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Help identifying French frame

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wrt orange colour -

here are some pictures of an orange Roma lass of Nantes rom right about the time of subject frame.

note how the colour is lighter, yellower & less saturated than that of the orange MCB 320 frameset posted above.

Gitane Interclub, orange a)  .jpg


Gitane Interclub, orange b)  .jpg


Gitane Interclub, orange c)  .jpg


Gitance Interclub, orange d)  jpg.jpg



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Thank you,

I think most of the angling is just distortion caused by using a cell phone camera. The seat tube and head tube are more parallel. Next time I get a chance I'm going to get a good zero distortion photo and see if I can determine the exact geometry which might allow me to compare with some catalogs.

This one is chromed under the orange spray paint. I'm not 100% that it started out orange but I can't find any other color under the current orange or overspray inside the tubes other than orange.

My first guess was also a Gitane Super Corsa- my first full Campy road bike in 1971. But looking at it further than tube angles don't seem the same- the seat tube is much more angled back than the steer tube. It almost looks like a criterium frame with a short rear triangle and possibly a higher bottom bracket, but that was more of a mid-70's frame building thing. The Gitane Super Corsa frame was heavily chromed, in the fork and stay ends, and not likely to disappear without HEAVY removal.

Some Gitanes did come in orange. Mine was purple and turquoise blue was popular.


'73-74-ish Gitane


The Swedish Crescent above may be more of a match there, but not sue they used French threading.

How about Mercier? Not familiar with them all that much, but also a prominent French frame in that day.
 
The Crescent frame I owned had a French thread BB not Swiss thread but some Crescents did come with Swiss BB threading I suppose it depends on year.
 
One other thing I've now noticed- the 531 decals are not in French "conuit pourReynolds531" or something like that they read. So the decals have possibly been reapplied later, and that might more indicate a repaint. The Orange Interclub above above has the same decals my old Super Corsa had, except for the downtube denoting the model- and those foil decals were very fragile, so I'm amazed the interclub are still in that condition- after mine were fairly scratched from hard racing, I replaced them with the style of the then-current decals as seen on the turquoise bike- there was no internet then, and not sure how I even got ahold of those.

anyway, sorry. No further clues as to the identity of your orange bike.
 
The Crescent frame I owned had a French thread BB not Swiss thread but some Crescents did come with Swiss BB threading I suppose it depends on year.

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The MCB lugged road models were somewhat unusual with their employment of metric and swiss shells paired with BSC tubesets Steerers always 25.4mm, top tubes always 25.4mm, down and seat tubes always 28.6mm.

Subject frameset is all metric: 25.0mm steerer, 26.0mm top tube, 28.0mm down and seat tubes.

It bears no relation to any MCB product.

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Did not see a stamped serial no on the frame, when you stripped the paint look for 2 holes filled with braze in the BB, and then check for Manufacturers who used a riveted on plate like Peugeot did for a while, also, measure the head and seat tube angles and compare to manufacturers specifications, that might tell you who built the frame, finally, with the hole in the tube joining the stays, this might be a nice rondo model, Todd
 
Hi, Found this forum while scouring the internet for clues about a french frame that I recently bought. Any thoughts on the identification would be greatly appreciated.

The headset and bottom bracket threading are both french. The whole bike has been repainted and there is chrome on both the stays and fork blades. I can't find any identifying marks on it other than the Campagnolo dropouts and fork ends. The only decals are the 531 decals but give that they are over the spray paint, I don't think they provide much help. Almost everything about it is a really good match for it being an early 70's Gitane Olympic/Super Corsa except one thing. The treatment at the attachment between the stays and dropouts is wedge shaped and every Gitane photo I can find always has a curved cut. Any help is greatly appreciated. No matter the origin, it's going to be built up and ridden but it would be nicety know.

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I will take a look at my Crescent Pepitas and see how they match up. I know my frames have Nervex Pro lugs on the head tube, but might be a lower model. They do have French threads. My only other French or French threaded bikes are a Cazenave and another Nervex frame, make unknown.
 
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