Marty,
Hope you enjoyed yourself at Cirque. I wish that I could have attended, but the prospect of setting aside my 24th wedding anniversary so as to spend time with a gaggle of bike geeks (...casting no aspersions here, but rather, that being said with the utmost reverence) would not have found much sympathy with my wife. Perhaps next year, depending upon whether the gala 10th event falls over the date of June 10th once again.
You are absolutely correct in pointing out from the circa 1970-1974 Cycles Gitane catalog that both the Super Corsa and Tour de France models from this era were equipped with MAVIC Monthlery 700c tubular rims as standard, and that their tertiary road / race model, the Interclub, would have normally come fitted with MAVIC Dural Sport 700c tubular rims. However, I would also hasten to point out that you could, indeed, custom order a brand new one of these bikes fitted with clincher rims instead of tubulars - and that is exactly what the first owner of my 1971 Gitane Super Corsa did (...what I am referring to here is decidedly different from having your LBS simply swap wheelsets around on some floor model, although that too did occur with some degree of regularity).
Back in 1971, my very best friend to this day and former riding buddy Steve and I jointly helped his father select the make, model, and specifications for the new bicycle Dr. "S" was going to purchase. Now whereas my friend and I had not yet set aside enough lunch money or delivered enough papers or collected enough recyclable bottles from around the neighborhood so as to be able to afford anything beyond a near 40 pound Schwinn Varsity (...try pushing one of those around Council Crest and the West Hills of Portland, Oregon when you only weigh two and a half times as much as the bike itself), the dear doctor was in a much better position to obtain a true European lightweight. Of course, as budding enthusiasts, Steve and I were only too eager to offer our opinions on just how he should spend his hard earned monies. And while Dr. "S" followed our counsel almost to the letter, the one glaring exception was his insistence that his new ride be equipped with clinchers because he could not abide "...messing around with that damn glue". Ultimately, we narrowed his purchasing decision down to either a Gitane Super Corsa with the ultra rare for this bike optional Campagnolo Record side pull brake set or a Raleigh Professional Mark II which just so happened to come standard with those same Campy brakes. Due to demand based backlogs in those early bike-boom days, a down payment was made and BOTH of these bicycles were placed on order during the Spring of 1971 with the understanding that Dr. "S" would complete purchase of which ever one arrived first and the LBS would then sell the other one off from their showroom floor. The Gitane was the first to be delivered in October of 1971 and per his request for "...suitable clincher rims" (...the LBS had told him that he would not be allowed to specify a particular make or model in this regard) it came fitted with a set of 700c Rigida 1320 double wall Rigi-ALU polished aluminum rims having a 20 mm section and a hooked bead rim profile. Now, whether that wheelset was actually shipped from the Machecoul factory or was subsequently paired with this bike by the U.S. distributor prior to being sent on to the LBS, I simply cannot say with absolute certainty. However, inasmuch as the 700c sizing for clincher rims was prevalent at that time on the European continent and France in particular, I strongly suspect that it was the former rather than the latter. And while I did not really pay much attention to it at the time, in retrospect, it does strike me as being worthy of passing mention that this bike was fitted with 700c rims and tires while every other contemporary model of Gitane that was offered with clincher rims as standard and sold here stateside used a 27" x 1 1/4" sizing.
I subsequently had the opportunity to purchase this fine bike from Dr. "S" in 1978 when he opted for a replacement De Rosa (Â…which he still has to this day but no longer rides at age 80 or thereabouts - and yes, by then he was comfortable enough to purchase a bike with honest to goodness tubies). Having just recently finished a thorough refurbishing of my trusty Super Corsa, I now need to set about the task of updating my Wool Jersey album with new photographs (...too many projects, too little time). For those who have not already done so and who may yet be interested in viewing a preliminary picture of this bike, one may be found, along with an excruciatingly detailed description of its various fitment of components, by following this link:
http://www.wooljersey.com/
Regards,
Robert "waxing nostalgic" Broderick ...the "Frozen Flatlands" of South Dakota
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>From: "Martin Walsh" <mowalsh@verizon.net>
>To: "CR List" <ClassicRendezvous@bikelist.org>
>Subject: [CR]27" and Tubular rims
>Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 19:40:21 -0400
>
>Hi CR list and David,
>The early 1970's Gitane catalog that I now have thanks to John Barron
>(Velo Stuf),from Cirque 2006 states that the GITANE,model Tour de France
>came originally equipped circa 1971 with:DURAL MAVIC MONTHLERY rims,
>which would be aluminum tubular (sew ups) rims.The only other Gitane
>using this same model rim circa 1971,would have been the Gitane "Super
>Corsa,the top road racing Gitane at the time.
>The third tier Gitane road racing bicycle was the Gitane "Interclub" and
>it used the tubular rim, DURAL MAVIC SPORT (aluminum tubular).
>The top tier touring Gitane,GRAN TOURISME, used the DURAL MAVIC CLINCHER
>27" X 1 1/4".
>Yours truly,
>Marty Walsh in Vienna,Va.