Well I recently decided to get back into riding a bike. I have a job where I can commute by bike now, and so I decided to seek out a nice UO8 just like my Dad's. I found one on craigslist that fit, looked right and was in beautiful condition, but it had been converted to a single speed. It's a 1971 or so as far as I can tell. I bought it anyway, because it was the nicest one I had seen. I rode it as a single speed for awhile, but it's no way to commute up a big hill out of the Willamette River valley. So I decided to put it back together. I had most of the original parts, but they were scruffy compared to the frame and so I decided to cheaply upgrade it to decent parts, using period, or almost period parts wherever possible. Off came the steel cranks and cottered bottom bracket. Off came the Shimano BMX freewheel and chain. Here's the equipment list now:
- Mafac Racer brakes (came with bike)
- Mafac Racer (sweet) 'drilled' brake handles (came with bike)
- Wrights W3N leather saddle (very nice seat) (came with bike)
- Rigida steel rear rim (came with bike)
- Schurmann steel front rim (came with bike)
- Normandy high flange hubs (came with bike)
- TTT long stem (came with bike)
- Vittoria Zafiro tires (came with bike)
- Nervar Star lightweight aluminum cranks (Ebay.com)
- Campagnolo Nuovo Record 115mm Bottom Bracket (Ebay.fr)
- Campagnolo Nuovo Record Front Derailleur (French tube size) (Ebay.fr)
- SunTour VGT Luxe rear derailleur (local guy)
- SunTour Perfecte freewheel with 14-32 spread (The Recyclery)
- SunTour down tube shifters -- just like Rivendell Silvers (Citybikes)
- MKS Sylvan Road pedals (River City Bikes)
- MKS toe clips and ALE straps (Bike Central)
Things left to modify are: aluminum wheels (this is a priority) and a Stronglight aluminum roller bearing headset. I also want to pick up a Zéfal Lapize pump to go on those nice brazed-on pump pegs. A friend gave me a nice set of Belleri aluminum handle bars which I'll swap on when the tape wears out.
It's a blast to ride, and even with those heavy steel wheels and steel headset it weighs in at only 26 pounds, which is pretty good for a 62cm bike with straight gauge tubes!
4 comments:
i think i saw your group on facebook about it being stolen
Months late, anonymous, but no, it was not stolen. Must have been someone else's.
So, you were able to replace the freewheel with a standard 'ISO' size freewheel? I have the same Normandy hubs, and was wondering...
Yes, all the Peugeots sold in the US had standard English threaded freewheels.
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