I searched the forums for this, but couldn't find the exact answer i needed but...

I have a late seventies peugeot. The stem was stuck but I was able to drill it out.

Anyways, I need to get a new stem. Would a standard (26mm) stem fit or does this require the old french sizing? Or would it be best to convert to a new fork/headset?

thanks

A standard stem would be 22.2mm in diameter. French would be 22.0mm. 26mm would be Italian size bar clamp diameter where 25.4 would be standard and 25.0mm is the French standard. As to which one your would take, I'm not sure. By the late 70's you could be into that period when the French were switching to standard size so you'll need a Peugeot expert to help out here. Or you just buy a $10 micrometer and measure.

My '74 came with a 22mm quill and a 25mm bar clamp. I've got three of them, but I prefer to use a Nitto stem sanded down to 22mm and standard bars.

My '82 PH12 has 22.0 quill and a 25.0 bar clamp.

Your best option is to convert it to a standard size stem. There's a few ways to do this.

Before you try any of thses thouroughly clean out the inside of the fork. If you dont nothing will fit.


1. Buy a 22.2 mm stem and see if it fits. If it doesnt, remove the top nut of the headset and try again. If it fits without the top nut all you need to do is is open up the top of the nut.

2. Buy a 22.2 mm stem and sand it down as suggested by Dirtdrop. It only needs to be sanded down .1mm around the circumference. .1mm on each side = .2mm

3. Ditch the fork and headset and replace it with a standard setup.

4. Buy a French stem

#4 is the most simple and relatively cheap
#3 is the most expensive
#1 & #2 are the most praticle

thanks everyone. this is my first peugeot and i don't know a whole lot about them. im trying to learn as much as i can so thanks much.

I don't either and that's why I, too, have to add my thanks. I'm in the process of converting a '77 Puegeot to a fixie and had to saw through the seized stem (ugh!) to save the frame. As a result, the entire cockpit was tossed. Screwy Fr measurements therefore didn't matter.

While I want to fit the frame with a 700 fork, I currently have a 27" fork for the initial build, which means I need to find a long-reach brake. My biggest concern fork-wise was make sure it fit a 22.2 stem. I love the Nitto Technomic.

As for the headset, I pieced together one from my bits box, dropping in loose ball bearings (5/32") and greasing the heck out of them. I think this will work just fine.

Unfortunately, I had to re-paint (with a rattlecan). I love original paint jobs but, sadly, this poor rig, for which I paid nothing, had been abused by the weather, etc. Funny, I'm waiting for the paint to dry as I type.

Good luck!

Sorry Jim, but your #1 makes no sense. If the stem won't go through the locknut, it won't go into the steer tube, either.

On my French bikes, a standard 22.2mm stem will go through the headset locknut. Both are Stronglights, a Competition and an A-9. That means that the "ledge" left after sanding the stem is hidden. The stem goes all the way down until the ledge hits the top of the steer tube. I keep a clean line while sanding by using duct tape. I can sand a stem down fairly quickly, but I use power tools.

Not necessarily. Since the locknut also covers the top of the steerer it's possible that the hole in it might be smaller. We're talking 0.004".

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. It only takes a few seconds to test fit a stem

I might have a Pivo or Peugeot stem if you want to pay the postage, send me an email.

So you're going to file the i.d. of the locknut so a 22.2 mm stem will go through it and then force fit the stem into a French steerer? How many times has that worked for you?

I've seen several French bikes where the crown of the nut was 22.0mm yet the steertube ID was 22.2mm.
My Gitane was one of them. Since French threaded nuts can be hard to find, you may have no other option but to open up the top of the nut slightly. Be careful, it don't take much and if you do it right you will never be able to tell. Like was said above, first remove the nut and trial fit a 22.2mm stem, if it works, then all you need to do is open up the nut, if not, then your either sanding down a 22.2mm stem or hunting down a 22.0mm stem. Back in the day, SR made a 22.0 replacement to fit French bikes, that may be the most likely one to still be sitting on some shelf somewhere. Most of the collectors have gobbled up all the originals by now.
Sanding the stem don't take long, it's really not much to remove. I used to mask off the upper area with electrical tape to prevent scratching it by accident, then I'd wrap it with say 320 grit wet dry paper and sand it down till I got close to the size, then finish up with a much finer paper and repolish the stem smooth with some jewels polish.

Don't use a file, that just makes a mess and takes off far too much material. I've done dozens that way with no problems. To best give you an idea of how much .2mm is, the amount of aluminum you will have to sand off each side is about equal to the thickness of a standard sheet of Xerox paper.

I would also coat the new stem with grease to prevent it from ever getting stuck. I also do the same to seat posts as well.

I can't remember exactly which bikes now, but I too have sometimes seen late 70s French bikes with 22.2 steerering tubes, but metric threads and 22.0 top nuts on the headset. I recall Sheldon Brown once mentioned this too. I am really not sure if this was deliberate or whether it was a matter of tubing availability at the factory. When French bikes began to switch over in the early 80s there was even more confusion. A bike could have a BSC bottom bracket and a 22.0 steering tube, and they still used the narrower metric tubing diameters as well. To be honest, I've gotten in the habit of testing a spare 22.2 stem in the steering tube before even putting a new headset on, just to make sure I know what I'm actually dealing with for every French bike I handle. Great luck if you find a larger diameter steering tube - gives a lot more options, and its easy to just widen a lock nut a bit (couple twirls with a Dremel tool and you're there).

I've had no such experience, but I've only worked on early seventies French bikes. If the threads are French and the inside diameter is 22.2, that can only mean that they used a steerer with thinner than normal walls. I don't think I'll really believe it until I see it for myself.

I cant say for certainty why it works occasionaly but perhaps a slightly oversized (thinner) steerer with a slightly undersized stem is the reason.

If both are equaly oversized and undersized your dealing with steerer wall thickness and stem wall thickness difference of .05mm or .0025in

Various manufacturers tended to do things differently, Peugeot tended to stay all French the longest, as did Gitane, but Motobecane was using British sized stems and threads in the early 70's or earlier. They also tended to use Swiss bottom bracket threads which it nothing more than a reversed fixed cut in bsc thread pitch I believe.
I've given up trying to remember which ones had what, I just measure and make something work while trying to stay as original as the parts supply will allow.