Gitane Professionnal Super Corsa

[vent]

Bonjour,

today my "new" bike arrived. ...And with it, a lot of questions...

It is a Gitane "Professionnal Super Corsa", probably from the early 1970's. From what I read on the web so far, the Super Corsa was sold only in the US, whilst the European version was the Olympic, or Super Olympic.

www.gitaneusa.com/models_2.asp

Frame and fork are made from Reynolds 531, with Prugnat lugs and Campagnolo dropouts, Stronglight 93 cranks, Normandy Luxe Competition hubs, Mavic Monterely Championnat du Monde rims, Mafac Competition brakes... The Huret Allvit probably isn't original, as is the handlebar and saddle.

Apart from the question how this bike ended up in Germany, maybe someone could help me on the question how old it really is?

Thank you very much!

[vent]

Just answered the question myself. - Rims are stamped 01/72...

[Munny]

Nov 6, 2012 19:55:32 GMT 2 @vent said:

the Super Corsa was sold only in the US,

the question how this bike ended up in Germany, ?

I might have an idea...

In the Eighties, I was forced to make my military period in Germany.
I went to the little city of Siegen (about midway between Koln & Frankfurth an main)
And the US army had also bases in Germany and special shops where you could find plenty of products with US Specs.
Since they were freetax and much cheaper because subsidized, we used to visit them (allowed in with the military ID card)

With a friend, I organized my own grey market and every weekend we came back to Belgium with a brand new Canondale which were unusual and expensive Mountain bikes back then.

I was a boy racer then and the canondale was difficult to fit into my BMW E21. But the boot of the car was also full with cigarets, alcohol bottles, video ... then 180-200 kmph average speed back to home (I broke 2 engines that year and made a third one with the remains on the 2 broken ones)

So I can imagine that your bike might come from one of the us soldiers shops

[vent]

Thank you! That might be an explanation. ...Or maybe a US soldier brought it with him as his daily rider and sold it before he went back home...

Really a pity that there is no decal of the shop that originally sold it. would have been interesting to know where in the US this bike was on the road.