As to how many French bikes have French diameter tubing, the answer, at least from the late 60's (and probably long before) until the early to mid 80's, is most of them. I have a number of Peugeots, Motobecanes, Lejeunes, Gitanes, and Merciers, etc. and in this era, nearly all had the French dimension tubing. Fortunately, one can nearly always shim a standard FD clamp to fit a French seattube, and many French FD clamps will work OK on a standard seattube, though one must be careful, as some French FD clamps can crimp a standard seattube.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Bruce & Marie Van Remortel wrote:
> Howdy CR list members,
>
> Looks like I may have a Jubilee Front derailleur made for the 28.0mm French
> standard and my frame is 28.6 BSC standard... Anyone else have this
> problem? I was told that "IF" it was a French-diameter 28.0mm it would've
> been stamped with something but this one is just a standard unmarked
> Jubilee, in all it's beauty. Maybe this person had it backwards and the
> BSC's had a marking/stamping???
>
> I don't think the derailleur band will close enough to catch a thread to
> close this thing... Am I outta luck?
>
> How many French bikes really have French diameter tubing? I had heard
> Singer used it... Thanks if anyone can help!
>
> Regards,
> Bruce Van Remortel
> Andersen AFB, Guam USA
> Always 80-something