gwhunter

Excuse the dirt, but I just brought it home. I'm not up to speed with French bikes so any help is appreciated It's been repainted by CyclArt , also has Super Vitus on the BB. What do you guys think ?

icemonkey

I dont know anything about French Bikes but I know what I like... Terrific find.

Drummerboy1975

It looks to be a higher end Peugeot, I love it!

devinfan

Looks beautiful. the tubing si probably SV 980 or 983, so it whould have a really nice ride. You're going to love the crank - the Pro V is one of my favourites. I'm really surprised that RD can handle those chainrings though...

David Newton

So the 531 stickers are bogus?
Neat bike.

SteveSGP

Great looking bike, should clean up beautifully.

gwhunter

That was going to be my next response

Force 

Nice components - crank and dt shifters especially. Good work.

Chombi

This one's a little puzzling. What's interesting is, the fork seems to be of 1984/85 vintage but for some reason some of the features on this SV frame makes it look older than that, like the traditional non-fastback seat stays,It was the pre-84 PSV that had the non fastback stays....but the double bottle mounts seem to say this is an 85 or newer. The long point windowed lugs is unusual to Peugeot, especailly to SV980 frames. I don't remember them ever having windowed lugs on the PSVs. The BB shell is also different from the plainer/nicer than the one on my 84 PSV.
I always thought that the PSV was their highest 80's model with the SV980 tubing, but this one seems to be a level up, specially with the chrome on the rear triangle. Could it be a special made frame for a racer??.......also could be a high end Euro only SV980 framed model too.
Not really liking that plainish bleu paint on it. I would have done a classic 80's Peugeot metallic Pearl white on it with the traditional black and white racing checker decals from Peugeot if it were my bike (No color banding). But it's still an awesome frame!

Congratulations on the Mystery Peugeot aquisition!
Please do tell us if you find out what it is exactly.

Chombi

big_heineken

I saw that bike this morning and immediately wanted it. It looked like a good deal. It looks late 70s to early 80s to my untrained eyes. How much does it weigh?

gwhunter

Not quite sure as I don't have a scale but if I had to guess I'd say 22lbs.

JohnDThompson 

Not sure if they're bogus, but the fact that the fork blades have Special Lightweight decals and the frame has standard 531 suggests one or the other might be incorrect.

And yes, they're obviously not original since they're in English and the frame had a Cycle Art paint job.

Grand Bois

It's Cyclart.

noglider 

It's painted by Cyclart, so it could be anything. If Cyclart has (had?) integrity, they would not have put Peugeot and Reynolds decals on if it weren't a Reynolds Peugeot. But they might have been applied by the bike owner after Cyclart painted it. So this bike could be anything. It might not be a Peugeot, and it might not be made of Reynolds.

gwhunter

Well the Reynolds decal is clear coated exactally like the other decals Cyclart put on the bike, also the seat stays are Peugeot pantographed, just didn't show up in the pics I posted. It has a 27.2 seat post so that's another clue to maybe Reynolds ? I have to say it's strange, but definitely a Peugeot.

Chombi

Peugeot SV980 frames usually take 26.4 seatposts. So this is pointing to Vitus lugs and BB shell for non-metric tubing with Simplex dropouts.
IIRC, Peugeot did have 531 frames, but they were the older ones with the single bottle mounts that come to mind.I don't remember the fancy lugs and BB either on them. I still think that this could be a special build, unless it's a Euro only special from Peugeot.

Chombi

gaucho777 

^It's possible a second set of bottle mounts were added when the CycleArt repaint was done.

miamijim

Not a Peugeot?

Peugeot built frames with 531 through 1996. I'll do more research on this bike tomorrow but the cutout on the DT lug and the seatstay attachament do NOT look Peugeot.

Grand Bois

It doesn't look like any Peugeot I've ever seen, but I don't think that Cyclart would be willing to put their logo on anything bogus. They might be willing to provide more information from their records. I wouldn't be surprised if they charged you for the service.

gwhunter

Yeah after more daylight viewing and cleaning the seat post is a 26.8 and not 27.2 like I had previously posted.

miamijim

For arguements sake lets say it is Super Vitus tubing, Peugeots Super Vitus bikes didnt have those lug cutouts, BB shell, serial number format or seat stay attachment method. I think it's a mystery frame, albiet a nice mysetery frame with a Peugeot fork and Peugeot mix-n-match decals. On top of that the Reynolds DT decal is a mis-match for the fork decal.

Chombi

Gitanes had cut outs on the lugs of their 80's SV tubed frames......My brother's SV 983 tubed Gitane Criterium even had nice. little diamond shaped reinforcements on his rear brake bridge. My PSV's frame looked downright plain compared to his Criterium.....but my SV 980 frame was lighter..
Notice that this bike has an interesting hour glass shaped lower stay bridge. Peugeot owners can only dream of such nice details

catmandew52

Frankenbike?

gwhunter

So I guess you guys think that somebody would have gone out and pieced a bike together some "Peugeot" pantograghed seat stays, and "drilled" Simplex drops, just to make it look like a Peugeot ?? I think its the real deal just not one that common. Here are some more pics of some of it's features. For what it's worth the guy that sold it to me listed it as an 800 series ?? I only wish it was a 58cm

Chombi

The more I see the details, the more it looks like a special build from Peugeot. Team bike? Production prototype? A special order from a company executive?
The drilled Simplex rear DO is not a common thing to see either.
BTW. that ancient looking TA crank looks lost on the bike...... Consider maybe a Stronglight/Spidel 106 or 107 on it instead as it looks like the bike once wore a full Spidel group.
That blue paint still bugs me. Surprised Cycle Art did not seem to to have tried to complement the details on the frame as they seem to have just painted over a lot of it with the blue.

Chombi