cadman101

I'm the original owner of this '72 PX10 which was purchased new for about $250 (as I remember). I rode it in the 70s to school, work, and on trips in the mountains, some as long as 2 weeks. Mods done for the long trips were adding some padding to the bars and a padded seat, also a 14-28 freewheel was added. The racks and packs we had mounted for the trips are long gone. even had a rear view mirror setup for the narrow 2 lane mountain roads. It's been moving around with me and been sitting in my various garages for about 35 years. To my surprise everything still works and even the tires hold air. I have decided to rebuild it and ride it after seeing other rebuilds and talking to folks on this site. It doesn't look so bad from a distance but on close inspection it is pretty beat up. I going to try and clean up the rust spots, paint chips, decals chips, etc as the repaint cost is high, $350-400 or more with new chrome etc. Since I can't find 27" x 1-1/4" tubulars (old school sew-ups) I'm looking at getting 700c (or 27") clincher rims with high flange hubs if I can find some I can afford. The Mafac brakes can handle the smaller 700c which should give me more tire options. Plan A is to just get it cleaned up and get it into riding condition again. Plan B is to look at doing some upgrades to make it even better.

Here are some photos of what it looked like after being rescued from the garage.

cadman101

Some interesting PX10 info:

cadman101

Some close-ups of the poor condition. Every tube section has some sort of chip or rust or some issue. The seat tube decals look pretty good. All three Reynolds decals need to be replaced.

Kactus

You don't need new rims. There is no such thing as 27" tubulars, the currently available ones will fit your old rims.

xiaoman1 

Hello,
Bike condition looks good....I have seen much worse. Patina in my book is good...it is only new once.
Maybe a good cleaning, touch-up and wax along with service is all that is needed....Rims are tubular and you can still get them so no need to buy new ones...clean and re-glue, Normandy's are good hubs etc.ride it and enjoy it like it was the 70's.
Regards, Ben,

Kactus

I agree with xiaoman1. It looks like it will clean up nicely and white is an easy color to touch up.

3speedslow

A lot of the PX-10 lovers on here started with much worse. Clean and grease, everything else paint and decal wise is memories.

Tires will not be a problem.

OTS 

Welcome to the forums

That looks like a nice ride with some great personal history.

I like Plan A

I think that all the patina ( nicks, chips, flaky decals etc. ) speak to some of the great adventures this bike was part of in the past. I like patina. Speaks volumes

Classtime 

Neat Bike. Building wheels is not a big deal. get some NOS 700 rims and put them on those hubs. What fun. Download Roger Muson's wheel building book and read through a few pages and then get going.

rootboy 

Boy does that bike bring back memories. I bought the same bike. Same year. And used it on a bike tour up in Washington, Canada and Oregon.

Your bike is in nice condition really. Just needs an overhaul and a careful cleaning of the frame.
New brake cables and housings, and some new tires. Maybe some new Kool Stop pads for those brakes.
If the bike has been sitting for that long un-used, you should definitely have the bottom bracket and head set disassembled, cleaned, lubed and adjusted properly. Keep in mind that if you do it yourself, or if you take it to a shop, it will require a special tool to remove those Stronglight cranks. It is a crank remover specific to that crank so make sure the shop has one before letting anyone work on it. And most shops probably won't have one. Just a caution.

Neat bike. I'm sailing down memory lane....Highway 101

rootboy 

By the way, did you happen to keep the old Brooks saddle?

ascherer 

Another vote for clean, tune and ride. Yours is in much better shape than my '71 when I got it, but each mark was earned honestly and I respect it's history. It'll be a great ride!

cadman101

Thanks for the comments and advice, I need all I can get.. I may just use those Normandy hubs after cleaning etc on a new set of 700 wheels.

The head and bottom bracket feel really good but I'm waying the cost & risk of damage factor of pulling them apart for service. $55 for the 23.35mm Stronglight crank puller ouch! Need to check more local bike shops.

I don't have the old brooks saddle, but my friends matching bike still has it and it's in even better condition than mine. I did get to ride it some the other day before the old tire blew out. Now I'm doing disassembly and cleanup.

Here's a pic from one of our trips, about 1973.

Force 

You might be able to find a kind forum member who would lend you this crank puller. I was lucky enough to find one that way. I am restoring the same bike. You would be surprised how well it will clean up. Yours actually looks in good shape. Good luck and post pics along the way.

The head and bottom bracket feel really good but I'm waying the cost & risk of damage factor of pulling them apart for service. $55 for the 23.35mm Stronglight crank puller ouch! Need to check more local bike shops.

1100 Springs

Clean it up and cheers to you for hanging on to it for all this time. Great pic.

gugie 

If you were local, you could borrow mine.

Maybe we need a "frenchie locator" thread for those needing special tools and odd bits...

Lascauxcaveman 

If you're going to disassemble this bike (I would) for cleaning & refurb, look up the term "oxalic acid bath" for all your rust removal needs. This bike a really good candidate for that. After that, a good polish/wax of the frame, reassemble with new grease and new bearings, all new consumables and it's almost like new.

