updating an older road bike

[Thomas H. Kunich]

I have had several messages requesting an explaination of
how I converted my Peugeot from the old fashioned clunker
it was (HA!) to a nice new shiny bike. :-)

I found an old Peugeot UO-8 at a flea market and through
cut and try methods, managed to convert it over to a
usable road racer. It was constructed of waterpipe tubing
but it rode so well that I really liked it. The one problem
is that I actually believed Greg LeMond's book that gave me
(6'4" with a 34.5" inseam) an ideal size of 57 cm for a
bike. These figures, like most in bicycling, are derived
from rather ideal body builds. Since my body is long and
has short legs it simply doesn't fit the profile and while
LeMond's idea is right, his figures are _way_ off. Through
trial and error I have decided that my size is about 60 cm.

So I sold my bike to my short brother and purchased a 59 cm
Peugeot PX-10 from a club member who bought it new in 1972.
I would have prefered the Raleigh Pro of the same period
since it is an almost identical bike (including the very
fancy Nervex lugs) with english threading and other sizes.

Anyway, the first thing I did was to strip the old parts
off of the PX-10. Most of the parts showed remarkably
little wear because the previous owner was a stickler for
maintenance and would strip and lube everything annually.
Most of the parts were garbage, but some were very nice
parts. The Stronglight Cranks and chain wheels were lighter
than the modern parts. The BB was rather crude but very
workable. The headset was interesting but weighed a ton.

Older french bikes had several problems:
1) The bikes from the 60's and 70's seldom had
braze-ons. Everything was clamped on and these
components aren't available any more.
2) French threaded bottom brackets and headsets
3) French sized seat tubes (therefore seat posts)
and stems and the rear derailleur hanger is not the
same shape as a modern derailleur needs.
4) Most of the bike brought to the U.S. in the 60's
and 70's were 27" wheel versions.
5) There was a funny situation where they were
still using layed back geometry but trying to get
faster steering. To do this they would put lots of
rake in the forks. This made the bikes very
squirrelly. The steering was _very_ light due to
the absence of significant trail yet the long wheel
base would allow the bike to track pretty straight.
But they were a bit scary to ride at speed.

After stripping the bike I took a piece of paper and copied
the rear derailleur pattern from a new bike. I then used a
Dremel hand grinder and a couple of files to duplicate the
pattern on the Peugeot. This steel is ultra-hard and it
take a grinder to do the job. But it only took about 20
minutes with the proper tools.

Most of these bikes were delivered with 27" wheels. But
they were really european versions that were suppose to
contain 700C wheels. To use the 27" wheels many of these
bikes needed to have the tires almost flat to put them in
the frames. The only real problem was the very long reach
brakes necessary with these frames.

I talked to a few chrome shops to find out about
refinishing the chrome stays (french chrome is trash) but
no one wanted the difficult business except for a
rediculous price.

Then I took it to Chris Kelly in Oakland. Chris is a frame
builder and he added all of the braze-on's and replaced the
rear brake bridge with one setup for a 700C wheel and close
reach brakes. While he was at it he also spred the rear
forks for a 6 speed (actually a 7 speed.) He also painted
the frame a very nice pearlescent white. I considered
having those beautiful fleur d'lis Nervex lugs pin-striped
but didn't have the money. I also couldn't find any decals
so opted to leave the bike plain white. This operation
costed about $200.

I bought a new Tange Prestige accessory fork and installed
it in the frame. This gave me a fork setup for close reach
brakes, 700C wheels and english size stems. It also
eliminated the extreme rake of the original fork.

I purchased a new Campagnolo C-Record bottom bracket in
french threading.

I then put the bike in a shop that chased all of the
threads, installed the headset (a very nice sealed unit
from Specialized) and bottom bracket. I then had a bike
that could be built up the rest of the way as I got the
money.

I already had a good set of wheels and I bought a mountain
bike seat post in the odd size of 26.6 mm. A friend offered
me a Campagnolo Super Record grouppo for a song and he gave
me a Turbo seat.

The whole bike bolted right together except I had to
purchase a new french size front derailleur clamp from
Campagnolo.

The only problem I had was a big one: I failed to clean
every vestige of paint off of the rear derailleur hanger
and the spotless Super Record derailleur came loose and
flipped through the wheel. It took out the derailleur, the
spokes, bunged up the paint and ruined the chain.
My local shop _just_happened_ to have a brand new Super
Record derailleur still on the shelf. It cost me more than
the whole grouppo did but I ended up with a brand new
derailleur again. I had to strip the paint back a ways but
there was still that cruddy french chrome underneath and
the whole thing looked almost like it was planned that way.

While I was at it I found a set of Simplex shift levers
that I installed in place of the not very good Campagnolo
Super Record shifters.

The bike rode considerably different than my italian Basso.
It took a little getting used to. But it didn't take long
to get the proper adjustments made and then the bike felt
pretty good. The old Campagnolo SR cranks only allow a
small ring of 42 and it's pretty hilly around here. But the
bike climbs so well with the shorter-than-I'm-used-to top
tube that I'm going up stuff in a 42-19 that I used to go
up in a 39-21. Part of this is no doubt due to the fact
that my Peugeot is some 2 lb.s lighter than the Basso.
Please note that the Peugeot is 3 cm smaller (c-to-t) and
is built from Reynold's 531, one of the lightest tube sets
still available. Not to mention that the Campi grouppo is
much lighter than the DuraAce STI group on the Basso.

Down hills the bike is very stable with it's long wheelbase
and short rake. I descend much faster with the road
geometry Peugeot than with the criterium geometry Basso. I
wouldn't get rid of either but I find myself really
enjoying the Peugeot.

So in the end I paid about $1,000 for a bike that would be
competitive in everything but professional racing. And this
includes the Look Carbon Pro pedals (bought used) and the
new derailleur and the repaired damage.