Road Fan

Exactly my view on these!

Plus, I think nearly anything will shift well with a Hyperglide or Sachs Maillard freewheel.

unterhausen

I can't think of how many hours of my life have been wasted in frustration over Simplex derailleurs. The rear in good shape isn't too bad, the front was a disaster. But it seems that very few of the rear derailleurs I was paid to work on were in good shape. Comparing a plastic Simplex to a Campagnolo NR back in the day would have resulted in peals of laughter from me.

Batman_3000

On yer bike son, that Simplex delrin stuff is as good as it comes. If you're worried about the front clanger, swap it some cheapo junk like Campagnolo. It ain't because it's delrin that it's useless. Unless you're a tree hugger and only want "natural" materials.

Zaphod Beeblebrox 

when they start making derailleurs out of soy and hemp, give me a call

cycleheimer

Many people back in the 1970s were impressed by the decals and appearance of the UO8. If they knew any better, however, they went for the Fuji S-10-S Special Road Racer. As for those plastic Simplex shifters! What were they thinking? Anyway, many of the people who bought the UO8 never road them, so at least they had something really cool looking sitting in their garage or basement.

Trakhak

No argument about what Simplex referred to as their Miracle Delrin derailleurs. Or about the cosmetics of Peugeots. But -

When I had a veteran custom framebuilder check the alignment on a late '60s Peugeot track bike (admittedly a high-end bike, Campy Record and so on), he shook his head and said, "It doesn't look like much, but for a production frame, this is about as straight and true as I've ever measured."

miamijim

Considering the overall condition of old Peugeots compared everything else out there of a similar price I'd have to say your assesment is off. Way off.

Kommisar89

I can't complain about the quality of my UO8 - sure the it's not art work, the brazing work isn't the best, the paint is orange peely and they oversprayed the chrome on the crown but the frame hasn't come apart at the lugs yet, the paint is still on there 35 years later and the chrome is still shiny with no rust. It tracks straight and true, rides comfortably, steers a little slow. The Simplex Prestige rear derailleur shifts flawlessly over a Shimano UG twist tooth freewheel. The front is still working perfectly well shifting on 52/42 front rings. It has only one minor issue that I caused - I snapped off the head of the bolt that holds the cage on the rod while making sure it was tight. Still holds firm though so it'll stay until it causes a problem. I'll agree with T-Mar about the plastic shifters though. I have a set of aluminum ones ready to go on but I don't want to mess with the cables right now. It was a nice bike for the money at the time.

Zaphod Beeblebrox 

perhaps I spoke with too broad a statement.. What I said applies 100% to the one I'm working on....but its the only Pug I've touched, so I can hardly speak for the lot.

As far as price... well I rarely think of vintage bikes based on what they cost new in 1970-whatever...its ancient history now ...to me its a frame and its components....a poorly painted (albeit not poorly built) lugged steel frame that is much lighter than most gas pipe frames, and a pile of half-plastic components that have seen better days


That said, its nice to know that this particular P0S isn't necessarily representative of the entire brand.

soonerbills

Your feelings on the Pug UO-8 surely must not be indicative of a general public consensus as every UO-8 frame and component I ever offered up for sale went out the window with extreme speed.
Maybe your particular bike was built on a bad day?

Road Fan

The point about price is to know where it stood in its day, not to give insight about present worth.

Zaphod Beeblebrox 

I understand it was good value for money in its time. And i'm sure if the drivetrain were in good shape still good value for money today as well.

If my options were that or a Varsity for the same money, I can see where the advantages are.

T-Mar

I can fully appreciate the diverse opinions on Peugeot workmanship. You're all correct. To re-iterate what I stated earlier, the key word when in describing boom era, Peugeot workmanship is inconsistent.

Road Fan

The other prominent options, at least in Chicago, were a Raleigh Gran Prix, a different French entry-level bike, or an Italian entry-level bike such as an Atala or a Fiorelli. Also a Continental.

USAZorro

Has anyone else had issues with old Simplex plastic rd jockey wheels disintegrating? I had a run of bad luck with a few several years ago, and the owner of the LBS I frequented had experienced the same thing. He theorized that after 25+ years, the plastic had become brittle. Not a knock on designers/manufacturers, because seriously, who thought back then that the parts would still be used after all that time? - but something to consider when making an older bicycle ready for the road. My interests in bicycles and luck of the draw has steered me clear of this specific issue for several years now, but is perhaps one more consideration to keep in mind.

p.s. - SunTour jockey wheels fit, and I've not experienced this problem with them, ever.

Zaphod Beeblebrox 

Thats a really good point. Especially on an entry level bike.

TejanoTrackie 

Don't forget about a little thing called inflation. For example, I paid *only* $85 for a new UO8 in 1967, however, in today's inflated dollars it would be about $550. I believe that today for that amount of money one can find better quality bicycles than the UO8 or other low end European bicycles of that era. For example, the following steel framed road bike is on sale for $550 >>>>>

https://bikemart.com/nobots/zoom/item...fm?libid=51656

https://bikemart.com/product/specs/09...riple-4734.htm

We can thank manufacturing having moved to China and other Asian countries for this. The Europeans were really great at hand crafting premium quality bicycles, but pretty lousy with the low end stuff.

T-Mar

Yes and not just Simplex, though Simplex is more prone. No doubt, age and brittleness play a significant role, But I've also found it is usually the jockey pulley which fails, indicating that the lateral loads of the shift play a big factor. Typically, the failures are more prevalent with riders who never learned to soft pedal during a shift. In the case of Simplex, I believe the problem is compounded by the flexy shift levers which cause the lateral load to sustained for a much longer period before the shift is executed.

RobbieTunes

"Forget the danger. Think of the fun."
. -Fabulous Thunderbirds

big chainring 

I think the worksmanship is darn good on the entry level bikes of the boom era. It was all hand done, multi-color, with chrome fork ends, etc. Sure there are mistakes and sloppiness here and there, but the bikes were built one by one, painted and hand detailed. The Made in Japan bikes everyone is so fond of were robotic built and painted. The paint and finish are exceptional but not hand done like the boom era.

Grand Bois

My pushrod Simplex worked just fine, but I replaced it with a parallelogram derailer anyway. I don't notice any improvement. The parallelogram raises the cage no more than 1/8" on the upshift. I'm not convinced that it makes any difference at all.

unterhausen

I really don't think this is the case. They just had their processes better controlled, and when i say that I mean the workers weren't as drunk. There were some Japanese bikes that didn't have a traditional brazed construction, but most were built by hand.

John E

My 1970 UO-8's craftsmanship is not bad at all for a cheap bike, but that of my son's 1980 PKN-10 is a disgrace for a mid-to-higher end bike.

Grand Bois

I read that the lugged Fujis with Val-Lite tubing were brazed by robots and that the tubing was developed for that purpose.

I read it on the Internet, so it must be true.

big chainring 

Most were done with robotic brazing. Paint finishing was all automated. Back in the euro-boom era the bikes were done on an assembly line, but all work was by human hand. By the late 70's Schwinn, Raleigh, and all the others production moved to Japan because no one could compete with the production techniques and inexpensive production of the Japaneese. I dont care for the Japan built bikes for the simple reason that they were not handbuilt. Nice bikes but they tend to all blend into a bland sameness. And a lot of them were the same bike badged for makers. Panasonics often times had "S" Schwinn bolts on them because they were the same bikes as Schwinns with a different set of decals.