80s Peugeot course

The bike
I bought the bike around 1998, on the internet, from a nice gentleman who later joined a Peugeot car mailing list after having bought one. Let me mention right now, the brand is addictive. You wont stay long with 1 Peugeot bike. Next thing you'll know you'll have a few of their bikes, cars and scooters...

Parts bin to the rescue
The bike was not a complete unit. It came with a full Simplex setup for the derailleur, stronglight crank and headset, Peugeot bottom bracket, JPR seatpost (super rare in that size!), simplex seatpost binder (pretty rare, shows up on Alex Singer bikes), Atax stem and Guidon Phillipe handlebars. It was only in need of wheels, a saddle and a set of brakes. I had a local shop build me a set of Mavic Open Pro for it, put an avocet saddle and picked up at a bike swap meet in Greensboro, NC my pride and joy: a set of Weinmann Pro Delta brakes with aero levers.
I found a picture of the brake kit in the box, at: http://www.classicrendezvous.com/Events/Cirque/Cirque_99_back/Va_gents.htm

Small world, 7 years later and to find a picture of the exact box I bought at a swap meet... Altough Swiss (Weinmann), they were regularly found on Peugeot bikes from the factory. I rode the bike like that for a few years, but did tweak it every so often as I would find NOS French parts from the 80s.

The upgrades
Sometimes I would stumble on a deal that was too good to pass, such as the front and rear derailleur set, practically new, for . That is why I'm riding it with those Huret parts instead of the original Simplex. I did replace all the bolts with aluminium ones, and the pulleys with hollow aluminium ones, again for pocket change. The downtube shifters are Mavic (Huret) retrofriction for the front and indexed for the rear. Yes, all French, indexed 8 speed that works pretty good. Even the cables are French, specifically made for Huret and Simplex downtube shifters, aluminium with die cast ends. The brake cables were french CLB, aluminium housings w/ aluminium wires, but I now run teflon covered steel inner wires, it is more safe, and the weight saving is just not worth it there. I also replaced the original fork with a Time fork from the era. That was hard to find. Finally, I came upon a cinetica stem/handlebar and just couldn't pass it. Isn't it gorgeous? Again, 80s vintage. It was the only non french component on the bike until I started riding with the Zipp front wheel. The headset is a needle bearing Stronglight. IMHO, the best headset that has ever been manufactured.

Black & Blue
The black frame with the blue highlights were what attracted me to this frame. Altough not particularly light (compared to a Reynolds 531 or Super Vitus frame), the look and the internal cable routing did it for me. To highlight the blue on the frame, I put blue handlebar tape, blue binders on the crankset, blue brake sleeves, blue pulleys, blue skewers (not pictured, recent addition) and a blue Peugeot Lion logo on the rear wheel (not pictured, recent addition). As my tires are getting pretty worn, I'll be switching to some Michelin with the blue thread. I'd like to find a better saddle too, but it is reasonable light and is the proper vintage (80s) and had some blue on it, so it'll do for now.

Weight
Speaking of weight, as I mentionned, this is a carbolite 103 frame, and that typically means 23lbs+ but with all the modifications I've done, this bike comes in at a hair below 20lbs with the front and rear Mavic wheels. The front Zipp wheel make for a few oz saving. Why not a rear Zipp 530? I destroyed the rear rim in 97. I still have the rear hub, but haven't been able to find a 24 holes Zipp 530 out there.

Beside this 80s Peugeot, I also have a 70s Peugeot course (that inherited the Atax/Guidon Phillipe from this bike) w/ vitus tubing and a 90s Peugeot mountain bike to which I added electric propulsion, making it a human-electric hybrid vehicule. I also own other french and italian bikes and other electric bikes that I've built.