Some of you might recognize my Panasonic PT-3500 that I picked up at a pawn shop for $30 a few months ago, destined to become my commuter. I don't keep track of what I spend on the Bottecchia (I really don't want to know or leave evidence for my wife to find ) and haven't spent much of anything on the Peugeot but the Panasonic is something I want to get fixed up as a nice touring/commuting bike without breaking the bank. I think it's comming along nicely so far....

The basic bike with rear rack was $30 - a friend gave me the panniers that he didn't use anymore. Handlebars, bar tape, aero levers, 26t granny ring, and tires came from the parts box in the garage. The lights I already had. Fenders, Nitto Technomic stem, and nice wide MTS rat-trap pedals to replace the quil pedals it came with are from Velo-Orange. Brooks Champion-Flyer is from wallbike.com.

I had (have?) intentions of converting to a more modern drivetrain but maybe not. Converting to 9-spd Shimano with indexed bar-ends would be sweet but expensive. And there's still an old set of Suntour barcons in the parts box for free so maybe just a 14-32 freewheel and the barcons will do the trick instead. Either way I'll be playing with the gearing.

It does look as if it's coming together.

Nice use of hibachi, too.

East Hill

Very nice, Have you considered 8 speed? There were 8 speed SIS bar end shifters. They are new enough that they should still be relatively easy to find, yet not being old enough to be collectible, they will be much cheaper than 9 speed. You will also still have the Hyperglide technology on the cogs. It should provide all the advantage of upgrading to 9 speed, less one cog, with good savings.

Unfortunately it's a freewheel setup so I would need to replace the wheel (or at least the hub) to go with a cassette (don't think I'd want to go with an 8-spd freewheel even if I could find one). And I haven't seen any 27" cassette wheels so that would mean either buying a set in 700C or have the rear rebuild with a new hub, fairly expensive either way. My original plan was to just buy a set of 700C wheels, cassette, chain, and 9-spd bar-ends but that would cost a fair penny. I only have $225 or so invested in it now and I don't want it becoming a money pit.