New Gitane bike

[alanterrill]

On show at presteigne yesterday was anew bike from a French company called Gitane GITANE - ville - E-BIKE 8
I had a go and it was a smooth pleasant ride with a quiet motor, but its unique point is that it changes gear for you automatically! I found myself wanting to change up before it did, but there was some sort of adjustment on the back that might have made that possible, but the machine was so new, they didn't have any instructions on it. Probably an innovation too far for this forum (more things to go wrong etc) but it would probably appeal to non-techies as a machine that doesn't ask anything of you.

 

[jac]

hi it is a panasonic drive bike but has automatic gears, i think helkama jubilee used same system but if that is correct price on web site it seems very good value

jim

 

[JohnInStockie]

Yeah my wife tried this one, she liked it too, is seemed very simple and easy to use to her. Although later on I saw a fellow testing it nearly go over as it appears that the pedals are very close to the floor and he touched the ground whilst turning.

John

 

[jac]

is the reason for that the frame size or should that not effect the pedal height as on web sight they only mention 45 size frame

 

[JohnInStockie]

It looked to me as if it was the design of the frame, as in it looked like the manufacturer has specifically chosen the lowest possible crank position for a bike to give a big step through. But it may be possible to choose a smaller crank arm for the pedals which may give more clearance (just speculating now though).

John

 

[Renaud]

Gitane sell the cheapest pedelecs with the Panasonic system (the recent one with 3 levels of assistance).
The cycle is a 47 cm step-through model with a 3 gerars auto nexus.
It's sold for 1100 € with a 3ah battery and 1300 € with a 8ah battery.
Yes it's the same auto nexus that on the Helkama Jubilee but the bike is far cheaper.

Next month, there will be an improved model (fork, etc but still 8ah and auto nexus 3) for 1600€ existing in several sizes and with choice between step thru and diamond shape. For 200€ less, it will not be a better bargain than the german 1800€ raleigh/Kalkhoff but it will be sold in hundreds of bikeshops : there are Gitane retailers in every french town.