I put a megarange freewheel on my wife's bike before they were fashionable. We were on a "staring newlywed grad students" budget in 1973, and I was working weekends and holidays at a Peugeot/Nishiki dealership to supplement my teaching assistantship and her high school substitute teacher pay. I bought a bare Peugeot UO-8 frame, got a used TA Professional crankset with 52-42 rings, and assembled a 16-18-21-24-32 SunTour freewheel. With a Shimano Titlist front derailleur, the SunTour V-GT rear derailleur from my Nishiki, a set of OEM Peugeot UO-18 mixte straight handlebars, Schwinn TwinStik stem shifters, and the original wheels and 27 x 1-1/4" tires from my Nishiki, she was good to go. About 20 years later, after she discovered trail riding and mountain bikes and grew increasingly intimidated by traffic, I did essentially what you did, repurposing the UO-8 for my own use, with a narrower saddle, tighter gear ratios, drop bars, and barcons. Our advantage over you and your wife is that both of us can ride a 21" frame.
My UO-8 with barcon cables routed between the rack and the cylindrical Bellwether front bag.
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"Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." --Theodore Roosevelt
Capo: 1959 Modell Campagnolo, S/N 40324; 1960 Sieger (2), S/N 42624, 42597
Carlton: 1962 Franco Suisse, S/N K7911
Peugeot: 1970 UO-8, S/N 0010468
Bianchi: 1982 Campione d'Italia, S/N 1.M9914
Schwinn: 1988 Project KOM-10, S/N F804069