After yesterday's morning ride, a friend asked me over to his house to show me a bike he had rescued from the dumpster. When I offered to buy it from him, he gave it to me. He's the one that sold me the shop-built Proteus and has a small Roberts he'd like to sell someone, someday. He rides a Lightspeed...
It is a pretty beat up Peugeot PX-10 from 1976 or so (from the decals), with the serial number plate under the bottom bracket (1122678) and decomposing French Reynolds sticker on the downtube (not the seat tube).
It has some of the original parts on it, like the Brooks Professional small rivit saddle, Simplex steel microadjusting seatpost, black plastic-tipped steel Simplex shift levers, Mafac Competition brakes with half-hood levers, Stronglight 93 cranks (52/45) and Competition headset.
The wheels have been replaced with 27" UKAI clincher rims on odd hubs - maybe you guys could help me identify them ? My first guess is Weyless. These hubs are sealed bearing with a black/silver/black ringed sticker around the center. They have remarkably bulky black and silver quick-releases with stubby curly wire loop levers. All the spokes that weren't replaced with SS spokes are rusted badly. Whoever had it last appears to have broken a lot of 15G straight-gaged drive-side spokes.
Here's my real problem with getting this on the road again - it has Simplex dropouts, at least in the back, and the derailer hanger is threaded but round with no B-tension screw stop at all. Whoever messed with it last put SunTour Cyclone MkII (GT) derailers on the bike, and the rear one doesn't look like it could possibly work, at all.
What rear derailer should I use ? Not the nasty Simplex red-labels, I hope ! Can I fit something made up from a cleverly bent plate washer to fake a screw-stop ?
How about those odd hubs ?
Has it been firmly established to there were never any French-threaded clipless pedals ever produced, even by Look ?
Russ and David, I begin to understand your affinity for the "Lion of France", as it is much better made than my Gitane Tour de France. :-)
Glenn Jordan - Durham, NC (going out to ride with the Gitane to console it)