Want to convert Peugot Orient Express to Hybrid need some parts info
 

My daughter's Trek mountain bike was stolen two weeks ago and I'm looking at my stash of parts and stuff to build something for her. I have the Peugot Orient Express frame and fork that appears to be the best candidate. I'll need to buy at least one wheel if not a set. I would like to go with 700cX25 wheels and 700x32 or 700x35 tires with a 6 or 7 speed freewheel (I would need to buy a wheel set). I have most of the rest of the parts, but I will need to buy a seat post (I believe it's 26.6mm?) and a set of V brakes that would have enough adjustment in the pad placements to work for the 700c rims. The brakes are the sticking point, I need some suggestions on what will fit. OR, will I need to go to some sort of caliper brake?

The other (easier and cheaper) option would be to keep it a mountain bike as I would need to buy\build a rear wheel vs a wheel set. I would still need a set of breaks but they would be much easier to find as a standard set would suffice.

So what do you suggest for a set of long reach V brakes? We've gone looking at bikes and she likes the Hybrid style but a new one is all but impossible at the moment.

I don't think putting 700c wheels on the ol' Peugeot is going to make it very hybrid-like. It'll just be a mountain bike with awkwardly large wheels. Personally, I'd probably just put narrower road-friendly tires on it and go with its stock wheel size.

SKydog75 - thank you for your basically useless input, but I really don't give sideways fart what anyone thinks it does or does not look like. I have a frame and a bunch of assorted parts that I am turning into a usable bike for my daughter. I am asking if the brakes exist to accomplish what I want to do. It's been 30 years since I worked in a shop and easily 20 since I stopped paying attention to the technology so I'm asking advice of the guys that I believe might be the most current on what's out there and what might work. If this were the mid to late 1980's, there's a pretty good chance that I was the one getting asked these type of questions. Alas, there is a whole lot of stuff that I've forgotten that is slowly coming back to me (and a lot of new stuff technology that I'm probably gonna need to learn or just stay down in C&V) as I play with the bikes again.

Borrow a 700c wheelset and test fit them on the frame so you'll know what you have to work with. I doubt a V-brake is going to work.

My fixed gear conversion started life as a mountain bike but a standard reach road caliper brake fit perfectly on the front. I assume I could have used a road caliper on the rear also but, since it's a fixed gear, I don't run a rear brake.

I was just seconding the option you yourself presented in the second paragraph of your initial post. But you're welcome for the attempt to offer a helpful opinion. Seriously. No snark from my end of the conversation.

And to be clear, I was commenting on what the bike would ride like rather than its looks. You indicated your daughter wants a hybrid. This bike is a mountain bike, not a hybrid, although some rigid mountain bikes aren't too dissimilar from some hybrids. With slightly larger wheels, I think it'll still ride like a mountain bike, but maybe not quite as nimble because of the possibly awkward increase in wheel size.

Despite the tone of your reply, here's hoping you get the parts figured out and put something together that your daughter will like.

Doesn't your Orient Express have a chainstay brake?

Skydog, You caught me in a particularly sarcastic moment and I did indeed miss what you were alluding too.... I figured is was a smarta$$ comment and fired one back that I thought would be humorous.... That said, When I think of the first hybrid type bikes I saw way back when, they were both road frames with wider rims and mtn bikes with narrower rims. Going to 26x1.5 IS an option as is just as is staying with 26x2.125.

Grand Bois - F&F have the posts for V brakes as well as hole in the fork and the bridge between the chain stays.

RG - no need to borrow 700c's, I've already put an old set of road wheels in for a look see. That's what got me interested in maybe trying it. I would have plenty of room, probably could fit a 700x35's. I don't know if I have any other old brakes to try...

I need to find\buy a set of brakes anyway so it might be easier to get a cheap set of V brakes and stay with 26" wheels.... But I still gotta ask 'cuz that project is a while lot more interesting.

You're saying that it does not have a chainsty brake? I'm asking because mine and every Orient express I've seen has a chainstay brake. Only U-brakes or roller cam brakes will fit those posts.

Wow. People asking for free help usually do so more nicely.

Anyway, if you have some 700C rims and caliper brakes laying around, see if the caliper brakes can be mounted to the fork crown and seatstay bridge, and will reach to the rims. Or just measure the reach needed then see what's in the used parts bin at the local coop. You might get lucky. I've never seen a "long reach" V brake or U brake.

My first MTB was a Peugoet Orient Express back in the 80s. It did not have chain stay brakes. Rear brake was cantilever, just like the one pictured in the link below.

18" Vintage PEUGEOT Orient Express Mountain Utility Bike 5'6"-5'9"

I do not have any input to the OP other than that. Sorry. It does sound like a fun project to turn a pile of parts into a bike for your daughter.

The Paul Moto BMX probably has the most reach adjustment of any V-brake I've seen. But at $140 per wheel, I doubt it's what you're looking for. Given the application and the difference between a 700c with a hybrid tire and a 26" with a 1.25 - 1.5" semi-slick, I'd be hard pressed to justify the effort of making the bigger wheelset work.

Ahhhh there's a nugget that slipped from memory. "Cantilever brakes".

Cantilever, V, U..... They are different but at a glance the mounting post looks the same but the location/reach would be different.

Looks like the easiest route is to just keep it @ 26" even though I'm intrigues by the project enough to actually consider asking a friend to whip out a set of brake arms on his milling machine (was even ready to try to source a bushing of some sort for monting them on the pillar). Looks like i can put together a bike that is mechanically superior to the walmart specials and at least as good as the stuff at Dicks for a shade over $100 out of pocket if i truly need to buy the stuff i havent found in my parts piles yet. Only question is whether I strip and paint the frame. Nearest co-op is about 80 miles round trip, but i may still check them out. Have to see what they require for volunteer mechanic. It may or may not work out to give them some time.

Thanks for the replies and skydog - appologies again....

Here is a thread from another forum. It does indeed look like your best best is going to be to try to mount caliper brakes on the fork crown and seat stay bridge.

26" to 700C Conversion (PICS)

That doesn't answer my question, but that's okay. I've lost interest.

That Marin is about what the Peugot looks like with 700c's but the biggest tire i had spare was 700cX21.

Chainstay break? Post a picture of one cuz either i forgot about that one, never heard of it, or know it by another name.

Just google up images of Peugeot Orient Express and you'll see the U brakes under the chainstay.

The U brake was kind of a short lived 80s fad. I never understood why it made sense to put the brake at the dirtiest, wettest, least accessible part of the bike.

Ok JYL..... I used my google-foo and i do recall seeing those from time to time. My frame does not have the rear brake mounted like that. The posts are in the traditional place for rear brakes like 9x% of the pictures.