My Fixed Gear conversion project
 

Hey how's it going? I'm Ken, 25 from Boston, MA. I am going to start a fixed gear conversion soon and I wanted a place to document it. I will try my best to update this regularly.

A little background. For the past 2 1/2 years I had a 2005 Cannondale R900 road bike which I loved and pampered, but I guess not enough because it was stolen about 4 months ago. RIP. Luckily it's been winter, but the past four months have been dreadful without a bike. With insufficient funds to buy a similar road bike, I have decided to go fixed. About 8 years ago, my father bought an old Peugeot road bike in NJ from a garage sale, I think for about $25-$50, quite the steal. He has since ridden it twice so I have asked him to take the wheels off and send it to me because I can make better use of it. He lives in Tennessee now, so I'm waiting for the package to arrive. The research I did, the bike looks to be circa 1970-75. From what I remember, it looks something like this image I found on the internet, just not as clean:


http://www-hsc.usc.edu/~rpinder/images/px2.jpg



As I progress with the work, I will post images on here and keep you updated. This will be mostly a weekend project and I hope to have it running in a month.

Is that a px-10?

I am considering making mine fixed. The toughest thing is that I believe it takes a french threaded BB. Neat bicycles though!

I believe it is a PX-10. It was the most common Peugeot road bike of the time and the quality contruction means there's still a lot of them out there. As for the French threading, I'm not sure but as I move along in the project I'm sure I will find out. I will also post any online resources which I use. Research I have used so far is:

http://sheldonbrown.com/fixed-conversion.html
http://sheldonbrown.com/deakins/how-...onversion.html
http://www.fixedgear.co.nz/
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Bicycle...Hub_Conversion
http://bicycling.about.com/od/bikema...ed-Conversion/

And, I will try to use this site to determine the exact year of the bike once I receive it: http://www.classicrendezvous.com/Fra...10_history.htm

Just so you know, Velo Orange makes a French-threaded bb.

Ah, thanx, bookmarked

You might want to bookmark this one too, if you haven't already:

http://sheldonbrown.com/velos.html

Also, get a caliper to confirm or refute your size suspicions. You can get a plastic one at Harboer Freight for about $2 or one that's accurate enough to be useful for about $20.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/pho...7299/47257.gif

I've got '77 Gitane that turned out to have almost entirely standard threading and sizing. Assume nothing.

My $2 caliper has yet to betray me. For precision engineering you want a multi-hundred dollar caliper but for measuring hubs, BB spindles, and other bike stuff like that there is nothing wrong with a cheapo.

Ah yes, it pays to have Engineers as friends...I'll be getting this one loaned to me: http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=138717

I also have the $2 version and use it often. For most purposes it's fine, but when you're trying to figure out if your stem is 22 millimeters or 22..2, a little extra accuracy is nice. Harbor Freight claims their $10 model is accurate to within 0.2 millimeters but claims their $20 model is accurate to within 0.03 millimeters. I have both and can verify that the difference is clear. Of course, the $2 model can be read to within 0.1 millimeters, but I don't know if I would expect that to be an accurate reading.

px10? Pics or it didn't happen.

everybody seems to think that every old Peugeot is a PX10.

Is your dad a communist?

Everybody is wrong except thee and me, and sometimes I think even thee.

The PX10 was Peugeot's top of the line 531 framed racing bike and in good original condition could sell for enough (they are most sought after) that you could get a fine start on another build.

The PX10 is not nearly as common as the UO8 which was their entry level road bike which sold for a fraction of the PX10's price.

It is nice that VO offers a french threaded cartridge bb and I know people who have bought them and are well pleased that there is now a solution to the French threaded bb issue... I want them to make a Raleigh threaded bottom bracket in 68 and 73 mm widths now.

The bike shown has chromed rear stays which were only used on full 531 frames and you can see the 531 fork sticker... not all PX10's had the ornate Nervex lugs and some smooth sided lugs were used.

You can also see the 531 sticker on the down tube which makes me fairly certain the old guy is holding a PX10... the Op's bike might be something completely different so we will await pictures of the real bike.

Identifying Peugeots can be a very difficult task...

It looks like a 1977 PX10LE and in that condition it could easily fetch over $500.

That's not his dad. Read the last sentence of the OP's post.

You guys all seem to be missing this part of the OP's original post:

Not really... we are identifying the bike in the OP and waiting for pictures.

The guy from Tejano knows more about bikes than most of us here so will go with his guess on what the pictured bike is.

I think you missed the sarcasm. Did it really look like a serious question?

Your dad is the oldest hipster ever... his ironic hat and crazy boots are chill as ****.

I almost hopes it turns out to be a UO-8 just so I don't get so harassed for turning a PX-10 into a fixie. I should be receiving it next week some time and will post pics.

The old man in the picture is Ted Ernst, who was once an extremely accomplished track and motorpace racer and has been a fixture in the SoCal track racing scene for decades. He's gone 60 MPH behind a motorcycle, on 50 degree banking, on wooden rims, with no brakes.

Why he's pictured with that piece of **** is beyond me. I assume he was about to throw it out.

:lol:

I guess he appreciated the PX10 for being a really decent machine in it's day... I know a few ex pro racers and national riders and they all have a thing for really nice bikes. One much older fellow used to ride track professionally and raced against the likes of Reg Harris and his daily driver is a gorgeous Cinelli model B from the 1960's although he says he won't ever leave it unattended.

Ernst also owns a shop that sells some high end vintage bikes so perhaps this one was or is for sale.

You could run a PX10 as a fixed gear as lots of riders used to switch their road bikes to fixed for training... but if you strip it down and spray paint it black I will have to sacrifice a kitten to appease the angry bike gods.

:)

Can't wait to see this unfold. Good luck, good sir. :]