Spotted on Craigslist today: John Deere frameset.

"i have a john deer steel road frame that i have repainted john deer green. the frame is about a 56 or 57, it has horizontal drop outs that work work well for a fixed gear set up."

Does anybody know anything about these? Sounds rather utilitarian, in a farm implement kind of way, but maybe something fun for RAGBRAI?

One of my friends is running one as a fixie. Pretty low end, probably 1020 mild steel, stamped dropouts. Coolest thing about them is the name really, but a conversation peice for sure.

MY son and I have an interest in antique tractors and I have seen a few John Deere bikes. They are not very high quality, pretty typical of early 1970s bike boom gas pipe bikes, but still a step above Huffy/Murray. They sold "Stingray" type bikes, ten speeds, three speed, and even a true mixte. The original colors were white, green, or light blue with simple John Deere decals in the green and yellow scheme. Farmers tend to be pretty loyal to there chosen brand of tractor, and John Deere is happy to take advantage of that. If you have never been in a John Deere dealership, they sell everything with the company logo on it from tools to lawn ornaments. And people are happy to pay a premium price for the green paint or leaping Deere logo.
Here is a site that has some info and a picture:https://www.mindspring.com/~dagmara/deere.html

There is a smidge of JD bicycle info on this page, along with some custom jobs that weren't made/commissioned by Deere:
https://bikerodnkustom3.homestead.com/JohnDeere.html

I've seen a few on Craigslist. I'd love to have one; my 3-y/o son is a John Deere nut and likes bikes, too.

If it's been repainted, where's the fun? You could take any bike and a can of John Deere Green and make your own. It's the decals that do it for me.

Cool links guys! Thanks!

And another John Deere in Portland Craigslist:

"For Sale is this nice 21 speed Cannondale mountain bike. This bike is painted John Deere green with John Deere decals. The frame is made from 6061 T6 aluminum tubing it's a 17" center to top with a 22 1/2" top tube. Stand over hight is 31" The fork is made of chromoly, The Tires are 26X 1.95" dual purpose . The derailleurs, shifters are SunTour cranks. The cranks are 175mm. The rims are Aluminum with a Shimano 7 speed cassette on back. and a rear aluminum rack. This bike has just been tuned-up and is ready to ride."


Well, maybe it's just a Cannondale painted John Deere colors, or maybe John Deere had Cannondale make a few John Deere's? Dunno. The more I see them, the more I think I want one for RAGBRAI.

My advice is to stay away from RAGBRAI. N_C might do his bike safety nazi thing on you, for (1) riding without a helmet, (2) getting 'aero' on you MTB, or (3) riding in a paceline. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

I had a JD 10 speed when I was 11 or so it was black with suntour componants and 27in gumwall tires. I put many many miles on it, the bike was heavy but solid I beat the tar out of it with verry little trouble.My sister also had a JD 5 speed girls bike it was white and I think you could get a 10 speed kit for it.

Noyhing run like a deer.

Trash man.

this one is a fake but i like the color scheme: https://www.fixedgeargallery.com/2006...kSchuurman.htm

The JD road frame shown there is about equal to a Raleigh Record. Gas pipe tubing - nothing special, and would make a pretty poor fixie for that matter.

The MTB machine looks like it's equipped well though.

-Kurt

In the latest John Deere toy catalog, there is a full sized mountain bike and some kid sized BMX styled bikes with training wheels. There isn't much info in the catalog but here is the page: https://www.ertltoys.com/brand/farm_c...talog06.shtml#

Bike geeks.

https://www.crestonguitars.com/galler...php?gid=2&id=4

What's RAGBRAI? Or am I not cool enough to get up all in that.

RAGBRAI. I think there's a farm or two in the state.

Just saw a John Deere fixie under a messenger near Portland State today. Second interesting bike I saw downtown today...