Advice please: Gitane hunting in Europe...

So i went to 2WheelsGood today and asked the guy at the desk (Colnago cycling cap; impressive mustache+chin fluff) about a good way to go about purchasing a Gitane track frame from the 80's era (or there abouts) and he suggested i take a trip to Europe and hunt for one, specifically Holland and Belgium, and possibly France, with Holland being the best place to look.

Could anyone offer me any tips on how to go about hunting for an old[classic] track frame in an unknown (to me) land?

cheers, FrankMG

there's been some good kit on ebay.de and ebay.nl lately.

Think someone's running a van back from Germany for this very purpose.

yeh - i read a mention of it the other day - this time im more interested :-D
ta for the reminder

sainsburys.

ah hah - thats what the dude in the shop recommended

I bought 7 of them more than a year ago, in France, real cheap. Sold them all but one. Not such great frames though. france is your best option

y

Sold them all but one.

is the last one for sale?
:-P

Not such great frames though

why not? my previous research suggested that, providing you got a frame of reynolds 531 tubing, you'd be getting a real nice ride
+i like the geometry
+it will be a beat-em-up most likely - inner london commuting and that...

You're going around Europe just to get a beater bike?

well - tis more of a holiday + a bonus, yeh ken?
+i have no dorrah for anything more elaborate :-(

i see. well i think you'll have problems getting one this way. these things are probably in the back room/basements of some old bike shops, it might be hard getting through to them that you want one - language barrier, they don't know you, etc. i reckon you'd have better luck on ebay.

yeh - thats pretty much what i feared - i wouldn't know where to start visa vise making contacts, sending out feelers, etc.

i've been doing quite well with craigslist - all too big so far though :-(
their all from the u.s. as well - i reckon the americans are just more keen on getting space where they can, and utalise the internet to help them do so... whereas the europeans don't care?
my un-proven, un-founded (that doesn't even mean anything, does it?) sociology study, all for your delight...
:-D

it would be a heck of an adventure though

All aboard the Gitane train.

my mates grandad was a frame builder for gitane

Try these people, generally very helpful:

http://www.bikelist.org/mailman/listinfo/classicrendezvous

cheers van uden - ill check it out now

the gitane 531 pistas are nice frames- but beware- they use french threads for bb and headset and the stem- needs a special size.......

yeh - 1 day im gonna actualy try and understand all the issues surrounding french threaded bb's - sheldon brown will reveal all :-D