I‘m working on this Gitane bike as sort of a fun little project. I‘m converting it from a 10-Speed to a Single-speed. Anyway, we accidentally stripped the rear axle, and now I am having a hard time finding a replacement of the same size. I suppose since it‘s 40 years old and French, it‘s difficult to find.Any help is appreciated!
Gitane, like most of the bike brands of the day, often used whatever parts were available. If they ran out of one brand of hub they simply switched over to another brand. This makes it really hard to determine the brand of hub you have which is the info you need to get a new axle. That being said, it is very likely that you can use a modern axle set (axle, cones, etc) with your hub as long as the old and new axle diameters match just don't use any of the old parts, and make sure to pack the bearings correctly- fill each race up with bearings, then remove one. Use only enough grease to cover the bearings, not to pack the thing full. Sad to hear you are destroying a piece of cycling history as a bit of fun. Terrible way to retire a bike from one of the finest brands in history.
