Originally Posted by
rustystrings61
Well, if GREEN is a part of the decision process, meet
Maitre Jacques the Gitane TdF conversion - and I would include the photo here but for some reason I can't get uploads to work today. Lots of green Gitanes, but that includes all the funkiness of French dimensions and threading. Or you could track down a
1968-76 Raleigh Super Course, about 73 degree parallel angles, which works great so long as you can live with a 57 cm top tube no matter how tall your bike is ... or if you feel like spending the bread and can find one,
the early Rivendell Quickbeams were green and had long, long, loooong rear ends. I had one and liked it okay, but I love my Mercian better.
About toe clip overlap - I was just thinking about that the other week. I recently removed the fenders when I went from 28 to 32 mm tires on that bike. I suspect that when I fit new, wider mudguards I will still be spared the dreaded TCO, but I won;t know for sure until then. I don't remember it being an issue, though. Here's a
pic of the Mercian.
If you're not in absolute love with stock green, or you get lucky and find one of the very early ones that came in British Racing Green, there's always the Raleigh Competition. I have one in project mode right now that will be a fixed/free setup with a Surly Dingle and two chainrings whenever I get it finished, and it has gobs of clearance for big tires ...
I've yet to delve too deeply past the surface of the used bike marketplace (craigslist and ebay). It makes sense that no one is taking the time to list a Raleigh Super Course from 45-50 years ago, and other 'low value' bicycles. I suspect that by kicking around a thrift store or two I can find a suitable frame. It's funny you mentioned the Super Course, because I thought I found one, but when I went to look at it, it had front end crash damage, rusty replacement steel wheels, and very few usable takeoff parts. I thought about some Trek models from the 80's that came in green since an 84 770 (minus the campy bits, shimano 105 instead) was posted. I didn't have the heart to tell the seller that the bike without the campy bits was probably worth more like $200 rather than the $550 he's asking for.