That bike's in pretty nice condition; definitely NOT a repaint!

rootboy 

You won't do the headset any damage by taking it apart. Just make sure you do it over a big cloth laid out or you'll have tiny balls flying all over the place. Can't remember exactly but I think the old Stronglight headset takes 22 balls per race. You definitely need to clean and re-lube the headset as the old grease is undoubtedly dried up and riding it very much without doing so could damage the races even further.

As for the crank puller, that is a tough one. But maybe you'll find an older shop, with an older guy working there who knows about this stuff and has the proper tool. Sounds like you know which tool now. Whatever you you do, don't let them use the old 23.0 mm tool on it. Danger lurks there.

That';s a really cool old picture. Where was it taken?

cadman101

The trip picture was taken somewhere in the Sierra Nevada mountains on one of our 2 week long trips.

Disassembly is going well except I have 2 issues. Fisrt one is the stem is stuck, the wedge is lose but the stem is stuck good to the fork tube. No movement at all. Watching some youtube videos about feeing stuck stems, could be a challenge. I keep hearing stories about the AVA stems have a bad habit of breaking and they're nickname is "the death stem". True?

2nd stuck item is one derailleur cable ends is stuck inside the friction shifter hole. On the topic of derailleur cable, anyone know of replacement derailleur cables that are the correct size for the Simplex friction shifter? Cable Jacket is about 4.2mm dia, cable is about 1.2mm dia, ball on the end is 4mm dia.

gaucho777 

Welcome!

I'll echo what others have said: Treat the rust, clean, service & enjoy. No need to repaint that one IMO.

As mentioned above, tubular rims (with a few exceptions) take a standard tubular tire, which is similar to 700c.

Re the stuck cable head, yes, those can be a pain. Sometimes you are able to pluck it out with the end of something sharp, or punch it out from the back. I once had a pair of very stubborn cables which needed to be carefully drilled out (hand drill with shifters held in vice; go slow). If the cable heads are too big, it's possible to file/sand them slightly so they don't get lodged into the shifter.

Good luck with the stem. I'm still using AVA and Pivo stems. The were prone to cracking at the edge of the slot at the bottom of the quill. Inspect that point when you pull the stem. As an added preventative step, you can take a drill and create a circular hole at the top to prevent the spread of any cracks from that point.

My '72 PX-10 is another story. Chrome is totally shot and it does need a repaint!

rootboy 

Uh oh. Count yourself lucky, if the seat post came out. Did it? You'll get lots of advice on stuck parts. But what I'd do is completely disassemble the bike, as far as you can anyway, and invert the frame and spray a little penetrant into the bottom of the fork crown. Also loosen the top lock nut on the head set and spray some down in there too, along the stem. Let it soak down in, and sit. I like Freeze Off for this kind of thing. Wonderful stuff. Sometimes tapping the top of the stem quill with a plastic mallet after such treatment will jolt things loose.

As for the cable end stuck in the shift lever, if it were me I'd be tempted to leave it and just use the old cables. Unless they're shot. Most would disagree. To me, brake cables are more important for changing to new. But, if not, removed the lever from the band clamp, being careful not to lose any of the myriad of small washers and such on both sides of the lever…cut the cable as flush as you can to the lever, hit it with some penetrant, hold the lever in a vise with padded jaws and see if you can drive the cable head out with a small pin punch. Good luck.
Aint it fun?

3alarmer 

...there are two schools of thought on the stem on these. I am of the " eplace with Japanese forged stem that has been sanded down from 22.2 to 22 diameter" school, and I also throw away the original bar as dangerous after a certain amount of use, which yours has probably had if you rode it that much and toured on it.

Here are some photos. Once you get your chosen stem and sleeve reinforced bar (in the correct stem length, bar width, and bar diameter (much easier to go with something lie a Road Champion in 25.4 at the stem insertion...it's less trouble reusing the MAFAC levers, and finding a bar mount for a water bottle), you carefully remove the bolt and wedge, and sand using 80 or 100 grit paper until it fits down as far as you need it to go into the French steerer tube. Takes maybe 15 minutes by hand.

Freeing your old stem: there are some tricks. Use plenty of penetrating oil (the best is a 50-50 mix of ATF and acetone)both applied at the top insertion, and from the bottom with the frame upside down. You should have most of the extraneous components stripped off for the overhaul by now anyway. What I usually do is either use a scrap hub clamped in the pipe jaws of a vice to clamp the fork ends in one position, so you can more easily twist on the bar and stem you are removing, or make a fork vise out of some 2 X 4 and a front fork mount for carrying your bike in a PU truck.

They are cheaply and widely available. Anyway, you need some way that you can keep your fork ends together and braced like there's a wheel in there for support, and a way to hold that fixed at a working height to a substantial vice or bench in order to twist the stuck stem loose. Let the penetrant soak in over night, then apply more before working on it.

before >>> after (same bike).>>>


different PX-10 with Nervex lugs >>> same deal, remove and replace.

3alarmer 

...these came off the bike above with the Nervex lugs. It got ridden a lot.

txsurfer

awesome bike!

jcb3

Unless it still has the wooden plug in the bottom of the steerer tube - mine is very tight.

Re the headset bearings, I recall it was an unequal number (top and bottom), but I will have to look it up later