ive got a old Peugeot frame and the cottered cranks...chainrings and axel/bb have to come out.

They are beyond use.

Can these be replaced with a more modern type axel/bb?

ive read sheldons site and this is definately going to need the torch method....to remove

You may wish to just buy another Peugeot, use the one you have for parts.
I'm not kidding.

+1 You now have a donor bike. Start looking for a replacement.

well this is just a frame and fork

should i consider it junk?

WIll any other bottom bracket setup work in the shell? It is a very nice looking FF setup

If it's got cottered cranks, it's old enough to have french threading, and there lies your real problem with upgrades. French threaded square taper BB's are uncommon. VO sells them when they're in stock, and a Phil Wood with french rings are your only new options. eBay is also an option, just watch out for the correct taper.
-Gene-

+1 Can you say French threading? Big challenge, not worth the effort. Better to strip any/all remaining parts, sell the fork and frame, and move on.

If the cups are okay you can replace the cottered axle with a #5 spindle and then use modern cranks.

A new spindle costs about $6.00 and the price of cranks can vary a great deal... I found a Peugot branded SR crank set at the bike coop and now run a Sugino steel chain ring.

Oh yeah... some of us think old Pugs are worth saving as they have a special place in our hearts and homes.

+1!

This is a '74 Peugeot UO8 with the original French cups, a 118mm Stronglight spindle from eBay (around $18) and a Stringlight 49D crankset from my parts box. I needed a 2mm spacer under the fixed cup to align the chainline so a 120mm spindle would probably be better for this combination.

ya id really like to get this one apart and back together with something more modern if possible. THe cranks and chainrings on it now are toast. There is nothing left to strip as it is already bare...

Ive got an extra wheelset here along with bars/stem. Heck at best i could make a SS out of it.

This looks to be just like my frame although mine is white. Same decal setup though. I dont know what model or year. I see nothing on the frame that indicates that information. I think it is a very sharp looking bike. IM curious to get the crank arms off and have a look at the cups. If i can find a spindle that will work...im all for that. It should make a nifty SS to rip around on this spring.

NICE BIKE btw!!!

Here's what I did with mine...

I kept the cottered crank on this one:




You can use any crank you want to if you can find the right spindle. That's the hard part.



An Edco cartridge bottom bracket made this possible:

that is one sharp looking bike right there.....

i like it.

im afraid that my cotters are hosed up and mushroomed.....and the chainring appears bent so the whole thing has to come apart for replacement. I hope the cups are still good. My bet is that they are fine.

Really there are many ways to do this. Spindles can be found for a variety of combinations. The issue is that the French bottom bracket is 68mm but the original cups are thin walled so you either need a French spindle made for this combination or a Spindle made for a 70mm Italian bottom bracket with normal thick walled cups. Probably one thing you need to keep in mind is that the spindle taper is different between the old French style (ISO) and the newer Japanese style (JIS) so you have to pick the spindle appropriate to the type of crank you want to use.

French-size cotters are avilable at Harris Cyclery and other places. The Simplex adapters and new Simplex steel chainrings are on eBay right now.

The original 118mm Stronglight spindle from the PX10 above is made for thin cups and can be used with the cups for a cottered crank to convert to cotterless. Those spindles show up on eBay fairly frequently.

The one thing we aren't mentioning is that bikes like the "lowly" UO8 are really nice bikes to ride...their geometry makes for a very comfortable ride.

And they are pretty.

My old Pug isn't a UO8... she's a little stiffer and quicker in the handling department which is great when we are playing in traffic.

My white PA10 above shares the same tubing and similar geometry with a UO8. It's a much more stable and comfortable ride than my PX10. The weight difference doesn't make much difference most of the time.

well i got the cranks out of the bike and the cups look good.

I had to cut the spinde to get the crank arms off. I was afraid to hammer any more on the cotters. They were all mushroomed and destroyed before i even started and had no intension of budging.

How do i tell what spinde to put back in? Should i start by sourcing a 120mm unit and see how that turns out?

so ....find a french spindle that is compatible with thin walled (stock) cups or get a new thick walled cupset and 70mm spindle? Do they make french threaded thick walled sets for this type of setup?

How do i tell if i have thick or thin walled cups to begin with?

I think all the Peugeots from that period, at least all the low end models with cottered cranks, used thin walled cups. As to which spindle, it depends. As I mentioned earlier, different cranks take spindles with different tapers. The cheapest route would almost certainly be to go Japanese in which case get the Japanese crank of your choosing and search eBay for a #5 spindle and you should be good to go. If, like me, you prefer to keep with the French theme, then locate the crank of your choosing like a Stronlight, Nervar or TA and then find a matching spindle on eBay. Here's where it get's a little sticky - as far as I know the spindles aren't marked in any way to indicate French or Italian or British or whatever. I don't even know if there were such things. In fact since the cups had to be different to accomodate different bottom bracket shells it seems it would have been easier to make the cups different thicknesses and use the same spindle for all of them (i.e. - thin cups for 68mm shells and thick cups for 70mm shells) but I have no idea if that was done. At any rate, I just ordered the first Stronglight 118mm spindle that came up on eBay and it worked except for requiring the afore mentioned 2mm spacer. They are fairly cheap so I'd say find one, spend the $20 or so and give it a try. You can always put it back on eBay if it doesn't work out. The spindle length might vary depending on what crank you using too so I can't guaranty that 120mm will be correct. It would work for the combination of a UO8, a Stronglight 49D crank and a Stronglight spindle. Making an old French bike work the way you want will probably take a bit of trial and error. Bon chance mon ami!

Hehe...normally I'd be chastizing you for putting a Japanese crank on a French bike but that worked out rather well I think. Nice job.

You cannot use a 70mm spindle with thick walled cups. You use a 70mm spindle with thin walled cups which is what you have.

The top of the line Stronglight Competition also had thinwall cups. That's why that spindle will work with your cups.

Heh...

My '72 Twenty folder has a Stronglight (model 90) crank that I was able to install after I re-tapped the bb threads and installed a Shimao cartridge bb.

If I replace the 20's crank the Stronglight will go on my ugly little Pug.

how is the taper expressed. Is usually somthing like 9/16 20 or somthing like that?

Im watching a couple of stronglight auctions now. There is a Stronglight TS crank set up there now. I wonder if that would work. It is stamped 9/16 20