Bought this the other day mainly for its XT components, but its a very interesting bike and i'd like to know a bit more about it.
It's an early nineties Gitane Cycles mtb with Columbus Max OR frame and forks, XT components and Mavic 231 CD rims. I've never seen one before and can't find anything with a google search. The frame and forks are quality, with some really nice design touches.
Looks nice apart from the wled in pic 3 which looks pitted to buggery.
Did you pay much for it?
The only thing I remember with Gitane Cycles was that in the late 80's and early 90's they hire bikes at french campsites that I went to were Gitanes or MBK's most were BSO's and had the same quality as the cheap Decathlon Rockriders they use now. Occasionally someone would find a real gem like this and it would stand out. My mate had an MBK Trakker Hi-tech that had a nice Columbus Cromor (yes it was cromor) frame and DeoreII groupset. The example always elevated these brands from the crap to the respectable.
That bike surely deserves more than cannabalisation as it should be really light (IIRC Serotta Max-Or was under 24lbs with a Max-or frame and XTII) and ride nicely.
Thanks for the comments guys. Its a lovely looking thing but not really my cup of tea, It owes me just £60 so I'm on a winner with it whatever way it goes.
Hello guys! I'm kinda new here, but I actually used to look a lot on this forum before I made my own account. I will leave the introduction to some other time, please excuse me for that.
I just bought this bike today:
It was the equivalent of 120 EUR. No steal, but still a decent price. It's full M900 XTR with a recent era Alivio rear derailleur (I got the original XTR with that, but it's missing the inner part of the cage, otherwise it's in very good condition), Tioga threaded headset, steel stem with narrow Kalloy UNO handlebar, a crappy steel seatpost with an adapter, a Selle Royal Look In saddle, Mavic X221 (steel blue) rear rim and some older Mavic on the front, the CST slicks that you see and 737 pedals that have seen better times. It doesn't matter much, though, because I don't ride SPD's. The middle chainring is pretty much gone, as expected, and it slips. Chain is a Z by KMC and some cogs that I didn't even bother checking out, but the transmission runs decently. The bike runs well generally, I think the hubs could benefit from some love, bottom bracket has minor play and the very narrow handlebar isn't my thing. But maybe that's because I am used to a 780 mm Renthal from my DH bike...
I bought this bike for its M900 XTR group, to be honest, but I am very curious about the frame also. The guy I got it from deals with bicycles and I went to his shed to see this one. He had a story about how he worked his butt off for this bike, how he built it up for himself and how he paid circa 50 EUR for the paintjob alone. The paint is generally okay except some drips in the seatpost area, but frankly I don't care about such details. Stickers are die-cut on the main frame and there is a printed text on the toptube that reads "Serie Speciale Sponsoring '93". I assume he didn't made up this particular sticker and that it was remade specially for this bike as the die-cuts were.
Before buying it I looked up Retrobike and found this thread. I couldn't find anything else on the web, even though I didn't bother much searching. To me it looks very similar to the frame at the beginning of this thread.
I want to ask what you guys think about this find. I am a bit intrigued by the welds and the lug at the seatpost insertion. What's the deal with those? It's a pretty light bike, although I didn't weigh it, so I am guessing the same Columbus Max OR tubeset from above could've been used with my bicycle. Fork is aluminium, by the way.
I like this bike but I am not necessarily thrilled by it, so I don't know whether to keep it or not. The XTR group will more than likely migrate to a different project. If you know anything about this series by Gitane, please reply. I am also curious what the value for this frame could be...
