flowandfiction

So I found and old Peugot for $35 and decided to convert it to SS. I went to a LBS to get new wheels, and asked for a Surly flip flop, and the guy there told me that he could get Surlys, but Suzue's were nicer. So I believed him. After reading here, it seems many of you disagree. I allready have the wheels laced up, so I don't think I can exchange them.

Please add to or correct the following:
- I need to get eai/durace cogs and lockrings
-Repack the bearings- anyone have a tutorial? (There is a substanstial amount of maroon grease oozing from under the inner ring of the bearing-- maybe the shop repacked allready?)


It looks like I'll have to put about 1/2 in. of spacers between the chainring and crank to get the chain in line, due to the narrow the length between the flanges. How big of a problem is that?

And finally, after repacking the front hub, will it be fairly compareable to midgrade parts, or is it an entry level piece of junk?

Thanks
-Travis

trackasaurus

entry level front hubs are no big deal as long as they're adjusted just right. it's the rear hub to worry about. i would say, nix the chainring spacers and go with a shorter bb spindle. chainring spacers give more room for play and bolt loosening. depending which year your peugeot is, the bb may be french thread, which shouldn't be too much of a problem as older shops often have a ton of this stuff lying around in old bins.

flowandfiction

Can I replace the only the spindle, and keep the same bb?
I've never done anything with bbs, am I better off paying someone to do this work?

Poguemahone

"Can I replace the only the spindle, and keep the same bb? "

Depends. The problems may mount, and work like this is best done by someone with experience with older French frames. Not knowing the vintage of your Peugeot, I can't tell if the bottom bracket is French, Swiss, or English, all three of which were used by Peugeot at various times. With a picture of your ride I could hazard a fairly accurate guess.

With new spindles, one issue may be the sizing of the spindle. Older Euro BB cups, like those on Peugeots into the eighties, were thinner walled and will not accept many Japanese made BB spindles, unless you get one made for Italian Bottom Brackets. Either Sakae or Sugino makes these, I can't recall off the top of my head. There is also the difference between JIS and Euro spindles, which can make crank mounting problematic at times if you are mixing a Euro crank and a JIS spindle, or vice versa. Most of this is irrelevant if your bike is threaded English in the BB; you can just switch out cups or easily switch to a sealed BB.

If I had the bike in front of me, I could probably tell you exactly what to do. But failing that, there are simply enough confusing variables in these matters to make consulting a third party a must. Interrogate your LBS about their experience with older bikes, in particular French ones, which have some quirks. Post a picture, I may be able to date it and give you further advice.

flowandfiction

https://www.bikeforums.net/attachment...chmentid=16393 This frame looks like it could be the same one I have, mine is black.
Sticker on seat tube says "CADRE ALLEGE"
BB definently needs some work, I could just drop about 90$ for new cranks and all. Anyone need their lawn mowed or car washed? How about some lemonade?

Poguemahone

That's a UO8. That period is definitely French threaded. Do your decals match the ones on the pictured bike? Is the frame lugged with cottered cranks? Hard to tell w/o seeing it if it's stock or not; I've seen them pretty reworked, and some higher end models somewhat resemble the pictured bike. Check the rear dropouts; if there is an integral derailleur hanger, it's a higher-end model.

Last UO8 I converted to fixie I did the following:
Took off cottered crankset (A tedious task).
Replaced BB cups with thicker walled, Japanese made, french threaded cups, and converted to a Sakae crankset, with a JIS spindle.

French BB cups tend to be on tight, and it's best to have the right tools when removing and installing them, as the fixed cup can work loose if not properly tightened. The Var 30 tool is the best option; I've found this can crank the cup on so tight you don't need loctitie to keep the fixed cup from working loose. If at all possible, don't remove the cup, find an old euro crank and spindle (Stronglights are nice), and use that.

Again, it's hard to know exactly what your bike needs. I've worked on enough old Peugeots to be humbled by the greatness that is French engineering several times. As stated, I've also seen them solidly reworked component-wise from the original stock. I'd need to see at least a picture or two of the actual bike to make any accurate suggestions.

You can find new (used) cranks/spindle for less than 90$, with some patience.

bostontrevor

Man, I would chuck the entire BB and crankset just because it's such a PITA. Go with a sealed bearing BB and be done. Now you can service it without being a third level black belt.

Suzue does make a nicer hub, the Suzue Pro Max. It will be stamped as such and will also have fun holograam stickers on it. For this reason you'll often find it referred to as the disco hub. If you don't have a Pro Max, you have the Suzue basic or Suzue junior (nobody seems to know what the proper name of this model is or if there even is one). Unlike the Pro Max (which has cartridge bearings), it has cup & cone construction. This is all kinds of suck, frankly. If your bearings aren't properly tightene, they will have all sorts of play. Likewise, they may be overly influenced by how hard you tighten your nuts. Since the bearings aren't sealed, you'll have to repack them periodically. And so on.

The Surly is a better choice than the Suzue jr. but not as nice as the disco.

flowandfiction

The frame doesn't have a derailleur hanger. The decals seem to match the picture. Frame is lugged, 3 piece crank.
I'm bringing the bike into the shop later today, hopefully I will ride it home (with a fair amount of cash left.) I am a bit mad at the shop for saying that Suzue basic is better than Surly, but maybe they allready did the initial repacking, as there is grease of various colors coming out from around the bearings.

Thanks for the help

To make sure I have my terminology stright, repacking is just cleaning and regreasing the bearing area, correct? How do I get the bearing cover off?

Poguemahone

"Go with a sealed bearing BB and be done."

Not easily done with French threads in the BB, although there are several fixes for this. They range from retapping the thread to Italian, or using Phil Wood BB mounting rings and a shimano UN72 or a Phil BB, or using BB made for BB shells with stripped thread, available at biketoolsetc.com. There might be other methods I am unaware of.

Does your crank have cotter pins? If it doesn't, it's been rebuilt. Again, without seeing the bike it's hard for me to tell you the options, and frankly, I'm not sure I trust your shop, but then, I don't trust any shop.

Some basic help on French stuff is here:
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/velos.html

Also some good definitions of various terms.

I'd pick up a basic book on bike maintanence, it can help more than us. 70's editions of Richard's Bicycle Book have a very good basic maintanence section in the back, and this book can usually be found cheaply at used bookstores.

A3rd.Zero

First thing you can do is flip your BB spindle over. Many spindles are shorter on one end then the other. I went through 7 spindles before I realized that all I needed to do was flip mine over to line up perfectly. 1/2" is quite large, so if you find that flipping it does not do enough you may need a shorter spindle, just make sure that if switch spindles that the berrings are the right size for the spindle. If you decided to use a spindle which uses berrings of a different size then you currently have then you need new berrings (duh) and new bering cups at each end (which may be diffucult to find in french thread).

Not that I would recommend this but if you flip the spindle and find that you are just under an 1/8" off the chain line then you could shave the crank that samll ammount. I dont know what this would do to its structure, but if it is a good crank you should be fine, the material there is not really structural anyway. If you dont totally understand why you would do this and how to do this safely then dont even try, but I thought I might just throw it out there.

Milo

flowandfiction

I just rode the bike back from the shop. It was my first fixed gear ride, it wasn't quite as wierd as I thought it would be.
I let the shop handle the BB, they just replaced the bearings, greased, and flipped the spindle. They also realigned the wheel- and chainstays, which was causing most of the misalignment.
All its needs now is seat adjustment and cork ribbon.

Thanks for the help.

glomarduck

hey thats my bike and it is a u08