My first Peugeot! (Finished!!!)
 

Hello everyone! New to the forums here. Seemed like a great place for some info. Now onto the bike...

So I picked this 1975 Peugeot U08 up today for 30 bucks. Been neglected for the last 25 or so years they said, but it seemed restorable so I took it home.

I guess my first question is, Should I try and rebuild the plastic/metal Simplex derailleur or is there something better that i could replace it with that is budget friendly? There isn't any tension and a couple of the teeth are missing from the little guide wheels on it.

Here's some pics of the bike.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=195356http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=195357http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=195358http://www.bikeforums.net/images/misc/pencil.png

Replace it with something better. That would be just about anything.

The Derailleur? or the whole bike?...


Welcome to the forum, Xand. Good project bike. Use the search engine here on the forum. I've found it to be pretty helpful. You will get some good advice here as well.

I don't know if it is the weather warming up or what, but some people seem to be getting a little snippy. The uo-8 is a perfectly fine bike, but those plastic derailleurs are crap if they are even a little cracked they are prone to fail. if you go on Ebay you can get a quite nice set of better derailleurs for not much money. if you do a google search on bikeforum vintage derailleurs you can make a pretty educated decision about what the people here like for a great price.

:lol::lol::lol::lol::roflmao2::roflmao2::roflmao2:

:roflmao:

Vintage Suntour derailleurs, like the X GT Luxe, are a good choice for a replacement.

Great bike for that money, service it and upgrade the derailleurs and you have a really nice ride there.

Yup -- Shimano Titlist in front, SunTour Cyclone II in back, w/ those wonderful SunTour ratchet barcons.

I resemble that remark ... :)

Actually, in my opinion, the Simplex derailleurs are just fine, and work well. However, they are prone to catastrophic failure, the front one breaking in half and, often times, feeding itself into the crank rings. Messy.

The recommendation to go to a Suntour transmission is a good one.

Since you are new to the interest of vintage bicycle ownership, you might also be interested in spending a bit of time at a website aimed at helping people find and street restore old bikes. Please feel free to visit, MY "TEN SPEEDS" and, perhaps, save yourself some money and effort as you build up that nice old Peugeot.

Hope this is a help.

Thanks for the advice fellas. :thumb:

I just got done tearing through the hubs, and both are toast. Thinking the bottom bracket and headset will need to be replaced as well.

Not sure if I want to keep the wheels and get new hubs, or just get a new wheelset.... never built a wheel before let alone trued one, but I guess theres a first for everything. If worse comes to worse, there's always the LBS.

the good ole chromed steel ones? In my opinion I would get a new wheel set. and I feel your pain, my first Peugeot was a pl-8 that is still sitting in the corner with the non drive side crank arm half drilled out because I couldn't figure out how to get the cotters out.

I like the color.

If the races in the bottom bracket aren't pitted it should be fine, the bike looks fairly clean so you might be good there unless you're just looking to save some weight

FORDSVTPARTS said if the BB races aren't too bad you can probably re-use the BB. The same might go for the hubs. It depends on why you think they are toast. If they are just cruddy and the grease is dried, maybe the races will clean up okay. If they are pitted then probably not. But chuck them unless you are sure they aren't salvageable.

Nice bike. Should be a good rider.

Well, the bearings on one side of the front hub are a little pitted along with the race, but the other side of that hub is fine. I guess I can grease em up and try it out. Although I'd have to find a new nut for the axle, it cracked and part of it just fell off. From what I've read and it being french threads and all, i'd probably have to special order such a thing. Here's a pic

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=195386

As far as the back goes, they are a little pitted as well. The cassette/freewheel sounds crunchy as hell, but I have no idea of how to take that off of the hub to clean it. The actual cassette rings have a lot of surface rust and would need a good sandblasting or wire wheeling to get that off.

I could try to grease up the bearings and see if it will work, but I'm 6'5" and 230lbs, not sure how long they'd last under the stress my body would put on them. That's why I figured I'd just toss em.

The UO8 is a nice bike when you address it's short comings like the Simplex derailleurs and the steel wheels and once you do that you will have a fine riding and very comfortable bicycle that is of a reasonable weight.

There is an entire thread devoted to the lowly UO8 and it's siblings.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ation-thread.?

they make a sealed bottom bracket with french threading http://www.speedgoat.com/Catalog.aspx/Browse?Prod=21254 might be something to look into. and then you can nix those dang cottered cranks. Also the way I see it, even if you sink this cash into the uo-8 if at some point you move up to the px-10 you can transfer most of this stuff over.

Velo Orange also sells a French threaded cartridge bottom bracket that has received very good reviews.

Your hubs are bad, you have galvanized spokes and steel rims. You should get a replacement wheelset. It will be cheaper that rebuilding what you have and it will be a huge improvement.

What do you guys recommend for a wheel set that's really budget friendly? And where can I get a new cassette for the new/used wheels?

Harris Cyclery sells 27" Sun M-13 with sealed bearings that are purportedly a good choice , (if you can't locate some nice old alloy Weinmanns, Arayas, or Mavics in good condition). They're 126 O.L.D. but you can generally fit them in with a little effort.

5-spd & 6 spd HG Freewheels are available economically at Niagara cycle. They have the best prices on the expendables you'll need too, such as housing, cables etc)

The Peugeot U08 is a nice riding bike if you take the minimal steps needed to upgrade it. (Wheels and DRs)
Even the rear DR is pretty good - if you replace the jockey wheels (the most frangible part). The front though is junk.

You have a very worthy project at a good price there - and a great color too.

Wheels, derailleurs, bottom bracket, cables, tires, saddle, tape..... Careful - you've got a real money pit on your hands if you have to buy everything retail. And that bb is cottered, so if you replace it (and you should, IMO) you'll need a new crank, too.

There's nothing minimal about this particular one - you've bit off a whole lot to chew. Take no half measures here. The first thing you need to do is to strip this one down to the frame, and assess what's what and calculate the cost of restoring it to serviceability.

Yeah, this isn't a minimal project at all. Lot's of stuff to be worked through. And I'm working on stripping it down to the frame, piece by piece. The only two roadblocks in my path right now are:

1) The stem seems to be rusted into the tube it slides down into. I spprayed some wd-40 around the base of it, hopefully it loosens up.

2) The crank arm bolts on both sides aren't budging at all. Tried giving them a nice tap to punch them out the other side, but no movement. Not sure what's going on here. Any tips on how to knock it loose?