French folding friends at Fitzroy pool
What is it with the pool and the wee bikes? Are we all kindred little-bike-loving swimmer spirits? Today my habitual post-swin scan of the bike racks outside the pool reaped another great reward – a pair of French folding bikes no less. (And boy did I hot-foot it home to get my camera and a calling card before they left – lucky it’s not far.)
Here they are, a Gitane and
Peugeot locked together in a lovely Francophile muddle of helmets and handlebars.
Tricky to get a good shot with the sun so low and the road so near, but a great opportunity to do a bit of comparison of these two excellent brands. Here are some interesting tid bits for those who care about such things:
The Peugoet has it up on the Gitane in the neat cable stakes… see how it is housed in the tube through little tunnel…nifty eh?
Not to be out done however, the Gitane (my emotional favourite of course) has the added storage advantage of the fold-down handle bars; see the twisty thing on the top that you undo to fold them down?
(Twisty thing is a technical term.) I know from experience this helps them squeeze into an even smaller space.
And here’s a cute surprise: a teeny pump. I didn’t even realise the Gitanes had a pump holder…
…oops! am I gushing?
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Little Bike Blog 
Oh look! These bikes belong to Cam and Ari! We are the meet me at mikes family. Do you know what? We have LOTS of bikes. Why don’t you come over and we can show you! You can bring your camera and snap away, if you would like to! Thanks for featuring our bikes. We are very chuffed!
A difficult task indeed is changing those cables that run inside the frame on the NS22. I have a few new photos on my blog, will get some more soon.
Aha! Hello Mr NS22, thought you might have had something to say about this observation. I can’t believe I never noticed the little hole before. Neat, if awkward for the renovator. Must pop into your site and see how you are doing.
please tell me what model this gitane is… i have just purchased one on ebay and would like to know a little more about it. is this also a 24 inch folder?
p.s. loving the site. i am also in fitzroy, need to keep an eye out for all the wonderful old bikes you seem to be spotting!
Indeed it is a 24 inch folder, same as the one I ride (but mine’s emerald green). I would love to tell you what model it is, but I actually have never done any research on them. Kooky eh? Never really thought to. All the folding Gitanes I have spotted (and there are a few more on the site) have looked pretty much the same, maybe there was only one model? Let me know if you find out anything yourself, since I haven’t been much help.
Thanks for the nice feed back. Now you’ve got the eye in, you will see little treasures everywhere.
Well I have done a little research today. Trawled through old gitane catalogues on the gitaneusa site. It’s a Concorde GT 1523! I can find very little other than that. One article in French but that’s about it. Have you ever had to replace anything on it? I am wondering if it’s tricky to get parts here in Australia? Anyone else on here that may also know please pipe up! Loving the post of the couple with the moulton and raleigh twenty. I have a raleigh. Would kill for a moulton! Anyway, keep the posts coming x
I have not done any work on my bike (slack) but have a squizz at Feel of Steel (in my links section) because the guy that writes that has fixed up a Gitane like ours and is a generally smart bike fixing dude from the look of things, so I reckon he could give you some tips.