stays were also double butted 531.
Most of the clinchers were 27" at pressures around 70 psi. Higher pressure clincher tires and rims came a little later, and were used in racing. It's interesting we've returned to lower pressures today. 700c clinchers were desirable because they allowed swapping with sew-up wheels without readjusting brakes except for width.
I couldn't see too well as the camera moved around, but the down tube shifters look like Suntour to me. On my bike I bought in the early '70s, I took off Campagnolo shifters to replace them with Suntour. They were not cool, but worked better for friction shifting than anything else. I had the exact same white Silca pump, that yellowed over the decades.
Of the French bikes in the US then, Peugeot were most common, but Gitane, Lejune, Motobecane and a few others were around.
Your Gitane appears to be pretty stock to me. Due to the component shortage in the early 70s Gitane had to source Sugino cranksets. The TDF model was one step down from their Pro model that utilized the same frameset, but was equipped with Campagnoo Nouvo Record components. Why wouldn't you take that bike on a long ride? It is certainly capable of the task provided you tune it up and and install fresh tires. As far as the standards are concerned these are French standards. Campagnolo produced. English, French, Italian and Swiss bottom brackets and headsets, seatposts were never standardized at 27.2 mm. Diameter was determined by the manufacturer and tubing selection. The chrome looks to be in very good condition should you choose to polish it be gentle as you don't want to rub it off. Good luck with your bike and go take in on a long ride!
I have one of these bikes bought new. I have upgraded it to a complete Campy steel road set from the same era. I am now 71 and I still ride it. Beautiful machine.
Yo tengo una igual verde esmeralda con toda la istoria que dijiste ya me enamoré mas de eya 3:21
I won a road race in 1975 on that bike. Such a great day. I was super happy the Simplex derailleur didn’t self destruct.
Mine was orange, had a plastic seat and Simplex derailleurs. What a great bike, even with those things.😂 $320.00 from cutting grass!