Nadadora

Hello,

This is my first post on bikeforums. I've been reading threads for a while and the few things I've learnt about bikes are thanks to all of you!

I have an old Raleigh, an Olympus model made in Canada - it really looks more like the Olympian when I do online searches. The bike is really nice, but a bit too heavy for me (Tange 5). My knees start to hurt when I have to bike up hill - I mostly use it to commute. I'm looking for a new bike and I saw this one on Kijiji - here - Its a Peugeot UO-8 bike with Reynolds 453 tubing - apparently according to the forum a rare version of the 531, with titanium but of a leaser quality. It's priced on 240$, which seems on the average of other Peugeots I have seen posted on the same page, still I am not sure if it is worth it. Would like to hear your opinion around here.

Thanks!

Scooper

Reynolds 453 was a single butted high manganese steel alloy tubeset in the mid-1980s. It's described by Reynolds as The latest addition to the Reynolds range, REYNOLDS 453 - Ti TECH. Cycles bearing this transfer have frame tubes only manufactured from REYNOLDS 453 high manganese/titanium tubing. These sets are SINGLE BUTTED. Forks and stays may not be of Reynolds manufacture. Designed for sports and general purpose use.

I've never seen any information regarding the 453 chemistry, physical properties like UTS, Yield Strength, elongation, etc., or wall thickness/butting profiles.

Nadadora

Thanks for the info Scooper
So it seems this 453 is a bit of a mystery in terms of its performance. Still I guess it is far superior to the Tange 5 I have on my Raleigh and I imagine lighter, right?

Scooper

Reynolds only made the three main frame tubes (top tube, down tube, and seat tube) in 453, so Peugeot had to use something else for the fork blades, seat stays, chain stays, and head tube. Unfortunately, because we don't know the wall thickness and butting profile of the 453 tubes, it's hard to come to any conclusion about frame weight comparison to your Raleigh with Tange 5.

We do know the wall thickness and butting of Tange 5 (straight gauge with a 0.9mm wall thickness). That makes it pretty heavy.

zukahn1

Well the Canadian Peugeot is a basically worse than the bike you currently have.

zukahn1

Also other than somewhate rare early 70's PX/Y serieries stuff Pugeot didn't use Reynolds tubing.

bikemig 

Not just in the early 70s and not just the PX/Y series:


501 Reynolds Tubing Peugeot Road Bike Vintage Nice | eBay

PX10 (time line)

bertinjim 

Nadadora -

Please look carefully at the tubing sticker. It says "Butted Seat Tube" which means that all the rest is high tensile steel. Not bad but NOT a Reynolds main triangle. The 453 tubeset was intended for sport bikes and had an after brazing strength of 91,800psi/633 N/mm2 which is greater than generic cro-mo and equal to Reynolds 501. The seat tube trick was used by both Peugeot and Raleigh here in Canada to get a brand name tubing sticker on the bike for really low cost.

If your current bike is all Tange 5 you are probably better off. The sore knees from hills probably reflects excessively high gearing or bike fit. Check those possibilities out because the $240 could get you a lower geared set of chainrings or a full crankset and solve the problems. The 453 is really nothing more than a sneaky marketing ploy.

Scooper

^ Good point; I missed the "seat tube" thing on the tubing sticker.

zukahn1

This was actually pretty common off sports bikes from this era exspecially Candian and British bikes often times only the main two tubes top/or bottom and seat where rated quality. I have seen a few where only one tube with the sticker was actually rated quality.

Nadadora

Thanks! Super useful info. Definitively discarded the bike.

AeroGut

For anyone else who comes across this thread looking for info on 453, here’s a chart I found online that indicates that all three tubes are 1.0/0.8 mm thickness:

zukahn1

While this is a old zombie thread great info 453 while fine was pretty much the lowest tube set for classic Raleilghs. to have a label. I well say 90 percent of the vintage Raliegh stuff including American and Canadian has been pretty good compared to other brands.

georges1

Peugeot never used 453 Reynolds tubing but 501,520,531,653,753 and 708 classic, 453 was used by Gitane in their entry-mid range level frames

Slowride79

I am willing to bet this was a Canadian made Peugeot made by Procycle in Quebec. Peugeot licensed their name for branding purposes but design and materials were completely different.