I came across this Canadian Peugeot on eBay. Before I converted it to a 650c city bike, it was equipped with a mix of Shimano 600 and 105 components, and even sported some brifters, which of course had failed some time ago. Probably, the bike was garaged after this and that is why it was in pretty decent shape. Thank you, Shimano.
There was a little bit of rust in the bottom bracket shell, so I decided to treat the frame with Weigle’s frame saver. It was nice to see the vertical drop-outs, and the cutouts on the lugs were a surprise. Most of the finish work is very good, except for the sloppy work on the seat stay brake bridge. Of course, the serial number is meaningless, except the “Y” makes me wonder if this was a PY model. Canadian Peugeot’s were manufactured by Pro Cycle beginning in 1978. The company used lug construction vs. the French models which were internally brazed. The frame and fork are Reynolds 531. The fast back seat stays and the unicrown fork, as well as the style of the Reynolds stickers (which are in French) made me date this bike to the mid-80’s. I’ve never seen a Peugeot in British racing green, but I really do like this color. There are even some gold racing stripes on the left side seat stay. So, it doesn’t look as French as it does British. (And, I guess that’s why it’s Canadian.)
I salvaged the nice Shimano 105 rear derailleur by inverting the b-screw, a la Sheldon Brown. That made it possible to use a 32 tooth cog on the rear cassette. For this city drive train I used a 45 tooth SR ring, a Velo Orange chain guard, and a 165 mm SR Signature crank. With this wheel size, that yields a gear inch range of 34-93 with the 12-32 7 speed cassette pictured. That’s just about right for any kind of city riding that involves hills. I used Tektro’s long reach brakes, which are what I use for all my 650c conversions, and 650c Terry Tellus 28 mm tires. These tires ride quite well and are virtually bullet proof. The wheelset is comprised of 28 hole Dura Ace hubs laced to Mavic XP12 rims in a 2 cross style. This wheelset came off of a late 90’s titanium triathlon bike. While this set may seem positively robust by today’s standards, I am a big fan of strong wheelsets with at least 3 cross lacing and 32 spokes front and rear. However, for a small and light-weight rider, which is who I designed this bike for, this wheelset should work just fine.
For the rest of the build, I chose an upright position using Velo-Orange’s Monmartre handlebar with reverse Dia Compe levers. I had some matching Shimano 105 shifters, so used those to complement the rear derailleur. They can be used in friction or index mode with this 1 x 7 drive train.
The standover height is 29 1/2 inches. The bike weighs 21 lbs as pictured, so it will make a very nice and responsive city bike for a small rider.