1979 Peugeot Sports (UO-8) part III- Finished

In my last post I had walked away from a frustrating session with this bike, but with some time and contemplation I walked back and was able to get a 5 speed free wheel on the rear hub to work with the new derailleur.  After dialing in the shifting I was finally able to move onto to running new brake cables and housing.

neat and tidy with cable end cap

And cleaning up the shift cables by cutting off the excess and crimping the cable ends.

This is definitely more of a "franken-bike" than I am used to building up but I decided early on I was going for a functional beater bike and I think thats what I ended up with.  It has mismatched wheels (700c rear, 27 inch front) and used but functional tires.  Not one piece of the original drive train remains; a new Shimano RD and vintage SunTour FD and stem shifters replacing broken or non-existent Simplex pieces.  As I mentioned in the last post the front and rear brakes are mismatched to accommodate the funky wheel-set.  The pedals are scavenged from my parts bin.  I did however put work into the bike to make it sound functional transport;

• New rear derailleur
• New shift cables and housing
• New brake cables and housing
• New Chain
• New bar tape
• Headset rebuilt
• brakes and shifting adjusted
• Seat-post and stem removed, cleaned, lubed and reset.

Overall I think it turned out alright and its now on Craigslist where I have been honest in my description and fair, I think, in my pricing so we will see if it gets snapped up.

Now that my work stand is free,  I have my Nieces Raleigh mixte to build up and I also have a few new bits for the Motobecance Grand Touring, so I should have plenty to keep me busy on the upcoming long weekend.  Until next time ride.smile.repeat.

1979 Peugeot Sports (UO-8) Part II-.....sometimes you just have to walk away

Earlier this month I revisited the Peugeot Sports.  While I knew I had money coming in from the new job it hadn't made through all the channels to me at that point so I thought I could quickly turn around the "Sports" and get some cash in my pocket.  I should have know better.   As I mentioned I got this bike relatively cheaply knowing it had some issues, and I thought, incorrectly, that I had all those issues covered.  You would think after doing the number of old 10 speed rehabs I have done that I would have a sharper eye for issues but I guess there is always room for learning and for humility.

At first things went pretty well; Pedals went on, the headset got rebuilt, I cleaned up, greased and reinstalled the seat-post and stem.  I got the original broken down Simplex stem shifters off the bike and replaced them with intact SunTour power ratchets.

The one armed bandit wouldn't work for a 10 speed

And then I got the old dried up bar tape off so I could clean up the bars.

When I got the bike it had no front derailleur and I had planned for that but before the day was through I would have issues with both the front and rear derailleurs.  I got the front mounted and thought I was well on my way.

Later, however when I thought I was ready to mount the chain I realized I had an issue with the front derailleur.

An "open" system doesn't work so well went you want to be able to shift your chain from small to large ring...lol.  I was able to fix this with some parts from the bin, but my troubles weren't over.  The rear derailleur which I thought was fine presented an issue when I started to run the shift cables.

The pivot in the middle of the picture above is supposed to to have a cable guide running through it but the part where the cable housing is supposed to run into was sheared off.  Fortunately I had a new Shimano 6 speed RD on hand that was intact.

Problem solved...no, but more on that in a bit.  Now I was ready to move onto the wheels.  Since I was building this up as a low cost commuter I was going to use some low mileage Specialized Tri-sport black walls 27 X 1/4" tires I had left over from the Peugeot sports.  The front wheel went off with out a hitch but when I got to the rear I realized I had over-looked something kind of important.

Yep the front wheel was 27" but the rear was 700c, they are close in size but not identical with a ISO sizing of 630 and 622 respectively.  I had other tires that could work and the different wheel sizes wouldn't materially affect how the bike worked but it did pose another issue, brake reach.  The Peugeot branded rear brake that came with the bike didn't have a long enough reach to hit the 700c rims-which might explain why it was missing a brake pad.

Once again the parts bin came through as I realized that I had a longer reach Weinmann center pull squirreled away that would accommodate the reach I needed.

my what long legs you have

Now that I had both derailleurs and the rear brake issues resolved it was time to run some shifter cables and mount the chain....and run into more issues! The free-wheel on this bike was a wide range 5 speed and the new long cage Shimano RD should have worked with it, but it didn't.  When I tried to move it into the low gear (largest cog) the whole system would jam up.  I thought I could fix that with a smaller range free-wheel so I mounted a six speed FW I had available to try it out only to realize that the extra gear meant the chain didn't have the frame clearance it needed in the smallest cog.

