I am in the process of restoring a '75 Gitane Professional and looking for among other things a crank set in 175 cm and a stem in a 120 or 130. My first question is who made a French sized stem in a 120 or 130? I have never seen lengths longer than 105 from Pivo, Atax, of Philippe. Did Cinelli make stems in a 22.0 French size in longer lengths? Second, almost every vintage crank I see is a 170 length. Even my 63cm Motobecane Grand Record, 63cm Bottechia Professional, and 63cm Peugeot PKN were specced with 170 cranks. Having worked in the cycling industry I know it is easier to spec the same parts on all sizes of a bike model. Was this the case with most on topic bikes or was there less emphasis on sizing crank and stem length? I know different manufacturers and even different countries had different notions of how bikes should fit and these notions have changed over time, but how much effort was put into choosing specific components based on the frame size? So anyone have a Stronglight 93 in a 175cm or a long reach French stem (110-130)? Also looking for Front and Rear Huret Success deraileurs.
The colective knowledge and experiences of this list never cease to
amazes me, thanks for great reading!
Lane Wilkinson
Seattle, WA