Peugot ID help
 

Hi, I'm a newbie here, hoping for help in identifying the model and year of a Peugot I adopted. It's ORANGE! 20 or 21 inch plain steel frame with cutout lugs on the headtube, cable stops welded to the frame and chrome lower legs on the fork. Component wise it has Simplex Prestige derailers, Mafac Racer brakes, Rigida steel rims, Normandy high flange hubs, M.M. Atom QR skewers, AVA stem and steel handlebar. The original saddle is gone, please suggest an appropriate replacement. The shift levers mount on the frame. The lever for the rear mounts on a boss welded to the frame. the front lever mounts on a band that is cutout and fits around the welded boss. Seems odd to me, but it is French! Thanks for the help.

Bill

Sounds like a seventies UO-8. Probably around 1973 or so. If the lugs are cut in a kind of art deco step design, definitely; the shifter boss is another giveaway. Probably came original with an ADGA leather saddle.

They make nice fixed gears. Get rid of the steel rims if you plan to ride the bike; they do horrible things to your braking, esp. in the wet weather. I just set one up as a fixed gear myself, around the same vintage. A fun beater bike.

Thanks! I spent much of the weekend tinkering with it. It does have the "stepped windows" in the headtube lugs. As I polished the rims I noticed a 73 stamped in a diamond on both rims. A date stamp?
My plan is to fix up the bike in the spirit of preservation but not to restore it in every detail. One of the Mafac lever housings is broken at a corner. I'll replace both with Weinmann types til I find another Mafac. It turns out the rear QR skewer is Simplex, not Atom. The front skewer is an Asian replacement, so I'll be looking for a Simplex front skewer. I have some blue cloth tape for the handlebar, I think it will look nice with the orange frame.
Wheels, derailers, cranks, chain and bar are in place as are new cables. I am polishing up the Mafac calipers and have NOS Mafac pads. I've been using Clorox Soft Scrub to polish the chrome and aluminum. It's a lot like Noxon metal polish! The paint is not cleaning up as I'd hoped, but I don't want to damage the decals with polishing compound.
The Rigida rims are going to stay as I'll ride my other, larger bikes far more often. It'll be handy to have the Peugeot for "bicycle dates" on the local rail trail.
I'll post or link to a photo when I have it finished.
I've never ridden a fixed gear. Perhaps for my next project...
Thanks again for the help.

UO-8s have enough tyre clearance to accommodate 27x1-3/8" knobbies, for cyclocross use. :)

I bought a Peugeot Sport 10 speed road bike that I saw at a garage sale. It looked like it had decent quality and I needed a bike that I can ride in the winter that I don't care if it gets messed up. I paid $25 for it. Last winter I road my mtb and paid $50 for a new front derailure and chain after they rusted up.

The only thing that concerns me is the tires. They say 28x630. Anyone ever heard of that? The bike says it was made in France right on it and has a 103 frame (steel I believe). Anyone know anything about these bikes?

Mark

These tires, even though not the most common today are still quite available 27 x 1 1/8" tires. One of the sources is: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/tires/630.html. The bikes are steel, often seen on ebay (as well as "spare parts" for them). Looked down upon by the collectors, but there is nothing wrong with these bikes if you want to ride them (unlike the collectors sho look at their bikes), just keep it clean adjusted and lubricated and they'll outlast lot of the current lower end bikes. They can also be upgraded with current components, if you cannot find old replacement parts, even though this can get spendy.

"They can also be upgraded with current components, if you cannot find old replacement parts, even though this can get spendy."

markm, your Peugeot is likely French threaded in the bottom bracket and headset (BB may be swiss, according to John E, but I have three bikes of like vintage, judging by the decals, and they're all French). This makes replacing those parts with current parts tricky at best, though there are some fixes for most any problem. You can shift over to a more current crank, for example; but you'll likely either need to replace the BB cups with thicker walled Japanese made French threaded cups or use an Italian spindle.

Keep the parts lubed and maintained, tho, and they will last. I've got a couple of similar Peugeots I use as all purpose beaters, and they are tanks.

I see a very old type cotter pin crank on this bike. Look also at the big chromium disk behind the freewheel and the levers poulet on the bars. This is a very inexpensive Peugeot. It also rides on odd American size rims and tires. If you paid $25US for it, you paid about what it is worth, maybe more.