Bob Freitas wrote:
> #4 to lug or to fillet... I remember seeing the
> GITANE that was ridden to
> the podium at the TDF in the 70s... as an
> industrial a bike as you will
> ever see... the lugs had been filed only so
> someone would not cut
> themselves on the sharp edges... but it
> did the job.
Bob, I'm guessing you're referring to Lucien va Impe's blue Gitane that he won the '76 TdF with? It made the rounds of some of the shops in Southern California in the late 1970s. As you said, very very industrial! I remember his name was clumsily painted in script on the top tube with white paint.
Kind of the opposite of Moreno Argentin's Bianchi that he won the '86 Worlds in Colorado Springs with. That bike had celeste paint with black chrome fork and stays and celeste leather covered bars with pantographed stem. Distinctly different approach from the Gitane, but it got the job done too.
Chuck Schmidt SoPas, SoCal
.