Peugeot Optimum
 

After a long pause, I bought another bike today. This is my first vintage find since 2014, and I'm curious to learn some more information about what I got.

The seller indicated that this bike is a Euro-only model, and therefore uncommon in the USA. It's wearing a mix of Shimano 105 (headset, brakes, hubs, chainrings?) and 600 (derailleurs, crank), but I think that the 105 parts are the originals.

Any information appreciated! In particular, can anyone date this bike?

http://i.imgur.com/jvFupkm.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/KEdVimG.jpg

From the frame details (close to vertical rear DO slots, double bottle mounts and very rounded shouldered fork crown (but does not look like a "Unicrown" style fork, thank god), graphics), it looks to be from the very late 80's/very early 90's.
Could be Euro only, but maybe also Canadien.
Although 531 tubing wasn't so special anymore by that time, it was still a mark of good quality, and definitely above the mid level 501 tubing that was Peugeot's "standard" mid level bike frame tubing at that time, starting from the mid-80's.......
The best thing going for this frame, IMO, other than Peugeot's frame geometry that will surely give a great ride, is the fact that it's still a fully lugged frame, when a lot of mass production steel and aluminum frames from that time, we're starting to go lugless. Does not always mean the frame 8s stronger than a lugless frame, but it certainly makes this steel frame look much nicer than plain looking lugless frames.....

Thank you for the information! I'm very glad it's a lugged frame -- that's sort-of a requirement for me to buy a bike, actually.

Any guesses as to what the original components on this bike were? There's 105 and two different generations of 600 on here...

Very interesting bike. Can't quite read the decal, but is looks like 14 speed? If so, that would indicate that the 7s Tricolor group is original and would date the bike to 1988 or '89. Not sure when 6400 went 8s, but soon after. The 6300 crank is an oddity. What is 105 in it?

Look for date codes on the equipment and let us know what you find.

Love the decals - very late 80's!

Brake cable routing to the levers are more of a personal choice. Whether it's left or right lever controlling which brake caliper it is what works best for the rider.
It is most common to have the left lever control the front brake. But some cyclists flip the cable routing because of being right handed, to control the front brake with their dominant hand, but another reason why people flip the brake cable routing is the owner might be a motorcycle rider, where the front brake is almost always controlled by the right lever and the left one controls the clutch, so they flip it to go with setting more familiar to them.

Could be an early 1990s model.

I would guess either an U.K. or French market bike.

Does it seem to have shorter chainstays than you would expect from a Peugeot or am I just imagining things ? Almost like a Criterium rear geometry ?

The chainstays do look short, but that may be a consequence of the bike being equipped with tires that are slightly taller than the originals.

Not sure if it is because of taller than usual tires, but it certainly does look a bit tighter at the rear triangle than older model Peugeots. I think the tighter frame geometries that were coming out from most manufacturers might have influenced Peugeot to design the frame to be more compact. You can also see the lesser amount of front fork rake that look more Itakina than French. The bike also having been built with a 531 tubeset might have something to do with it, specially with how the fork dos not have as much rake, as say, a Supervitus 980 fork that Peugeot still had on some bikes up to the mid 80's.

The headset, brakes (but not levers), chainwheels and cassette (I think), and hubs are 105. The fact that the hubs are 105 makes me wonder whether 105 is the original equipment...

The derailleurs, shifters, and brake levers are 600 6400.

The crank is 6300.

I'll look at date codes when I get home!

The bike is currently wearing 700x25, which might help account for this?

The FD is pre-'91. But that may mean nothing.

I've been ogling that bike for months, just didn't need it. I'm glad you'll give it a good home!

If you do a search on Retrobike, a few of them pop up. Looks like most of them were RX equipped.

Peugeot 531 Pro 1992ish | Retrobike

Also found this 1992 catalog:

http://www.peugeotshow.com/1992nl/1992nl_06.jpg

It isn't in the 1990 or 1993 catalog. I can't find a 1991 catalog.

This bike hits many "perfect steel bike" points: 1) steel 2) nice steel 3)lugged 4) steel fork 5) super tight race geometry 6) vertical rear dropout 7) classic horizontal top tube, only missing out on being a 64cm, but hey! Now to look for more things!

As to something edifying for you, cool find! Looks good, and I dig the color. The 6400 pieces are nice (I'm in the middle of building up a groupset), though the crankset is, IIRC, a 620x of some kind. Something like a 6207 or 6208. These later 620x cranksets are to me, hands down the prettiest and most classic of the 1980's cranksets (7400 DA stuff being at least one of the others). They look simple, strong, and elegant, and they easily match with other parts. [600 Arabesque cranks, though visually different, are also beautiful] The engraved letters and numbers don't wear off, etc. I am curious as to the one-ended brake track wear. The difference would drive me nuts but hey, they came attached to the rest of the bike and the hubs matched. You can certainly address or not address that later depending on what you feel like. How does it ride?

Good call on the cranks, ROS, late 6200.

Odd that this has such a mix of components. I know Peugeot would mix and match French parts depending on what was available during the bike boom, but this bike is well past that when groups were largely sold as complete sets by Shimano. Perhaps it was a frame up build by someone with what they had on hand?

Very nice PUG...it has the same "maori" decals than my 1992 "Tourmalet"...

[IMG]https://i97.servimg.com/u/f97/18/19/85/87/img_3810.jpg[/IMG]

Peugoet Optimum
 

I owned a Peugoet Optimum bought in 1990 (from brand new) the group set was Shimano RX100

531 "frame tubes"
 

Hi all! Really interesting reading through this thread.

I recently bought a Peugeot optimum but with a slight difference to the one presented in this thread. Both seem to be fairly common when you Google image search this bike model.

On mine, there is no 531 decal on the forks and on the downtube it says "531 frame tubes". I understand this means only the down tube, top tube and seat tube are Reynolds 531, however I can't find any identification for the forks or the stays.

In this configuration does anyone know what the forks or stays would normally be made from, or a way to find out?

Cheers in advance!