Thanks for the history lesson. I always found it interesting that the industry was stuck with "standard" size tubes for everything but tandems. R&E should have slapped a diagonal tube in there.
I also was an anti-French snob at that time, but in my defense the first nice French frame I saw was my track bike in 1980. And I'm not convinced it's really French. It's still a mystery. The only decal it ever had on it was a reynolds sticker.