Gitane.



bayrunner

New Member
Mar 28, 2006
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Hello again, since my last post iv'e been looking at a few bikes as i am thinking about upgrading.My Lbs guy has a really nice Gitane mach 1800 rd bike . man its a great looking bike , the price is around $1.300 . it has shimano 105, 9 speed ,etc. he tells me there is a new model coming out with better gears 10 spd etc for around $1.700. will take a good look at that too.Are these bikes from france? Can anyone tell me if these are good bikes etc, if they ride as good as they look im getting one. thnx, also my Lbs guy says that my avanti is too small for me and i should look at upgrading? im 181cm tall, the horizontal bar is 51cm and the vertical seat bar is 52cm , is that too small for me? any help would be great.

thnx , bayrunner.
 
the company is no longer owned by the same French dudes; it's become just another mass-produced Asian bike. A friend of mine has one with 105. The ride is good enough, and the value is even better, but they're a little heavy for aluminium. I weighed a Mach 2200 frame recently, and it was just over 1700g, for a 52!! I have a 58cm steel frame lighter than that.

But, as I said....good value
 
Yep. I test rode one of those while shopping for a bike back in March. I thought it was a good ride. I was about to take the plunge but decided to, heck, jack up my budget to $2000 and went for the Felt F60 (2005) with Ultegra shifters and deraileurs. As for the Gitane, had I bought it, i don't think I would have had any regrets. I sure felt it was a good looking smooth riding bike for the money.
 
I bought a Gitane Mach 1800 earlier this year for $1500. Haven't excessively ridden it but it seems pretty good for my purposes - commuting. But then again, I'm only new to this cycling arena and made the decision because it looked fairly slick at the time. The 'slick' factor has long since worn off...

I did some research before the purchase and the general consensus was that it was good value. I went to the LBS the other day and noticed other bikes heavily discounted around the category of the Mach 1800 though...
 
Have a look at this website. It says that Australian Gitanes are built in Taiwan whilst French ones are still made in Europe. (Apparently Australia is the only place outside Europe that they are sold)

http://www.gitaneusa.com/history.asp

I have a Gitane Mach2200 (2004 model) myself. Great to ride but a lot stiffer than my brothers steel Hillman.

Quality seems to be about the same as all the other Taiwan sourced bikes but it really stands out from the plethora of Giants and such that seem to be everywhere. So if you want something a bit rare and looks more exotic, it is definately worth looking at.
 
Thnx for the feedback mate,Im still looking at the gitane, the more i see it the more i like it! And for $1.300 it has to be a reasonable buy? every time i am close to making up my mind on a bike i see one just a little bit better for a few more bucks ! man where does one stop and say ok i will take this one? Mind you iv'e not had a ride on any other bikes yet, maybe i should try out a few first, its getting harder and harder to deside as i have about 7 bike shops that want to sell me a bike and they are all different bikes. I'll keep you posted mate , thnx ,
Bayrunner.:confused:
 
Hi mate ,good to hear from you! when you say you saw a few other bikes as well as the gitane discounted does this mean that the bikes are not selling as well as the manufactures had hoped for or is it just that certain brands are not well known in australia?and the manufactures want to get into the market at any cost? One BS owner told me that the gitanes are well know elsewhere overseas but there are not many in australia as ive only seen one bike shop with them in store? It sure is an interesting subject , hope to find out more facts as i go on . thnx again ,
Bayrunner.