I like 'em!, to a point. I bought my first one in 1967, sold a Schwinn Supersport to get it. Piece of junk hard to center derailleurs, squeaky brakes, serrated steel rims that barely slowed down when wet, but really a pretty spunky ride. It felt better than my supersport to me. I worked at Zoltan's bike shop in the Baltimore area for a couple of years building Gitanes, same basic frame. You could straighten the fork with your bare hands, chainrings had to be straightened with a pair of adjustable wrenches, but they rode fine. And I think the Peugeots were a bit nicer (to me!). BMA-6 certifications killed 'em in the mid '70's. I bought a PX-10 a year after the UO-8 and had a couple other bikes till I shattered an elbow in '75 on a Woodrup crit bike that steered quicker than thought. At least that one time it did. After hearing the doctor tell me not to ride a bike again, I needed a cheap, stable bike. How about a UO-8? For about $75 bucks in '75 I got a brand new one, minus wheels, cranks and brakes. Sugino maxi cranks, Crane derailleurs, Stronglight V-4 headset, Campy hi flange hubs, Cinelli bar and stem, Brooks Pro, Ideale micro adjust seat clamp and optimized Weinman 500 sidepulls made for a really nice hot rodded commuter. I got one of those chrome french racks for the back with all the round ends and commuted without a car for about a year or so on it with those old Sologna touring bags and panniers (the precursor to Bertoud). It got a few more upgrades, and I eventually got other bikes, and it got relegated to a barely used loaner. Gee, I'm waxing so ecstatic about it, maybe I oughta give it an overhaul. ... Lately, the last few years, its basically been a nice bunch of parts waiting for that nice old wish frame, a cheap Reynolds 531 English touring frame.
Dan, I'm spoiled but I still like UO-8s, Artley Parkton, Maryland
<<<Thomas E Ward wrote:>>>
<<<Okay, here's a tangent from the 'classic', 'vintage', 'rare' et.
al.
discussion: I've just bought the early '70s, clean, 58.5 cm Peugeot
UO-8
that some of you may have noticed on eBay this past week--to accompany
a
similarly sized PX-10 that I am building up from a frameset. Guess I
like
the Peugeots and their "arts decoratifs" graphics
I thought you might have fun with this question: is a clean,
early-ish UO-8 . . .is it Classic . . . Vintage . . . (even, at this
point (haven't most been abused and/or begun to rust))--somewhat Rare?
As
in "Seen Less and Less Frequently", I suppose--even if it was, as
Sheldon
Brown puts it on his website--"the choice of the Hoi Polloi" and sold
by
the boatload? >>>