seaneee

Has anyone every heard of these? They came off a early peguot mixte. Not sure of the age, but the frame had serial numbers both on the BB shell and rear drop out.

As for the rims. They read rigida Chrolux Chromage superiuet. The weird thing is they seem more like alloy than steel. They are def lighter and have that dull alloy sound when tapped. But the whole chromage thing throws me. The bike itself did have alloy parts. Alloy normandy hubs and an alloy stem. Everything else seemed to be steel except for the plastic simplex bits.

Fill me in. Thanks.

Mhendricks

I seen alot of these stock rims on the French and some English Mixtes that I've worked on. They are chromed steel (put a magnet on them) and come out nicely when polished up. Girls love the bling effect. That's the good thing. Bad thing is they rip the hell out of brake pads because of the ribbed sidewalls of the rim. Usually come stock with Normandy or Malliard hubs. I do have a set of French rims right now on a Motobecane mixte that I'm working on that are not these Rigida but begin with an "S" Rims also has a big "S" near the tube valve. Almost looks like the Simplex logo but Simplex never made rims to my knowledge. That's all the info I've got.

seaneee

Thanks for the info. mine have a good amount of rust, so I'm have to see if they are worth salvaging. The chrome doesn't look too horrible thought.

dck

If they're rusty, they're steel.

My '72 Peugeot UO8 Rigida Chrolux rims have a date code stamped on them. It's a diamond with a 2 inside near the Chrolux stamping in the rim.

ellei.oh

I know this is an old post and I might taking a stab in the dark by asking here but I was wondering if you would share with me what type of tube/tires did you see put on the Rigida rims. I just picked up an old Peugeot Mixte that has the rims described in this thread and would appreciate any information related to these wheels that you would be willing to share. Thanks!

randyjawa 

I run wire bead tires at less than 90 pounds pressure. The inner tubes that I use are nothing special, just regular items. I do recommend rubber rim liners as opposed to the newer plastic ones.

The rims are heavy and that tends to negatively impact ride quality, making the bike feel a bit more sluggish when compared to alloy rims. The braking, thanks to the patterned braking surface is good but does deteriorate in wet riding conditions. My biggest complaint is the noise they make when braking. They tend to buzz loudly which I find annoying. That said, I do run them on my most recent restoration...

gthomson

Do they look like this? Agreed with all posts above. They look really nice on an older French bike but they are not very practical, especially when riding in the rain.

ellei.oh

Thank you for the information. It is very nice to have a reference point. Would you be comfortable with using folding bead tires for these wheels? I have read that with these older rims you want to be sure not to over inflate the tubes as it can result in the tires popping out. I definitely don’t want to do that and appreciate the psi info.

Also your restoration looks amazing and I hope I’ll be able to get my rims to shine like that. I have definitely taken a liking vintages bikes as I think there is so much character is them.

ellei.oh

Thanks for the reply. Yes they do look like that but not as shiny or nice (yet, I have to clean them up a little). I read about this problem and did try to address that as much as I can by purchasing Koolstop brake pads (a suggestion on another thread) made for the Mafac brakes that were on the Peugeot Mixte.

oneclick 

I usually throw them away.

They are almost always rusty.
They are awful in the wet.
If patterned they make noises.
They're heavy.
They're going to rust (more).

However, I have at least one (maybe a pair) that haven't been put in the rubbish yet, they are 650B from a Tandem, might be 40 spoke, and the chrome is somewhere between passable and good. I think being 650B saved them so far.

Does anyone want it/them?

Trakhak

Whether a given tire fits tightly/reliably on a given rim depends less on the bead material and more on the manufacturers' dimensional standards. Some tire and rim combinations are notorious for being almost impossible to work with. Most often, in fact, the extra-tight tires have Kevlar beads rather than wire beads.

Finally, efforts to guess the maximum allowable tire pressure for straight-sided rims are usually based on the old and now-obsolete notion that higher tire pressure is always better than lower. For the 27 x 1 1/4" tires that were and still are considered the standard size for those rims, many modern tire manufacturers recommend a tire pressure of 75 psi or less, depending on the weight of the rider. Stay toward the lower end of the tire pressure range recommended for riders of your weight, and you'll likely find that any tire is safe to ride on those rims.

T-Mar

Do not use a folding tyre on those rims. Folding tyres are designed for rims with a small hook/bead on the top inside edge of the rim sidewalls. The flexible Kevlar beads makes them very hard to seat properly on a rim without these hooks/beads and they will be susceptible to blowing off the rims when inflated and ridden. The Cromolux rims require a tyre with a rigid, metal bead.

ellei.oh

Thank you for letting me know. I haven't done anything with the wheels because I wasn't sure how to proceed and now feel confident enough to move forward.

On a side note (which I will start another thread for after this response) I have encountered a Facebook market ad which appears to be selling a 1970’s Peugeot “Record Du Monde” Mixte. If anyone has the chance or interest, please feel free to check that out as well. Thanks again!