When I left school (many years ago) I took a summer holiday job in the
Peugot bike assembly plant that operated in Melbourne, Australia. The
factory only operated for a few years, at the peak of the 1970's bicycle
boom in Australia, but it did have a big impact on me and my appreciation of
"appropriate technology". During the time that I worked there, I was
introduced to the pleasures of cycling, mainly through a bike that I bought
from the factory - essentially a PX10, but built on a UO-8 frame. I rode
that bike to university for few years until I left uni, got a job and bought
a car, and, sadly, sold that bicycle. Over the years I had a number of
newer, better specified bicycles, but never one that was more comfortable -
especially on a long ride.
Now I have a family and a beautiful wife who grew up in the country (or the
bush as we call it in Australia). Her parents have a wheat and sheep farm
and my wife likes to get up there as often as she can, so our family
holidays often entail a week, "at the farm". On the farm, the nearest
neighbour is about five miles down the road and moving the sheep between
paddocks could be a ten mile walk. The country is flat - in other words, it
is the natural habitat for a bike.
I have taken to scouring the hard rubbish collection for old bikes and have
built up a stable of bicycles that our family (mother, father, three girls),
and cousins, uncles and aunts can ride around the farm (about 11 bikes in
total). I find bikes that people have thrown out (sometimes, apparently,
because the tires need repairing!). A couple of hours work, on average,
and these bikes provide years of pleasure transporting kids to the weir for
a swim, up the hill for the view or to do some "droving".
So, here is my point (thanks for your patience). I was driving down a
street in Melbourne about a year ago when I spotted a mid-1970's U0-8
bicycle - completely intact - (stacked up on top of some broken Ikea
furniture and a the busted desk light) in the hard-rubbish collection. I
slammed on my brakes, backed-up and liberated it from the rubbish pile.
It has been waiting in my shed for the past year and over the past month, I
have been bringing it back into service.
I have probably done this the wrong way - and, no doubt, should have
subscribed to this list for some guidance before embarking on the project.
Here is what I have done so far:
Had the wheels rebuilt with alloy rims, replacing the old (heavy, somewhat
bent and deadly in the wet) steel rims. The wheels have been build on the
(Mavic?) rims that were on the bike - so that I could fit them back in.
The dropouts on the back are too narrow for more modern rims. This has
given me a set of 28" alloy rims - and hopefully a less stressful commute -
I seemed to have a puncture a week on my 700c shod roadbike.
Taken out the old steel crank and replaced it with a Bontranger crank and
Shimano cassette. This all went in without any real drama and seems to be
working well.
Soaked the leather saddle with leather restorer and now have a remarkable
comfortable seat!
Cleaned off and adjusted the MAFAC brakes - which squeal like a stuck pig -
but stop the bike ok.
I have ordered a seat post that will fit into the frame - and will fit this
once it arrives.
My next question relates to the headset and the front forks. I would like
to replace the existing stem and I have referred to Sheldon Brown's
excellent site and read Tom Kunich's article on modernising old French bikes
(should have gone there before I started). Tom recommends that the Peugeot
forks are removed, are replace with modern forks - to allow a 22.2mm stem to
be fitted, to allow some modern caliper brakes to be fitted and to fix some
issues with the geometry. I am guessing that this requires that a bike
modified in this way would hae to be fitted with 700c wheels as the 28"
wheels will not clear most modern front forks. If I want to keep the 28"
wheels, are there any forks that I could fit, or should I be looking to buy
a 22mm head-stem or "file-down" a 22.2mm one to fit?
Cheers
Stephen