Or maybe that should be clean-up to a kilometerstone. I spent part of the afternoon organizing my tools which were scattered across the chaotic wilderness of my garage, basement, several toolboxes and other containers. In the process I discovered I had seven, count 'em, seven, 6mm Allen wrenches. Every time I'd buy something which needed a 6mm it came with one in the box. Plus I have rescued a few lost on the road. Nobody loses any other size, just 6mm. I also discovered (as I already knew) I still had all three of those little Mafac wrenches which came with the Mafac Racer brakes on my Peugeot UO8.

Which brings me to the milestone. Looking at those brake wrenches I realized that as of this summer that faithful Peugeot is now 50 years old. It's the only bike I bought new. It has seen commuter service to four jobs, university summer courses, and grad school, been through heat, rain, and cold, made one camping tour truncated due to torrential rain, been ridden through five states, taken on pavement and dirt and come through victorious. It has seen upgrades, retrograde back to almost original condition, upgraded again, It wears the first wheel I ever built (and is still going strong). It has rolled the Park Loop Road and climbed Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park. It wore a brace of generator-powered lights for part of its life, useful for commuting home at night. Now it is equipped as a ready-to-run sport road bike. I still ride that UO8 almost every day. For the last two years it has been my go-to bike on a trainer in the living room. Whatever "inoxydable" steel they used is remarkable. "Inoxydable" is probably misspelled; I would check it except that the bike's sticker is long gone. The rest of the paint is just fine, though with some scratches here and there.

I don't expect to be around fifty years from now, but it wouldn't surprise me if that bike is.

Dear Jim, the title pulled me in and I am happy that it has happened. While I am an ex-owner of 3 Peugeot bikes I am still an "Italian bike guy", but this is simply beautiful. I don't know how old you were when you got that Peugeot but I wish both of you a good health and plenty of more miles with load of fun!

Lattz

Congrats on on the Peugeot! One of the great iconic 10 speeds. I know they spun my hat around 50 years ago and still do.
I left the 6 mm on my truck bed-rail and drove off.

Thank you, [MENTION=468737]Lattz[/MENTION].

For the record, I was 22 when I bought that bike. (In two days I will gain yet another year.) I too am at least partly an Italian bike guy. but a French bike guy too, have three and love them all. Edit: No, make that four. I forgot about the tandem. When I bought that bike I could never in my wildest dreams have foreseen the future that came to be. Now I am starting to give bikes away. That UO8 will not be one of them.

Jim, I believe the first time we met in person I also met your Peugeot. I need to look for a picture.

Hmm. If that was your Hills And Rails (? - I forget the exact name you used) ride, I was on the Raleigh Gran Sport. I rode the UO8 on your ride up the Great North Rail Trail.

How you doin' these days? We're fine but not riding outdoors much.

Jim,

poidh.

I love to hear stories of dedication to one's bike. How did you set up the UO-8 to get up Cadillac Mountain?
Any maintenance going-on for it, this winter?

Never know... You may still be riding it..
I have an old schwinn, my dad bought it in the 1960's,

I have at least two bikes that turned 50 this year. I am not the original owner of either bike. In 1972 I was riding a Schwinn Varsity and it is long gone. My first decent bike was my Kabuki Diamond Formula which I bought new in 1976 and still own. Congratulations on you and your bike’s milestone .

I was able to dig up some pics from the run up the Great North Rail Trail (I think it is called). Pastor Bob led Prowler and myself on a cool adventure.



In the bike's recent (circa. 2011) quasi-retrograde phase.


Since you asked... For the run up Cadillac it was more or less like you see in the "Boston 100" pic above and as it is now, a stripped road bike. Most of the mods are upgrades I made long ago. Sugino Maxy crank w/48-32 rings, Suntour FW, Suntour VGT-Lux derailleurs w/Simplex DT levers (which I installed in place of the original stem shifters about 1973), MKS pedals w/ clips&straps, SR alloy bar with the original headset and AVA stem, alloy Simplex seat post, WTB Speed V saddle, Shimano 600 hubs (the original version), 27" Sun M13-II rims w/32mm Panaracer Tourguard tires, the original Mafac brakes but with newer pads, and of course the bottle cage and pump.

No maintenance planned but it could use some cleaning!

[MENTION=190941]jimmuller[/MENTION] - I envy you keeping your UO-8. I purchased mine in about 1968 and sold it in 1972. Rode the bearings off it. At the time, I didn't know I could have repaired it. Young and ignorant at the time. With all the traveing from the age of 13, I didn't really have a base to grow up with that would have taught me more about bikes. I regret selling it. Good on you!
Here is a picture from 1971, IIRC
PBPeugeot on Flickr

I had two sets of wheels for it, clincher and sewups. Bought it in Frankfurt, Germany and used it to commute to work. I spent a school year in Austria and rode it nearly every day with a couple of 50 milers in less than 3 hours. It last place with me was in eastern Washington while in college. Did a lot of riding there too in the wheat field countryside. Great memories!

Jim, my foggy senior memory must be slipping. I was remembering the UO8 from another ride. I did dig through pictures and remember this one from that first ride we took?

(Jim on the far left)

Thanks for posting the Rail Trail ride we did with Prowler. That was a great day! We are doing great and I'm riding more than ever. Retirement is a blast.

Did you have a 28T low cog on the free-wheel?

Jim, your memory is the correct spelling. I am sure as I re-built my 1972 UO-8 for my granddaughter who now rides it and I got the correct decals from Cyclomondo with the two INOXYDABLE bands, black with gold letters. Bought the bike in 1972 with my first GI Bill check to get to class, it was a lot then for me if I recall less than $100 out the door.

I'm fairly sure that Jim was on his Raleigh Gran Sport on that ride (of which I am now proud caretaker!). I was on my orange Ebisu and had a nasty death wobble on the descent heading to that dump spot. I remember FTW saying something along the lines, in his SoCal way, "Dude, I thought I was going to have to bunny hop you!"

I spy that orange bike in the photo below.

And I spy the blue Gran Sport at the far end.
That was fun ride. As I recall, we ran off and dropped nlerner without realizing it. (Sorry. We should have been paying more attention.) Fortunately he has a good enough sense of direction that he found his way back and happened to fall into our return route near the end.
I recall that junkyard, err, excuse me, that recycling center stop too.

I believe so. That gives me a low of about 31. If I went any slower I'd fall over. But at least I use'ta could climb most hills with it.

I found some pics from the ride up Cadillac Mt. Here is one that my sweetie snapped after meeting me at the top. This was September 2016.


That dear old UO8 is still the same, even to the Eclipse bag which has had several seams come apart. It does need some maintenance now though. The FD has stiffened up. The big chainring is getting a bit long in the tooth, or rather, a bit shark-toothed in the tooth. Riding on a trainer doesn't require much shifting.

A few I took on the ride up: