jyl

I just bought an old Peugeot bike for my 16 y/o daughter's around-town bicycle.

Pics below. Only decals on the seat tube are the Peugeot logo and a decal saying "cadre allege". Mafac brake levers with black plastic hoods and lever sheaths; Mafac "Racer" brakes; Rigida rims with basket-weave sides; Simplex front dérailleur with black plastic body and a piston mechanism; Simplex rear dérailleur with black plastic body; Simplex black plastic shift levers; a hideous seat which is surey non-original and will be gone within the week; and is that the infamous "death stem" I've read about?

My guess is that it is a mid-1970s UO8. Correct?

Anyway, I have a couple of questions.

First, the front derailleur won't lift the chain to the larger ring. I did adjust all the slack, and then some, out of the cable. Is there a trick to this? Will this derailleur work okay when I learn that trick, or should I go rummage through the used parts bin at the bike co-op for another derailleur?

Second, the brakes don't stop the bike in the rain. I will adjust them and install new pads. Are Koolstops the best?

Third, is it advisable for safety reasons to replace the stem? The bar? She may prefer upright bars anyway, as she isn't a serious bicyclist and this will simply be a school-record store-home ride. Or, I think bullhorns would look nice.

Fourth, it needs fenders, and I think shiny metal ones would look best. Do they make a vintage-appropriate battery headlight that doesn't cost too much? She would love a basket if it doesn't look too goofy. Any suggestions or inspiration pics?

jyl

JayBlurr

Closest bike I found is a 1975-76 Randounneur, France Catalog. Information from here: https://retropeugeot.com/, but they dont have a US catalog for that year to see for sure.

illwafer

probably a 1975 uo8.

1. you need to adjust the limit screw to allow the FD to pull further.
2. steel rims don't stop well period, but new kool stop pads will help.
3. i would leave everything as is and let her ride it first. she'll probably get used to everything with a little practice.
4. don't know about the headlight, but i doubt it. you can make something if you are handy. you might want to spring for a cheap Pletscher rack for the rear ($10) instead.

jimmuller 

Nice-looking bike! I never followed the changing details too closely but that does like mid-70's. The crank and wheels are still steel but the downtube decals aren't early 70's.

Re the front derailleur, first make sure it can actually extend far enough over; it could be limited by cable slack or by the stop screw. Also make sure the plastic body isn't cracked. If it isn't broken and is adjusted okay it should be fine. More likely though, it's a matter of how she rides it. You can't shift the front while cranking hard on the pedals. That's because the front has to shift the part of the chain under tension from pedaling. To shift the front smoothly you have to keep pedaling but do it lightly, perhaps even coasting. Also it is harder to shift the front if the rear is still on the largest cog.

That stem should be fine. I'd suggest letting her get used to the bars before considering a swap.

Kool-Stops will help with stopping but stopping in the rain will be best served by finding some aluminum alloy wheels. Those steel wheels are strong and reliable but stopping while wet was their Achilles heel. Alloy wheels will also be lighter and make the bike more sprightly.

Sorry I can't help with fenders. Velo-Orange has some nice fenders, but it's a matter of preference, weight, and cost. Hint: I've put Bleumels on my UO8 twice and removed them shortly thereafter.

Nice bike!

Sixty Fiver

Looks to be a mid seventies UO8 in beautiful condition... the UE8 came fitted with fenders, lights, generator, and a rack.

The head badge puts it into the 1975 - 1979 age range.

Worthwhile upgrades that can be done as time and funds allow would be to replace the Prestige deraiileurs and shifters with better parts as these are notoriously fragile... a popular replacement during this era was to use Suntour parts which can be acquired quite cheaply and will offer improved performance and greater durability.

If you get a long cage Suntour you can also increase the range in the rear to give a better low gearing and could even install a 6 speed block by adding a 2mm spacer on each side of the axle.

New brake pads will improve the wet braking although the bike will still sound like a stuka dive bomber and finding a nice set of alloy wheels will be the best improvement you can make.

If the stem is an Ava it should be replaced as these are known to have flaws that cause them to break... the stem on a Peugeot is slightly smaller than the standard one inch.

The best fenders for a vintage Peugeot are the aluminium ones that came with the UE8 and with the matching rack you will have one of the most secure and rattle free fenders ever. Barring that you can use off the peg fenders like Planet bike road fenders and will only need washers to adapt the lower struts to fit the bigger Peugeot fender mounts.

jimmuller 

65'er, how do you call that a UE8? Wasn't the frame more or less the same as the UO8, but with fenders and lights?

JayBlurr

I looked even harder and found a 75 Peugeot P10, looks exactly the same but the crank was different, so I'm going to assume you have a 1976 Peugeot P10 because between 75-76 they didn't paint the head tube black in 76, but i cant find any record of a 76 P10 only in the France Catalogs

https://oldtenspeedgallery.com/owner-.../#.TxUIj5ic-gE

Sixty Fiver

Re-read my post... it is a UO8 but I described the UE8 as well.

jyl

JayBlurr, I'd like to think it is a "P" but I'm thinking the lower-end crank with chainring guard, big rear sprockets, pie plate, all rule that out?

Sixty Fiver, I'm not knowledgeable about older Suntour derailleurs. What models would have been appropriate for the period? Or is there a good website on vintage Suntour where I can get educated on what parts to look for?

The bike may photograph nicer than it really is - the paint is all chipped up - but it did clean up easily and looks pretty from 6 feet. Daughter likes the look and the vintage vibe. The last bike that was "her's" was a repro Stingray, after she outgrew that she's been riding a the guest bike, a Dahon folder with little wheels and 6 speeds. So this old Peugeot is going to be a step up.

Going by the shop tommorrow to find a seat. That scary thing has got to go.

Oh, it has the little black plastic satchel with the wrenches. Cute, like doll tools.

habes78023 

Nah, the OP's bike is not a P10, and there are a few differences, like look at the drive side rear dropout difference, P10 is a nicer bike.

I trust Sixty Fiver on this one, ~UO8. Definitely entry level, good bike to start a 16 year old on.

Sixty Fiver

It is a UO8.

V series Suntour are always a good bet as they are solid performers.

jimmuller 

Duhhh...

Go to Velobase.com and do a standard search for rear derailleurs by Suntour, then look for Vx or VGT-Luxe, or even VT-Luxe and similar names.

I was hoping that saddle was how you found it and you meant to replace it.

You got the wrench pouch? Somebody kept all the little pieces!

markk900

definitely a UO-8, mid-70s.....in excellent condition too - great find.

Suntour V rear, and pretty much any of the fronts (Comp-v, SL, etc) will work great. Be aware that Suntour rears need more cable movement than the simplex so the lever will look unnaturally far over in bottom gear - don't worry though....(having said that, the simplex on the bike looks perfect and should work fine for years).....if you change the front to Suntour also realize they work the opposite to the simplex - pull the lever to get to the smaller chain ring....

You are right - seat has got to go!

Mark

jyl

Whew, that's better. My commute bike had a flat this morning, so I rode daughter's bike to work, the better to see what needs to be immediately fixed on it. Well, the answer was pretty (ouch) obvious, so It Was Done.



Tommorrow, brakes.

Sixty Fiver

This is not true of every Suntour front derailleur, although Frank Berto and I would agree that having a reverse pull on the derailleur is the best design ever.

Sixty Fiver

My worry about old Simplex Prestige derailleurs is that although they may be working fine now, their age increased the chances of failure which often happens in the tension pulleys and when these break you might end up sucking the derailleur into the back wheel.

One can replace these tension and guide pulleys with Suntours if you want to keep the classic Simplex and have a little more peace of mind.

jyl

Does that mean, replacing just the pulleys (are they also called "jockeys")? Say, will the pie plate fitted to my daughter's bike prevent the rear dérailleur from reaching the spokes if something does go wrong? I always thought that was its function.

I got the front derailleur shifting properly tonight. Thanks to C&V'ers! The shifters are a bit dinged, so I'll keep my eye out for some tidier ones. But these work fine.

Removed the Mafac Racer brakes, cleaned and lubed and lightly polished them, and reinstalled. Ordering some Kool Stop inserts tommorrow. I gather the "salmon" ones are the best?

There is what seems like a chrome steel shim between the seatpost and seat tube. What is its purpose? Can it be removed to allow the seattube to accept a more common diameter seatpost?

I need to re-wrap the bars. What was the original tape like? Plastic, cork, cloth, or other? What's on there now is some shiny textured black plastic tape, not in good enough shape to re-use.

What type, make, etc of frame pump would have been correct back then? I vaguely recall having, back in the early '70s, a metal pump with holes at both ends for the pump pegs. There was a cloth-covered rubber tube that threaded into one end of the pump, and into the Schraeder valve. This tube stored in the pump shaft, I think.

Oh - here is something rather exciting. My 13 y/o son is outgrowing his bicycle. He likes his sister's "new" bike. My father told me that my old Peugeot, that I rode as a boy, is in the basement of my grandparents' house, in New Jersey. It was a boy's size 10 speed, white, I recall Mafac brakes but everything else is blurry. I'm not sure, but it might fit my son. I need to figure out how to get that bike packed up and shipped out to Oregon.

jimmuller 

You are starting down a slippery slope which leads to more bikes, you know.

Good questions. I toss out answer to a few.

The top pulley which moves the chain from cog to cog is usually called the jockey pulley. The bottom one is the tension pulley. On that style of rear derailleur (RD), as the cage pivots both pulleys actually move to take up or release chain length, but on some derailleurs the the jockey pulley is close to the pivot of the cage so it doesn't move much.

Yes, that "pie plate" is supposed to keep the RD out of the spokes, more because of a mis-adjusted stop screw than from the RD breaking. Still, if it breaks it isn't pretty. (Many people remove that pie plate, usually called a spoke protector except here in BF where it is called a dork disk. Racing bikes didn't have them and every self-respecting BF member wants to like he or she is riding a racing bike! )

The shim between seat tube (ST) and seat post (SP) is to match their sizes, something Peugeot did so they could use that steel SP for lower cost. You can certainly remove it if you can find the proper size SP. My memory says 26.0mm but I could me grossly wrong. Check the Sheldon Brown website and measure the inner diameter of your ST. SP sizes were all over the map and finding the right one can be hard.

The original bar tape was shiny plastic. You can probably find replacement but IMHO cloth tape is more comfortable. Many people prefer cork or whatever. There is no reason to use the original unless you are trying to keep the bike looking like showroom condition.

The original pump was as you describe but they are hard to find now and weren't as good as modern pumps. The tricky part is finding anything that fits in the pump pegs.

jyl

More bikes . . . We are a family of four with now seven bikes, which my wife is tolerating. Two kids' bikes will be sold soon as they've been, or are soon to be, outgrown. There's my 992 project which will take us back to six. I figure there's "room" for one more, before I have to break new ground in the marital negotiations. I think she's relieved that this is, she'd call it, a mid-life crisis that doesn't involve big bucks or blondes.

Sixty Fiver

The steel shim allows for a steel post and reduces the amount of finishing needed for the inside of the seat tube... if you were to replace it you may find you will need to clean up the inside of seat post in the lugged area as they can be pretty rough.

The shim also keeps the seat post from seizing which may have not been the original intent but was something Peugeot and others used for many decades.

anixi

Won't the OP have trouble fitting 28.6mm clamp on the seat tube? I thought that Uxx, and all Peugeots FTM, had thinner STs? I know I'll have trouble that way on my PX-10 project...

anixi

That would be cool if it fits!

Sixty Fiver

Have not had many issues with older front derailleurs on Peugots... if fitting is an issue you just need to make a thin shim to keep things secure.

michael k

Thats a nice one!

I havea set of white 'Bluemels lightweights' fenders if interested.Very similair to these.