Tag Archives: cycling

1940’s Peugeot PolyMultipliee’ Gent’s Bike

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1940's Peugeot

This 1940’s Peugeot was one of the first restorations that I completed.  There were a number of challenges, but because the bike was complete and original, it was worth it.  This Peugeot was well loved and well ridden by its owner.  So, I wanted to make it totally rideable again, as well as to preserve its original beauty and function.

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The bike had both keys to the original fork lock,  plus the owners engraved tag on the down tube.  All the reflectors were intact, and the original toolkit bag looked great.

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The bottom bracket had a small dent on the underside, and one of the pedal cones was toast.  Fortunately, the axles looked good and the other pedal was fine.  To find the parts necessary to repair these old bikes can be a challenge.  Fortunately I found a replacement cone in my parts bin, and I was able to thread the bottom bracket in without a problem.

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There were a lot of hours put into cleaning and dealing with mechanical issues.  A particular problem was learning how to adjust and set up the Simplex Juy Tour de France rear derailleur.  Originally, I had the chain routed incorrectly, but this drawing helped to solve the problem.  There aren’t a lot of adjustment options in the rear derailleur, so the shifting is still being “fine tuned”.

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The end result proved well worth all the effort – this is a beautiful and fun to ride bike from the late 40’s.  It is equipped with aluminum Mavic 650b rims, Lefol hammer fenders, Simplex Tour de France derailleur, aluminum bars, a rear constructeur rack, a working dynamo with front and rear lights, a complete leather toolbag and kit, Peugeot chain guard, and two keys to the fork lock – all working perfectly.

Update January 2014:  SOLD!  Congratulations to David in California.

1930/40’s Peugeot Mixte, Part I

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1936Poly Multipliee

I recently acquired an incomplete Peugeot which appears to be from the 1930’s or 1940’s.  It is the ladies version, with a very nice mixte frame that needs a lot of cleaning, but is in pretty good shape overall.  I will need to source a number of period parts to make the bike complete: a handlebar, brake levers, stem, wheels, fenders, racks, and probably a few other things that I can’t foresee yet.

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The chain guard and crankset are in very nice condition.  The brakes are by Jeay, a precursor to brazed on centerpulls.  The Peugeot serial number is a mystery – probably the only revealing element is the ‘H’ indicating that this is an H model of some kind.  The (possibly) original frame pump is working perfectly, and the Peugeot logos are still very vibrant, although the paint is a bit scratched and faded.  A little bit of cleaning and polishing will probably help to bring out the original colors.  Here is the frame after a day of cleaning:

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The frame and fork are now ready to build.  The paint polished up beautifully, and the bottom bracket was undamaged and in good condition.  For cottered cranks, I use a cotterpin press built by bikesmithdesign.com. I love the matching colors still visible on the chain guard, and there is box style pin striping on the fork in a lovely blue color.

wood gripsI needed handlebars, brake levers, wheels, fenders and racks.  I came across this beautifully polished Pivo stem and bars, with original aluminum levers and wood grips.  I can’t wait to see how this looks when everything is finished.  I found another older French randonneuring bike that I am harvesting for parts, and that’s where I’ll get the wheelset, hammered fenders, and racks.

Meral 650b Conversion, Part Two

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My 1980 Meral 650b conversion is well underway.  I needed hardware for the aluminum fenders, which I ordered from Velo-Orange.  I wanted to use their Constructeur rear rack, as it mounts to the fenders, but this item is currently out of stock, so I decided to try out an Electra Ticino rear rack with a similar appearance.  It is more securely mounted to the seat stays (using P-clamps, since the frame lacks rack mounts) and will probably hold a lot more weight.  The stay mounts are NOT adjustable, however, and I just happened to be lucky enough to have the rack be reasonably level.

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The Mafac Raid brakes look great, but I still haven’t made up my mind about the brake levers, which I might swap out for Mafac’s instead of Campy.  As with any frame-up build, there are many surprises and dead ends to be dealt with.   The TA crankset looks great – it has 160 mm crank arms which I chose to help reduce toe overlap that is common on smaller frames – however, the largest chainring is bent and needs to be adjusted back into plane.  I really like seeing the Shimano shifter pods on the old Huret clamp, specially modified to take these pods.  I used a Velocity 650b wheelset that I purchased from Rivendell.  The rear wheel is dishless, thanks to the placement of the drive side spokes on the same side of the rim as the non drive-side spokes, which should contribute to a long-lived wheel.

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Because this is a smaller frame, there’s not much room at the seat stays for the brake hanger.  Plus, the seat lug on this bike did not match the seat post bolt used by Mafac.  I decided to “modify” a Mafac brake hanger by bending it slightly and installed it askew, but not too much, by adding a longer seatpost bolt (which I will replace later to clean up the look).  I wanted to use some French pedals, even though I had tapped out the TA crankset to English threads, so I cleaned up these beautiful old Lyotard pedals which have English threads.  Later I will install the toe clips and straps.  There’s lots more work to do including installing the “plum” front fender leather flap (a la Velo Orange), installing the leather bar tape, inserting the new Kool Stop Mafac brake pads into their holders, fine tuning the shifting and braking, and checking the ergonomics.  But, it looks good so far, I think.

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