Last week, while scouring Craigslist for appropriate parts and additions for my ’73 Gitane Tour de France, I spotted this Peugeot PX-10 mixed in with a number of other frames being sold off.
The Stronglight 93 crankset, and unusual seatpost caught my attention, even though the frame was too large for me. I bought it for $20, mainly because the bottom bracket and headset were smooth as new, despite the “ridden hard, and put up wet” appearance of the crank/chain rings.
The rear derailleur also caught my attention - maybe a Simplex SX410? But I didn’t pay too much attention to it at first, as is was covered in decades of grease and probably was about as shot as the chain rings. My bike has a Simplex Criterium rear that is virtually new and shifts just fine, thank you…and anything even approaching later Simplex models, particularly SLJs, are pretty much overkill.
But then the grease and grit came off. Whaaa...an SLJ 5500.
Is it functional? Yes! A little scraped up, but wow!
So I decided to install it and give it a test drive before putting it up for sale...big mistake!
So now I’m on a new quest to find a front SLJ…it never ends. But I love these moments!