Originally Posted by Poguemahone
Sounds like a seventies UO-8. Probably around 1973 or so. If the lugs are cut in a kind of art deco step design, definitely; the shifter boss is another giveaway. Probably came original with an ADGA leather saddle.
They make nice fixed gears. Get rid of the steel rims if you plan to ride the bike; they do horrible things to your braking, esp. in the wet weather. I just set one up as a fixed gear myself, around the same vintage. A fun beater bike.
Thanks! I spent much of the weekend tinkering with it. It does have the "stepped windows" in the headtube lugs. As I polished the rims I noticed a 73 stamped in a diamond on both rims. A date stamp?
My plan is to fix up the bike in the spirit of preservation but not to restore it in every detail. One of the Mafac lever housings is broken at a corner. I'll replace both with Weinmann types til I find another Mafac. It turns out the rear QR skewer is Simplex, not Atom. The front skewer is an Asian replacement, so I'll be looking for a Simplex front skewer. I have some blue cloth tape for the handlebar, I think it will look nice with the orange frame.
Wheels, derailers, cranks, chain and bar are in place as are new cables. I am polishing up the Mafac calipers and have NOS Mafac pads. I've been using Clorox Soft Scrub to polish the chrome and aluminum. It's a lot like Noxon metal polish! The paint is not cleaning up as I'd hoped, but I don't want to damage the decals with polishing compound.
The Rigida rims are going to stay as I'll ride my other, larger bikes far more often. It'll be handy to have the Peugeot for "bicycle dates" on the local rail trail.
I'll post or link to a photo when I have it finished.
I've never ridden a fixed gear. Perhaps for my next project...
Thanks again for the help.