Gitane Track

I bought one of these at T-Town Swap in 1998 for $50.

It was red and weighed HEAVY, it definitely wasn’t Super.

I think I sold it to Dots or her friend with a gitane headset and crankset and pedals, a salsa stem, and nitto bars for $100

Anyway about the crankset, the bolts would not hold up under the pressures of the messenger world.

Joel or Curtis may remember heavily applying lock tight to them after I came in 3 or 4 times to bug them because the bolts kept popping out.

So anyway I was heading south on 33rd towards Market by the 7-11. When I attempted to stop halfway down the hill to wait for the light the entire chainring popped off.

I tried to stop with my feet (NO!), but eventually settled on crashing the bike into a car waiting for the light rather than go full blast into two lanes of traffic.

Why am I telling you all of this?

1) I don’t ride gitanes.
2) cheap crankests are deadly.

Think how may shitty “fixie” cranksets were sold over the last 6 years.

Good thing those bikes all have toy front brakes.