So most of the regular users on here know that I was working on a mid 80's peugeot to use as a campus and occaisional road ride bike. The rear wheel had a busted spoke and it wasn't worth replacing since the hub was a helicomatic. I posted an ad on craigslist and found a guy with a mavic rear wheel that he used to use in the 80's.

Well. It turns out that 'guy' used to ride for the B team of 7-11 and used this wheel as his training wheel!

He was really cool and helped me out getting a few things adjusted on the pug. And I scored the Mavic wheel which looked brand new for 40 bucks with a 13-21 7 speed. It's gonna be tough climbing them CT hills. Huzzah!

The only thing that you won't appreciate is the fact that he sold off his 80's italian steel bikes and now owns a cf specialized and a ti litespeed. Great bikes, but not really the C&V forums cuppa tea.

That is all!

Did you get photos? You missed an opportunity!

East Hill

1 spoke not worth fixing? A spoke is only like 50 cent. Great find on that new wheel.

Apparently the Helicomatic hubs were a poor design and were prone to breaking spokes. My Peugeot thriftstore find had extra spokes taped to the seatpost... always a bad sign. Here's what Sheldon has to say about them...

"Some French bicycles (and many early Treks!) came with Maillard "Helicomatic" rear hubs. This was the first cluster that could be removed without a big powerful tool. They came with a cute little pocket-size tool that incorporated a spline wrench for the cassette lockring, a spoke wrench, and a bottle opener. The Helicomatic was a nice idea on paper, but poorly executed. These hubs are losers.

Both hub flanges were 1mm farther to the left than those of a normal hub, causing increased dish in the rear wheel, and persistent spoke breakage problems. Many loyal Helicomatic fans tout the ease with which the cassette may be removed for spoke replacement as a great virtue, but if the hub were better designed, it wouldn't break so many spokes!

These hubs were prone to bearing problems as well. Due to clearance requirements, they couldn't fit the normal 9 1/4" bearing balls, so they used 13 5/32" balls on the right side. These didn't hold up well. The cones tended to wear rapidly, and replacement cones are no longer available to fit these hubs."