That bike may be a repainted 1987 Gitane: The lugs, seatpost binder bolt, chain stay chrome, fork crown, internally routed rear brake cable with entry/exit at the side, the rear brake bridge and number peg all point to Gitane. Check the fork ends to see if they aren't filed to the dropout on the inside: I am unaware of any other manufacturer who did this (although I may be wrong about that, so be kind in your replies!).
Of course, that would make it off topic, but there being no identifying decals, it would be hard to say for sure. The parts are certainly early/mid 1980's, but if this guy was an amateur, who knows what he had money for!
Stephan Andranian Costa Mesa, California USA http://www.GitaneUSA.com
nick Bordo <nicbordeaux@yahoo.fr> wrote: Seeing as I got no response to my post on a bakelite light yesterday, I went out this morning in a huff and purchased a racing bike with pedigree. Not a TDF winner. A winner of the Championnat d'Aquitaine, arguably the most competitive regional championship in France. The guy who rode it all season to final victory went from semi-pro to pro after that. He was part of the French Team at worldchampionships. And other things that count.
Pictures and a little comment on this bike at http://membres.lycos.fr/
As a machine, I normally wouldn't have bought it. Not my taste in bikes. But it has history. I reckon it has enough history to make it worth more than the sum of it's parts. Nice change. It means nobody lays their hands on it and dismantles it, then ebays all the parts one by one over a period to buyers in the States or Japan so they can chase the bike all over ebay and collect 75% of it at ten to twenty times the price of what it would have cost 'em to buy it from someone reputable (that excludes me) and have it shipped whole. But there again, if people don't realize this, can't stand the prospect of shipping charges on a whole bike or enjoy the most expensive jigsaw puzzle in the world, is that any busines of mine ?
Nick "M" Bordo, Landes (yeah, I moved), Aquitaine, France
ps: the other question is: do you think it would look funky with a bakelite light on it ?
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