First, let me thank John B. (retyred) for his advice on the purchase.

I picked up the pair over the weekend. After searching for well over a year I stumbled upon the CL ad. I say 'stumbled' because I'd perused CL earlier in the week and for some reason, missed then. I called the number and left an E-mail message early in the morning. Within a few hours the owner had responded back and we chatted on the phone. Turns out he was the original owner and they were for he and his wife. We agreed it would be best for him to send me some higher resolution pics so I wouldnt make an 8 hour round trip for nothing.

He sent the pics and I forwarded then to John (retyred). John has bought/sold/trade many older Peugeots and has better grasp on market value than I do.

I made the uneventfull 4 hour to find 2 Peugeot PX-10's in mostly stock condition. The previous owner was a nice guy who takes care of his things. He occasionalt cleaned them and did a little routine maintenace. We chatted for about 15 minutes, I threw them in the back seat and headed home.

With the exception of the tires the 21" is all original. It still has the Mafac tool kit and Ad Hoc pump! So far the only issue I've found is a broken front derailleur. No surprise there.

The 23" is all original but its missing the Brooks saddle and pump.

That was all on Friday. On Saturday I picked up 1988 Peugeot Triathlon that with almost no wear on the rims!!!


The pair:



21" Profile


21" Headtube


21" Drivetrain


23" Profile


23" Headtube


23" Drivetrain

Lovely.

My Moto came with the same (non-original) Avocet saddle.
Just once, I'd like to find a top of the line bike. PX-10, TDF, Paramount, Miyata Pro, I'm not picky.
Just has to be 54-56cm.
Top

To pick a nit, the larger freewheel is also non-OEM, but this was an extremely common modification at the point of sale, because not everyone wanted a 45/21 = 58-inch bottom gear.

I didnt notice that. I'm sure the 23's freewheel has been changed as well.

I saw those up on C-List - glad to hear you caught them.

Take care,

-Kurt

Gorgeous bikes, Jim. A very,very nice find.

The plastic wing nuts are missing from both rear skewers. One of the bikes has a front one. I can't tell about the other because the wheel is on backwards. Those can be hard to find. It took me a year to get one and I had to buy two rusty skewers to get it.

No kidding... I put a 14-28 freewheel on my PX-10 (42" low). I took it for a ride today and I still had to walk it up a VERY steep hill. Would have made it on my other bikes.

Nice to see the old pair is still together.

Outstanding acquisition, Jim. I haven't seen such a great looking pair since.. well since.. since Pamela Andersen was on BabeWatch. On a more serious note I didn't realize how well preserved both PX10's are and also so close to original. I've seen PX10s in similar condition sell for $600+ on Ebay. And, to top it off you didn't have to do battle on Ebay to claim them. Congratulations.

Nice catch, Jim.

Neal

Gorgeous! Florida's the place to find PX-10's I guess. I picked up one in in excellent condition at a flea market near Tampa about 2 years ago. Even has the original plastic bar tape.

What do they look like?

-Kurt

Correct, I'm missing 2 of the 4 plastic nuts. Fortunately all 4 of the shiftlever wings nuts are there.

Kurt: Skewer nuts...

It looks like this when they're missing. They don't seem to serve any purpose. They act as a locknut where a locknut is not needed. There is a small spring on the back side. I think it looks bad when they are missing, but most people don't even miss them.



That's a Lambert cartridge bearing hub.

Hi Jim,
Congratulations on your purchases!
Tom S.

Sorry to say the kind I have do not look like that. Similar, but most definitely not the same - probably from a Mallard skewer.

-Kurt

Those plastic Simplex outer wing nuts are from the 1960s. They had only brass hex nuts molded into the plastic and they too could easily unscrew. So, a small spring was placed between the two parts to function like a lock washer, holding the two pieces together with the plastic outer wing nut acting as a lock nut. Not entirely necessary once the skewer lever was engaged, but when a wheel was removed the single knurled metal end-nut could easily unscrew out of it's properly set position.

Because there was room allowed on the skewer length for the outer wing nut, the skewers will stick out considerably when the plastic part is missing. It does look ugly and unfinished (and always seems to find a exposed shin). The plastic itself became brittle over time and could easily crack or shatter completely sometimes leaving only the small brass hex nut from its core as evidence that it had once been in place.

Later one-piece end nuts with integrated plastic wing nuts - as on 1970s and later Maillard skewers - had plastic gripping the skewer threads (functioning rather like Nylock-type simple hex nuts) to help keep that single end nut from unscrewing. By the 1970s when Simplex had finally adopted Campy-style skewers, millions of the remaining older type skewers were down-graded and commonly found their way onto the cheaper model Peugeots. Now those skewers can be worth far more than the entire surviving bikes on which they may be found.

I always find it fascinating when I encounter an instance like this early type of French problem solving - which once again suggests that French designers and manufacturers acted as if they were coming up with isolated technical problems and solving them uniquely, as if they were totally cut off from the influences of all other foreign technologies.

The classic example of this would be the design of most any vintage Citroen automobiles. Someone had once written that French cars seem to have evolved as if they had developed in a parallel universe, one similar to ours in most every way, but untouched by any influences of the technologies of our own world.

It looks like the OEM 14-15-17-19-21 Atom (Cyclo?) to me.

Those are fabulous-looking bikes, and it is nice to see that someone had the decency to put the bike license sticker on the back of the seat tube, instead of right over the Reynolds sticker.

John, you are corrdct, the 23" appears to have the original Cyclo freewheel and Sedis chain.

Jim