Lets see those Green bikes

[bicycletricycle]

I got 3 green Chapman's

[rwsaunders]

Someday before I leave the planet I'd like to own a bike painted in the shade of green shown on the Ducati...the Vanilla comes close.

[donevwil]

[adamhell]

[choke]

[Lanternrouge]

I think I posted pictures of this built up here: http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=186693

[martl]

Originally Posted by cadence90

I love Principias. I have never seen a green one before. Is that a REX?

No, its an RSL, the top model before the REX was introduced. At that time, those examples which had the most flawless welds got an elox finish, each year a different one, and were sold as RSL. There were purple ones, orange ones, pale pink ones, blue ones, this green colour was, i think, that of 1998. (The same year there was a fully-suspende model in the catalogue, also green). The Lettering never stuck properly on any eloxed Principia i ever saw, the "RSL" used to be written on the rear end of the top tube, but had been rubbed off long before that pic was taken.

The same frames which came out of welding with minor imperfections were bondo'ed, painted and sold as model 700, usually 150-20g heavier due to the paint. The RSL sported a ~1400g frame weight, putting it among the absolute top frames of that time, competing with Treks, Cannondales and Gary Klein's products. Weight-to-stiffness was excellent, as was long-time durability - they frequently passed the toughest EFBE stress test with flying colours. That was a time where Bianchi, for one, would sell alloy with holes in some welds one could have poked a knitting needle through.
Kleins always were the yardstick for any Alloy welder, but Principia came closer than most, for about half the price (still expensive, tho) and without the proprietary parts.

The REX came at a later time, it hit the market with a 1,1/8 steerer for Aheadsets as opposed to the RSLs 1" quill system, but required a special headset (King made an aftermarket one for it) and thus was sold with HS and fork. Got one of those too but its orange.
I switched to a 6.4kg Scott SC team Delatour after the P's, but i clocked all of my best times on any uphill TT i rode on one of the Principias. They were brilliant uphill and felt safe as a tank downhill - marvellous machines. Also did my longest-ride-ever on the REX, hear me, you "oversized Alloy will wear you down because it has no comfort"-advocates?

[Walter]

Bianchi Celeste on a Della Santa

[Matt-H]

[IMG]Untitled by mattsthreesons, on Flickr[/IMG]

[R3awak3n]

National Forest green.

At first I was not super into it but its growing on me.

[Geeheeb]

Dyed saddle too

[phoenix]

I love green bikes!

[KidWok]

The last lugged Davidson to ever leave the old Elliott Bay bicycles shop.



Tai

[Catman]

Some pretty good looking green machines!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[cadence90]

Originally Posted by martl

No, its an RSL, the top model before the REX was introduced. At that time, those examples which had the most flawless welds got an elox finish, each year a different one, and were sold as RSL. There were purple ones, orange ones, pale pink ones, blue ones, this green colour was, i think, that of 1998.

...i clocked all of my best times on any uphill TT i rode on one of the Principias. They were brilliant uphill and felt safe as a tank downhill - marvellous machines. Also did my longest-ride-ever on the REX, hear me, you "oversized Alloy will wear you down because it has no comfort"-advocates?

Very nice write-up, thank you. The elox/anodized Principias are really gorgeous frames.

Originally Posted by Catman

Some pretty good looking green machines!

No kidding.

The front Chapman, the cropped Vanilla (Ducati), and the Della Santa are fantastic.