Not enough spacers to give the chain clearance on the smallest cog

That was the last straw and the point at which I decided it was time to walk away, so I could come back another day with no frustration, renewed energy, a fresh perspective and without the desire to break something.

With a few days away I realized I had another 5 speed FW with a smaller range cog set that might solve the issues I had experienced.

Original wide range 5 speed FW on right smaller range 5 speed on the left

Now might be a good time to share a couple tricks I have come across that can make getting a 30 year-old freewheel removed from the rear hub less of a headache.  First its important to note that there are a number of different freewheel removers out there to work with all the different manufacturers of Free-Wheels who each used a different interface to mount/remove their FW.  Standards anyone?  I have tools for Shimano, Falcon, Atom/Regina, SunTour, Maillard, and a few others and still run into FW I don't have the right tool for.  You will notice that in the shot above both FW use a two tooth interface, others use a spline some use 4 tooth and it goes on.  So step one is make sure you have the right tool, if you don't your local bike shop probably does.  Now even if you have the right tool sometimes it seems like you need to have as many arms as  Kali to hold the tool in place, secure the wheel and use a crescent wrench to apply pressure to the loosen the FW.  I find that using the quick release to hold the tool in place helps immensely, you want to tighten it enough to hold the tool firmly to the FW but loose enough so the FW can come unscrewed when you apply pressure.

The other issue is that since the chain moves clockwise it is constantly tightening the FW to the hub.  In the normal course of operating the bike thats a good thing as you don't want your FW coming loose while riding, however, when you want to remove the FW that means its on there tight!   This where the breaker bar is your friend.  I don't recall how much I paid for a length of pipe to slip over the end of my crescent wrench, it wasn't much but it was worth every damn penny.  So far no FW has been able to resist the added foot in leverage I get from this pipe.

I am close to the finish line on the Sports and hope to be able to report success in my next post.  Until then Happy Summer and remember to ride, smile and repeat.

1977 Raleigh Record LTD Mixte -upcoming restoration project.

About three years ago I participated in a bike packing event for Bicycles for Humanity and came home with a Raleigh Record Mixte, not many road bikes make the trip to Africa because they don't do well on the rough roads.

My usual deal with the man who runs the events is I get to select an old road bike thats not getting packed off to Africa if I make a donation to the local bike co-op, which I am happy to do.  A little research showed this Mixte to be a 1977 model.

The red paint is a bit faded but I think the Meguiars 3 step wax process that I used on the Fiorelli will bring it back to a reasonable shine.

This bike is also unique for the fact that it has a Brooks saddle...that is not leather! I had never seen one like this before and didn't even know Brooks made saddles from any other material besides leather.

A vinyl Brooks!?

One reason that this bike has been in the project queue for so long is it had the dreaded stuck stem.  I tried many things to get it unstuck but finally had to resort to amputation and I still have the bit left in the fork steerer-tube to cut out so the frame has languished for a while and its wheel-set has since been used on another project.

That has all changed recently however, my Niece is going to go to grad school and needs a bike.  I would be happy build a bike up for her in any case but the fact that she going be attending my alma mater makes this an extra special project. (Editors note: she will be getting a Masters degree in English and Film at Oregon State University and teaching English Composition)

In addition to getting all the normal upgrades to tires, cables and chain we are going to go with a city bar set up like I did on her Mom's Schwinn LeTour III I am thinking something like the Wald #8095 bars.

I have also ordered up set of new alloy hub, 36 spoke 27 inch wheels to replace the long departed original set.  I recommended to my Niece we go with bolt on rather than quick release since that might be a theft deterrent.  This bike will also have a first for me, a Wald wire front rack.  I thought she would want to go wicker but she wanted something more practical so wire it is.  Like me she likes the shiny silver look.

Now I just need to spend some time with the frame and a hacksaw blade to get the old stem out and I can start building this frame back up.  Should be a fun project.  Until next time; ride.smile.repeat.