The Gitane Restoration

Have always loved old bikes. I think its in my blood to love old stuff. My grandfather Ken Arnold Jr. had a garage that was nearly the size of his house. Filled to the rafters with cars, and car parts. In his early years he was involved with the Indy 500, and later was one of Lucky Teter’s Hell Drivers stunt Team. Maybe trips there inspired me. I found what turned out to be a Vintage Gitane on craigslist and was posted as “Real Steel” Vintage Bike. The pics were good enough to tell it had nice parts and easy to determine it was a legit seller. It took 5 seconds to know I’d take it.

I stripped paint and found a great sight (thanks Dave Hickey) that helped me determine the origin of the frame was Gitane. It is, as far as I can tell from the experts on the Gitane forum a 531 main frame Tour de France model. Made from leftover tube stock it was sold with no fork and its rear stays weren’t chrome which made sense as it had a crazy mix of parts.

: Copper and Black with Clear Coat

: Huret Honeycomb dropouts made this frame easier to ID. Was rattle can green with bad Old English Font Stencils

: Full frame. After lots of research it is 76/77 era and was sold as frame sans fork with 531 main tubes from leftover stock. The standard production got forks and partial chroming on/stays/fork.